Beware of Wall Streets insurance analysts. They are a dime a dozen, but insurance analysts in name only.
Want to test them? Ask if they can read what is called a Convention Blank. These are the annual filings the companies make with the various state insurance departments. Very few, if any, current analysts can understand them. Therefore, they are not capable insurance analysts.
As a former Wall Street insurance analyst, I rarely found anyone on the Street giving advice on insurance company securities who took the trouble to truly learn how to understand the policies the companies wrote, and the reserves behind them. There are Earl J. Weinreb insurance handbooks on the subject.
Unfortunately, this lack of Wall Street insurance knowledge persists, based on commentaries I see in the media.
The earnings and book values they spout must, therefore, always be suspect.
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