Aon defines a catastrophe as a natural event that causes any of the following:
$25 million or more in insured property losses
ten deaths
50 people injured
2,000 filed claims or homes and structures damaged.
Aon’s natural catastrophe estimates include Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and include losses sustained by private insurers and government-sponsored programs such as the National Flood Insurance Program. They are subject to change as loss estimates are further developed.
Product liability insurance protects the manufacturer, distributor, or seller of a product from legal liability resulting from a defective condition that caused personal injury or damage associated with the use of the product. Product recall insurance, a specialty product designed to cover the costs associated with recalls, is also available from some insurers.
Property/casualty insurance can be broken down into two major categories: commercial lines or types of insurance and personal lines. Personal lines, as the term suggests, include coverages for individuals—auto and homeowners insurance. Commercial lines, which account for about half of U.S. property/casualty insurance industry premium, include the many kinds of insurance products designed for businesses.
Insured losses from natural catastrophes totaled $130 billion, 76 percent above the 21st century average, and 18 percent higher than 2020, according to the 2021 Weather, Climate and Catastrophe Insight report from Aon.
Hurricane Ida was the largest insured loss event in 2021 and the fourth costliest hurricane on record with $36 billion in insured losses.
September 11, 2001, like the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, is a day that lives in infamy. But 9/11 was different in the sense that the attacks targeted not only a military site—the Pentagon building in Virginia—but an internationally recognized building which was the workplace for thousands of civilians, New York City’s World Trade Center. Nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11 in Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania as a group of terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes, and turned them into weapons of mass destruction.
