Data brokers are using information from the surveys you take, products you buy and mobile apps you use to figure out whether you have any medical conditions. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) From the diseases you battle to the pills you pop, your most personal health information could be for sale.
That's because some data brokers are collecting information from the surveys you take, websites you visit, products you buy and mobile apps you use to create lists of consumers with certain health issues or medical conditions. They then sell this information to marketers and other companies.
Diabetes, depression, herpes, yeast infections, erectile dysfunction and bed-wetting are just a few of the highly sensitive conditions for which consumer lists are available.
Federal law dictates that this information can't be used to deny anyone for a job or insurance coverage. But with little transparency about who is buying and using these lists, lawmakers and federal regulators say they are worried about other potentially harmful ways the information might be used.
ACE Ltd (ACE) is a holding company of the ACE Group of Companies. ACE is a global insurance and reinsurance organization, serving the needs of customers in more than 170 countries. It offers commercial insurance products and service offerings, such as risk management programs, loss control and engineering and complex claims management. It also provides specialized insurance products ranging from Directors & Officers (D&O) and professional liability to various specialty-casualty and umbrella and excess casualty lines to niche areas, such as aviation and energy. In addition, it supplies personal accident, supplemental health, and life insurance to individuals in select countries. ACE operates in four business segments: Insurance-North American, Insurance-Overseas General, Global Reinsurance, and Life. In December 2011, it acquired Rio Guayas Compania de Seguros y Reaseguros, a general insurance company in Ecuador. On November 30, 2011, it acquired Penn Millers Holding Corporation (PMHC). On April 1, 2011, it acquired the operations of New York Life��s Hong Kong. On February 1, 2011, ACE acquired New York Life��s Korea operations. In September 2012, it acquired 80% of PT Asuransi Jaya Proteksi in Indonesia.
Insurance-North American
ACE��s Insurance-North American segment consists of the operations in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda. This segment includes the operations of ACE USA (including ACE Canada), ACE Bermuda, ACE Commercial Risk Services, ACE Private Risk Services, ACE Westchester, ACE Agriculture, and various run-off operations. During the year ended December 31, 2011, Insurance-North American segment accounted for 45% of its consolidated net premiums earned. During 2011, ACE USA represented approximately 49% of Insurance-North American��s net premiums earned.
ACE USA is the North American retail operating division which provides a broad array of P&C, A&H, and risk management products and services to a diverse group of commercial and non-commercia! l enterprises and consumers. ACE Bermuda provides commercial insurance products on an excess basis mainly to a global client base, covering exposures that are generally low in frequency and high in severity. ACE Commercial Risk Services addresses the insurance needs of small to mid-sized businesses in North America by delivering an array of specialty product solutions for targeted industries. ACE Private Risk Services provides personal lines coverages for high net worth individuals and families in North America.
ACE Westchester specializes in the North American wholesale distribution of excess and surplus P&C, environmental, professional and inland marine products. ACE Agriculture provides Multi-Peril Crop Insurance and crop/hail insurance protection to customers throughout the United States and Canada through Rain and Hail and Agribusiness insurance through Penn Millers Insurance Company. The run-off operations include Brandywine, Commercial Insurance Services, residual market workers�� compensation business, pools and syndicates not attributable to a single business group, and other exited lines of business. Run-off operations do not actively sell insurance products, but are responsible for the management of existing policies and settlement of related claims.
Insurance-Overseas General
During 2011, ACE��s Insurance- Overseas General segment accounted for 37% of its consolidated net premiums earned. Insurance-Overseas General segment consists of ACE International, its global retail insurance operations, the wholesale insurance business of ACE Global Markets, and the international A&H and life business of Combined Insurance. ACE International is its retail business serving local companies and insureds to large multinationals outside the United States, Bermuda, and Canada. ACE Global Markets, its London-based excess and surplus lines business, includes Lloyd��s of London (Lloyd��s) Syndicate 2488 (Syndicate 2488). ACE provides a fund at Lloyd��s to support und! erwriting! by Syndicate 2488, which is managed by ACE Underwriting Agencies Limited. The reinsurance operation of ACE Global Markets is included in the Global Reinsurance segment.
Property insurance products include traditional commercial fire coverage, as well as energy industry-related, construction, and other technical coverages. Principal casualty products are commercial primary and excess casualty, environmental, marine and general liability. ACE International specialty coverages include D&O professional indemnity, energy, aviation, political risk and specialty personal lines products. The A&H operations primarily offer personal accident and supplemental medical products to meet the insurance needs of individuals and groups outside of United States insurance markets. ACE International��s personal lines operations provide specialty products and services designed to meet the needs of specific target markets and include property damage, auto, homeowners, and personal liability.
Global Reinsurance
During 2011, ACE��s Global Reinsurance segment, which accounted for 7% of its consolidated net premiums earned. Global Reinsurance segment represents ACE��s reinsurance operations comprising ACE Tempest Re Bermuda, ACE Tempest Re USA, ACE Tempest Re International, and ACE Tempest Re Canada. The Global Reinsurance segment also includes ACE Global Markets�� reinsurance operations. Global Reinsurance markets its reinsurance products worldwide under the ACE Tempest Re brand name and provides a range of coverage to a diverse array of primary P&C companies. ACE Tempest Re Bermuda principally provides property catastrophe reinsurance, on an excess of loss basis globally to insurers of commercial and personal property. ACE Tempest Re Bermuda underwrites reinsurance principally on an excess of loss basis, meaning that its exposure only arises after the ceding company��s accumulated losses have exceeded the attachment point of the reinsurance policy. ACE Tempest Re Bermuda also writes ! other typ! es of reinsurance on a limited basis for selected clients.
ACE Tempest Re USA writes all lines of traditional and specialty P&C reinsurance for the United States market, principally on a treaty basis, with a focus on writing property per risk and casualty reinsurance. ACE Tempest Re USA underwrites reinsurance on both a proportional and excess of loss basis. ACE Tempest Re International provides P&C treaty reinsurance to insurance companies worldwide. ACE Tempest Re Canada offers an array of traditional and specialty P&C reinsurance to the Canadian market, including casualty, property risk and property catastrophe.
Life
During 2011, ACE��s Life accounted for 11% of 2011 consolidated net premiums earned. Life includes ACE��s international life operations (ACE Life), ACE Tempest Life Re (ACE Life Re), and the North American supplemental A&H and life business of Combined Insurance. ACE Life provides individual life and group insurance, including Egypt, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, throughout Latin America, selectively in Europe, as well as China through a non-consolidated joint venture insurance company.
ACE Life offers a portfolio of protection and savings products, including whole life, endowment plans, individual term life, group term life, group medical, personal accident, universal life, and unit linked contracts. ACE Life sells to consumers through a range of distribution channels, including agency, bancassurance, brokers, and direct to consumer marketing. ACE Life Re helps clients (ceding companies) manage mortality, morbidity, and lapse risks embedded in their books of business. ACE Life Re��s business is a Bermuda-based operation, which provides reinsurance to primary life insurers, focusing on guarantees included in certain fixed and variable annuity products and also on more traditional mortality reinsurance protection. ACE Life Re is a United States-based traditional life reinsurance operation. Combined I! nsurance ! distributes specialty individual accident and supplemental health and life insurance products targeted to middle income consumers in the United States and Canada.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Damian Illia]
ACE Limited (ACE) is an insurance and reinsurance organization. The company provides commercial insurance products and service offerings such as risk management programs, loss control and engineering and complex claims management. The company��s segments are: Insurance - North American, Insurance - Overseas General, Global Reinsurance, and Life.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
For the past several years, Berkshire has contrasted its own cost-free float provided by profitable underwriting against the industry��s (unimpressive) tendency to lose money on underwriting while generating net returns from investment income. So far, so good. Less edifying, though, is the repeated contrast of Berkshire��s track record of profitability to State Farm��s…even though, as a mutual company, State Farm��s profitability goals are inherently different from for-profit insurers like Berkshire. It��s true that through year-end 2013, Berkshire��s underwriters have ��now operated at an underwriting profit for eleven consecutive years,�� but so have ACE (ACE), American Financial (AFG),� AmTrust Financial (AFSI), Arch Capital (ACGL), Chubb (CB), HCC (HCC), Progressive (PGR), RLI (RLI), and W.R. Berkley (WRB), any or all of whom provide a more meaningful comparison than contrasting Berkshire��s results to a company that��s not out to produce a profit in the first place.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and American Express (AXP) rose 2% and 2.1%, respectively, as financial stocks gained on speculation that the jobless claims data would spur the Federal Reserve to taper sooner rather than later, while Ace Ltd.�(ACE) rose 3.8%. �General Motors�(GM) gained 1.1% after the US government said it could sell the last of its shares by year-end. On the downside, Target (TGT) fell 3.5% after reporting earnings that missed analyst expectations.
Hot Insurance Stocks To Own For 2015: MGIC Investment Corp (MTG)
MGIC Investment Corporation (MGIC), incorporated June 21, 1984, is a holding company and through wholly owned subsidiaries is a private mortgage insurer in the United States. As of December 31, 2012, its principal mortgage insurance subsidiaries, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC) and MGIC Indemnity Corporation (MIC), were each licensed in all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. During the year ending December 31, 2012, the Company wrote new insurance in each of those jurisdictions in MGIC and/or MIC. The Company capitalized MIC to write new insurance in certain jurisdictions where MGIC no longer meets, and is unable to obtain a waiver of, those jurisdictions�� minimum capital requirements. Private mortgage insurance covers losses from homeowner defaults on residential mortgage loans, reducing and, in some instances, eliminating the loss to the insured institution if the homeowner defaults.
Mortgage Insurance
Primary insurance provides mortgage default protection on individual loans and covers unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest and certain expenses associated with the default and subsequent foreclosure. Primary insurance is written on first mortgage loans secured by owner occupied single-family homes, which are one-to-four family homes and condominiums. Primary insurance is also written on first liens secured by non-owner occupied single-family homes, which are referred to in the home mortgage lending industry as investor loans, and on vacation or second homes. Primary coverage can be used on any type of residential mortgage loan instrument approved by the mortgage insurer.
When a borrower refinances a mortgage loan insured by the Company by paying it off in full with the proceeds of a new mortgage that is also insured by it, the insurance on that existing mortgage is cancelled, and insurance on the new mortgage is considered to be new primary insurance written. Therefore, continuation of its coverage fr! om a refinanced loan to a new loan results in both a cancellation of insurance and new insurance written. When a lender and borrower modify a loan rather than replace it with a new one, or enter into a new loan pursuant to a loan modification program, its insurance continues without being cancelled assuming that the Company consent to the modification or new loan.
The borrower��s mortgage loan instrument requires the borrower to pay the mortgage insurance premium. There are several payment plans available to the borrower, or lender, as the case may be. Under the monthly premium plan, the borrower or lender pays it a monthly premium payment to provide only one month of coverage. Under the annual premium plan, an annual premium is paid to it in advance, and it earns and recognizes the premium over the next 12 months of coverage, with annual renewal premiums paid in advance thereafter and earned over the subsequent 12 months of coverage. Under the single premium plan, the borrower or lender pays it a single payment covering a specified term exceeding twelve months.
Pool insurance is used as an additional credit enhancement for certain secondary market mortgage transactions. Pool insurance covers the excess of the loss on a defaulted mortgage loan which exceeds the claim payment under the primary coverage, if primary insurance is required on that mortgage loan, as well as the total loss on a defaulted mortgage loan which did not require primary insurance. Pool insurance is used as an additional credit enhancement for certain secondary market mortgage transactions. Pool insurance covers the excess of the loss on a defaulted mortgage loan, which exceeds the claim payment under the primary coverage, if primary insurance is required on that mortgage loan, as well as the total loss on a defaulted mortgage loan which did not require primary insurance. In general, the loans insured by it in Wall Street bulk transactions consisted of loans with reduced underwriting documentation; cash out! refinanc! es, which exceed the standard underwriting requirements of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively GSEs); A- loans; subprime loans, and jumbo loans.
Other Products and Services
The Company has participated in risk sharing arrangements with the GSEs and captive mortgage reinsurance arrangements with subsidiaries of certain mortgage lenders, which reinsure a portion of the risk on loans originated or serviced by the lenders, which have MGIC primary insurance. It provides information regarding captive mortgage reinsurance arrangements to the New York Department of Insurance (known as the New York Department of Financial Services), the Minnesota Department of Commerce and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD). It performs contract underwriting services for lenders, in which it judges whether the data relating to the borrower and the loan contained in the lender��s mortgage loan application file comply with the lender��s loan underwriting guidelines. It also provides an interface to submit data to the automated underwriting systems of the GSEs, which independently judge the data. These services are provided for loans, which require private mortgage insurance, as well as for loans that do not require private mortgage insurance. It provides mortgage services for the mortgage finance industry, such as portfolio retention and secondary marketing of mortgages.
The Company competes with Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Administration, PMI Mortgage Insurance Company, Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation, United Guaranty Residential Insurance Company, Radian Guaranty Inc., CMG Mortgage Insurance Company, and Essent Guaranty, Inc.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Garrett Cook]
MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG) was down, falling 10.50 percent to $8.27 following the FHFA proposal. The company released monthly operating statistics for June.
- [By Zachary Tracer]
Investors have poured cash into mortgage insurance this year as home prices rise, pushing up shares of MGIC Investment Corp. (MTG) and Radian Group Inc. (RDN) by more than 100 percent, and buying their notes in offerings. Essent Group Ltd. (ESNT), a mortgage guarantor funded amid the financial crisis by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and billionaire George Soros, filed last month for an IPO. The companies cover losses when homeowners default and foreclosures fail to recoup costs.
- [By Amanda Alix]
Hot on the heels of a $15 million Consumer Financial Protection Bureau settlement with mortgage insurers Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW ) , MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG ) , Radian Group (NYSE: RDN ) , and United Guaranty, a subsidiary of AIG (NYSE: AIG ) , over kickbacks�paid to banks for mortgage insurance, comes some bad news in the same vein -- this time, for Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) .
- [By David Hanson and Matt Koppenheffer]
In this segment of The Motley Fool's everything-financials show,�Where the Money Is, banking analysts Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson dicuss earnings from MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG ) and look ahead to Radian (NYSE: RDN ) 's (NYSE: RDN ) quarterly results.
Hot Insurance Stocks To Own For 2015: Universal American Corp (UAM)
Universal American Corp., incorporated on December 22, 2010, through its health insurance and managed care subsidiaries, primarily serves the growing Medicare population by providing Medicare Advantage products. It provides a variety of healthcare services, including case management and care coordination, clinical quality and utilization review and behavioral health services to Medicaid agencies and other third parties. The Company��s business segments include Senior Managed Care, which provides Medicare Advantage segment reflects its Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO and PFFS businesses, and Traditional Insurance segment reflects its insurance products not offered through government programs, which includes Medicare supplement, other senior health insurance, specialty health insurance and life insurance. The Company provides medical management services, information and analysis, and other support services to enable its health care partners to serve their patients better.
In addition , it seeks an opportunity to address the high cost of health care for the remaining 75% of the Medicare population enrolled in traditional fee-for-service Medicare and have joined primarily with primary-care and multi-specialty provider groups to form thirty-one Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs, pursuant to the Medicare Shared Saving Program, or Shared Savings Program.
On March 2, 2012, the Company acquired APS Healthcare, Inc., known as APS Healthcare. APS Healthcare provides specialty healthcare solutions primarily to Medicaid agencies. APS Healthcare offers a broad range of healthcare solutions, including case management and care coordination, clinical quality and utilization review, and behavioral health services that enable its customers to improve the quality of care and reduce healthcare costs.
Senior Managed Care - Medicare Advantage
The Company��s Senior Managed CareMedicare Advantage segment reflects its Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO and PFFS bu! sinesses.. During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company operated Medicare coordinated care plans including PPOs and HMOs as well as its network-based private fee-for-service (PFFS) and rural PFFS business, which provides coverage to Medicare beneficiaries in 36 states. These businesses provide managed care for persons with Medicare under contracts with CMS. Its HMO plans are offered under contracts with CMS and provide all basic Medicare covered benefits with reduced member cost-sharing as well as additional supplemental benefits, including a defined prescription drug benefit. It operates HMO plans are offered under contracts with CMS and provide all basic Medicare covered benefits with reduced member cost-sharing as well as additional supplemental benefits, including a defined prescription drug benefit. It also has Medicare Advantage HMO operations in locations outside of Southeastern Texas including four counties in North Texas offering TexasFirst Health Plans through SelectCare Health Plans; nine counties in Oklahoma City offering Generations Healthcare through Today's Options of Oklahoma, Inc; and three counties in Indianapolis, Indiana offering Today's Options HMO through SelectCare Health Plans.
The Company��s PPO plans are provided under the name Today's Options PPO, which offered under contracts with CMS and provide all basic Medicare covered benefits with reduced member cost-sharing as well as additional supplemental benefits, including a defined prescription drug benefit. This coordinated care product is built around contracted networks of providers who, in cooperation with the health plan, coordinate an active medical management program. In 2012, the Company offered PPO plans to 41 markets in 120 counties in 17 states.
The Company��s PFFS plans are provided under the name Today's Options, which offered under contracts with CMS and provide enhanced health care benefits compared to traditional Medicare, subject to cost sharing and other limitations. These pl! ans have l! imited provider network restrictions, which allow the members to have more flexibility in the delivery of their health care services than other Medicare Advantage plans with limited provider network restrictions. Some of these products include a defined prescription drug benefit. In addition to a fixed monthly payment per member from CMS, individuals in these plans may be required to pay a monthly premium in selected counties or for selected enhanced products. In 2012, it offered PFFS products in a total of 36 states, which included PFFS products with network restrictions to 51 markets in 280 counties in 18 states and PFFS products without network restrictions to 1,052 counties in 32 states.
Traditional Insurance
The Company��s traditional insurance segment reflects the results of its Medicare supplement, other senior health insurance, specialty health insurance, and life insurance. It designed the products in this segment primarily for the senior market and market them through its career agency force and its network of independent general agencies. The Company discontinued marketing and selling traditional insurance products after June 1, 2012. This segment also includes other products that it stopped selling several years ago, such as long-term care, medical insurance and disability insurance, as well as previously produced or acquired term, universal life, and whole life insurance products and single and flexible premium fixed annuities.
The Company competes with United Healthcare, Humana, Wellpoint, Aetna and Cigna
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Omar Venerio]
The company has a current ROE of 10.94% which is higher than the industry median and the ones exhibit by Universal American Corp. (UAM), Centene (CNC) and WellPoint (WLP). In general, analysts consider ROE ratios in the 15-20% range as representing attractive levels for investment. So for investors looking those levels or more, Cigna (CI) could be the option. It is very important to understand this metric before investing and it is important to look at the trend in ROE over time.
- [By Brian Orelli]
Health insurers such as Universal American (NYSE: UAM ) and Humana (NYSE: HUM ) that offer supplementary Medicare insurance could be hurt if seniors decided to drop the added coverage, but I doubt the increased premiums will put a major dent in seniors' budgets. Retirees making more than $85,000 per year will have to pay about $250 more per year than they do right now. Any losses will be more than be made up for by the�Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' decision this month to reverse its �previously announced cuts to reimbursement rates.
Hot Insurance Stocks To Own For 2015: Unum Group(UNM)
Unum Group, together with its subsidiaries, provides group and individual disability insurance products primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. It also provides a portfolio of other insurance products, including employer-and employee-paid group benefits, life insurance, long-term care insurance, and related services. Its products include group long-term and short-term disability; group life and accidental death, and dismemberment; individual disability; group long-term care; voluntary benefits; group life; accident, sickness, and disability; and cancer and critical illness insurance products. The company also provides individual life and corporate-owned life insurance, reinsurance pools and management operations, group pension, health insurance, and individual annuities. Unum Group markets its products primarily to employers interested in providing benefits to their employees. The company sells its products through field sales personnel, independent brokers, consultants, and agency sales force. Unum Group was founded in 1848 and is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Ben Levisohn]
Among the biggest losers in the S&P 500: Air Products and Chemicals (APD), which dropped 3.3% to $103.20 as its Bill Ackman bounce fades, Charles Schwab (SCHW), which fell 2.4% to $21.76 as it became the 165th most popular short in the S&P 500, and Unum Group (UNM), which finished off 2.3% at $29.63 after Barron’s Sandra Ward recommended investors take profits on the insurance company.
Hot Insurance Stocks To Own For 2015: American International Group Inc.(AIG)
American International Group, Inc. is an international insurance organization. The company operates property and casualty insurance networks worldwide and conducts activities in the U.S. life insurance and retirement services industry. It also involves in commercial aircraft leasing and residential mortgage guaranty insurance businesses. The company, through Chartis Inc., provides various property and casualty insurance products under commercial and consumer categories worldwide. These products include surplus lines, executive liability/directors? and officers? liability, employment practices, excess casualty, and travel/assistance lines. American International Group, through SunAmerica Financial Group, offers a suite of life insurance and retirement products and services, including term life, universal life, accident and health, fixed and variable deferred annuities, fixed payout annuities, mutual funds, and financial planning products and services to individuals and grou ps in the United States. The company, through International Lease Finance Corporation, operates as an aircraft lessor that acquires commercial jet aircraft from various manufacturers and other parties, and leases those aircraft to airlines worldwide. It also sells aircraft from its fleet to other leasing companies, financial services companies, and airlines, as well as provides management services to third-party owners of aircraft portfolios. American International Group, through United Guaranty Corporation, issues residential mortgage guaranty insurance that covers mortgage lenders from the first loss for credit defaults on high loan-to-value conventional first-lien mortgages for the purchase or refinance of one- to four-family residences in the U.S. and internationally. The company was founded in 1967 and is based in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Morgan Housel]
This is true for companies, too. AIG (NYSE: AIG ) blew up in 2008 after making suicidal derivative bets. Last month I asked Hank Greenberg, AIG's former chairman and CEO (who left three years before the blowup) whether an investor could have possibly known how much risk AIG was taking, even with hindsight. "No, I don't think so," he said. "I'm not sure the [annual reports] that they filed were complete ... I was a major shareholder of AIG, the largest individual shareholder. I lost about 90% of my net worth." Investors thought AIG was a good, old-fashioned insurer suitable to hold in a retirement account. And then they learned otherwise.
- [By Jessica Alling]
Last week was a tough one for most of the insurance players, but AIG (NYSE: AIG ) had a decent gain that has only continued to rise. With some new developments backing its rise, investors should take another look at the insurer. In the video below, Motley Fool contributor Jessica Alling discusses the week's gains and what they mean for AIG investors.�
- [By Dan Caplinger]
Surprisingly, defensive stocks aren't really contributing to value's dominance, in part because many of those stocks no longer qualify as pure value stocks according to S&P's methodology. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG ) appear in both indexes, with J&J actually having a greater weight in the growth ETF than in the value ETF. The reason: investors have bid those companies' stocks up so far that their P/E ratios and other valuation measures no longer resemble value stocks. Rather, financial stocks have taken over the lead as top vale prospects, with AIG (NYSE: AIG ) and major Wall Street banks having become pure value plays once again.
Hot Insurance Stocks To Own For 2015: Allianz SE (AZSEY)
Allianz SE is an integrated financial services provider. The Company serves approximately 75 million customers in about 70 countries. Allianz SE operates and manages its activities primarily through four operating segments: Property-Casualty, Life/Health, Asset Management, and Corporate and Other. On January 12, 2009, the Company completed the sale of Dresdner Bank AG (Dresdner Bank) to Commerzbank. In May 2010, the Company acquired six solar parks, each with up to one megawatt peak capacity, from BP Solar Italy, a unit of BP Alternative Energy.
Property-Casualty and Life/Health
The Company offers a variety of insurance products to both private and corporate customers, including motor liability and own damage, accident, general liability, fire and property, legal expense, credit and travel insurance. The Company offers a range of life and health insurance products on individual and group basis, including annuity, endowment and term insurance, unit-linked and investment- oriented products, as well as full private health and supplemental health and care insurance. Its product portfolio includes a wide array of property-casualty and life/health insurance products for both private and corporate customers. Its insurance products are distributed through a range of network of self-employed agents, brokers, banks and other channels.
Asset Management
The Company acts as a global provider of institutional and retail asset management products and services to third-party investors and provides investment management services to the Allianz Group��s insurance operations. The products for retail and institutional customers include equity and fixed income funds, as well as alternative products. The United States and Germany as well as France, Italy and the Asia-Pacific region represent the primary asset management markets. As of December 31, 2009, total assets managed by its Asset Management operations were �� 1,202 billion. The Company serves a range of retail a! nd institutional asset management clients. Its institutional customers include corporate and public pension funds, insurance and other financial services companies, governments and charities, as well as financial advisors. Its retail asset management business is primarily conducted under the brand name Allianz Global Investors (AGI) through its operating companies worldwide. In the Company��s institutional asset management business, it operates under the brand names of its investment management entities (PIMCO, RCM, AGI Capital), with AGI serving as an endorsement brand.
Corporate and Other
The Corporate and Other includes Holding & Treasury, Banking and Alternative Investments. The Holding & Treasury includes the management and support of the the Company��s business through its strategy, risk, corporate finance, treasury, financial
control, communication, legal, human resources and technology functions. The Banking consists of the banking activities in Germany, France, Italy and Central and Eastern Europe. The banks offer a range of products for corporate and retail clients with the main focus on the latter. As of December 2009, it owned 130 banking agencies. The Alternative Investments provides global alternative investment management services in the private equity, real estate, renewable energy and infrastructure sectors mainly on behalf of the Company. The Alternative Investments also includes certain fully consolidated private equity investments.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Johanna Bennett]
But AirAsia (AIRA.KL) shares, which were also downgraded by AllianceDBS, fell 8.5% on the local exchange. The airplane��s lead insurer, Allianz SE (AZSEY), and the manufacturer, Airbus Group (EADSY), each fell roughly 1% in early afternoon market action.
