In addition to WRB, I've decided to invest in another insurer: RLI.
These guys are a bit smaller, with a market cap of $6.7 billion. They also mostly invest in fixed income.
Where they're pretty extraordinary, however, is with their underwriting results. They've achieved an underwriting profit for 28 years in a row, with the combined ratio often in the mid 80's.
If you're not familiar with Insurance, basically the combined ratio is the sum of underwriting losses and expenses divided by earned premiums. If it's 100, that's the break-even point. Below 100 is underwriting profitability.
Many insurers operate at an underwriting loss, attempting to make profits by investing the insurance float - $ from premiums paid by consumers but not yet paid out in claims by the company. If you manage to break-even, you're basically getting free $ to invest. If you make an underwriting profit, it's even better, because you're basically getting paid to invest. It's a beautiful thing.
Of course, it's not secret, and insurance is very competitive, which makes RLI's track record so impressive. They operate in a lot of specialty areas, which gives them a competitive advantage.
RLI is making so much money recently they don't even know what to do with it. In addition to the regular dividend (nothing special, under 1%, although they are a dividend aristocrat, with something like 49 straight years of increases) they routinely pay out a special dividend, much like Costco. Except they do it much more frequently than Costco does.
This one is a bit more expensive, so I'm going to dollar-cost average in. Small amounts, daily.
