Casualty insurance is a defined term which broadly encompasses insurance not directly concerned with life insurance, health insurance, or property insurance. It is sometimes combined with property to form the term, Property and Casualty Insurance (P&C).
Casualty insurance is mainly liability coverage of an individual or organization for negligent acts or omissions. However, the term has also been used for property insurance, aviation insurance, boiler and machinery insurance, and glass and crime insurance.
In 1956, in the preface to the fourth edition of Casualty Insurance Clarence A. Kulp wrote:<blockquote>Broadly speaking, it may be defined as a list of individual insurances, usually written in a separate policy, in three broad categories: third party or liability, disability or accident, and health, material damage. One of the results of comprehensive policy-writing .... is to raise the question of the usefulness of the traditional concept of casualty insurance ... some insurance men predict that the casualty insurance of the future will include liability and disability lines only.</blockquote> Later in Chapter 2 the book states that insurance was traditionally classified under life, fire-marine, and casualty. Since multiple-line policies began to be written (insurance contracts covering several types of risks), the last two began to merge.
When the NAIC approved multiple underwriting in 1946, casualty insurance was defined as a blanket term for the legal liability except for marine, disability and medical care, and some damage to physical property.
Leading property and casualty insurance companies
The following companies had the highest direct premium written in 2024.
- State Farm - $108b
- Progressive - $75b
- Berkshire Hathaway - $63b
- Allstate - $55b
- Liberty Mutual - $44b
See also
- Wiktionary:casualty
- List of finance topics (Insurance)