W.R. Berkley NYSE: WRB is a Fortune 500 company founded in 1967, and based in Greenwich, Connecticut.
It includes 35 wholly owned subsidiaries offering a variety of insurance services from reinsurance to workers comp TPAs. In 2008, W.R. Berkley's total revenue was $4.71 Billion, of which $1.62 Billion came from the company's Specialty, $1.45B from Speciality Lines, $1.21B from Regional, $622 Million from Alternative Markets, $435 Million from Reinsurance, $312 Million from insurance, and $287 Million from International Markets.
W.R. Berkley Corporation is an insurance holding company with five major business segments: regional property casualty; specialty lines; reinsurance; alternative markets; and international. Through its subsidiaries, W.R. Berkley operates as a leading commercial lines property casualty insurance provider. The company's numerous specialty and regional subsidiaries are located in 27 states while its international arm oversees operations in Argentina and Asia.
W.R. Berkley Corporation is the creation of entrepreneur and investor William R. Berkley. Berkley got his start as an investor at the age of 12, when he began using spare money from his lawn-mowing business to buy stocks. Among his top picks at the time was Decca Record Company, which signed many of the most promising British rock artists of the 1960s. Decca's stock jumped in price from $13 to $42, encouraging Berkley to become to pursue further ventures in the stock market. In the late 1960s, the brilliant Berkley attended Harvard's business school, where he and a classmate ran a $2 million mutual fund out of their four-bedroom apartment. The fund, which formed the foundation for W.R. Berkley's predecessor (Berkley Dean & Co.), was a smashing success. Its assets ballooned to $10 million by the time Berkley was out of college, and it turned out to be one of the hottest mutual funds of the period.
Berkley earned a reputation at Harvard as brilliant, arrogant, and boastful. "This guy was very confident, there's no doubt," recalled Dennis Duggan, a reporter that profiled Berkley in the 1960s for New York Newsday. Duggan added, "He said he'd be rich. He wanted to be one of the richest people in America. He was arrogant; he exuded it." Berkley's swaggering style earned him a cream pie in the face from his contemptuous Harvard classmates, but it apparently also helped to make him very wealthy. By the time Berkley was 23 years old, in fact, Berkley Dean & Co. was managing $10 million in mutual fund assets, as well as $15 million in other investments, and generating nearly $1 billion in annual revenues. Berkley would later attribute his cockiness to youth and simplistic views of the world but not before building the multi-million-dollar insurance holding company that became W.R. Berkley Corporation.
Berkley succeeded in the stock market during the 1960s and early 1970s by purchasing the stocks of companies with earnings that were growing faster than the economy. He was widely publicized at the time as an investment genius for his ability to sniff out undervalued stocks. In reality, much of his success at the time was the result of a strong bull market that complemented his investment strategy. When the market stalled in the early 1970s, Berkley's investment performance waned. Berkley bailed out of the stock-picking business and decided to jump into the insurance business with the purchase of Houston General Insurance Co. He bought the company because the sale price was low. However, it represented the first of a large portfolio of companies, rather than stocks, that Berkley would accrue during the next 20 years.
Each of our five business segments – Specialty, Regional, Alternative Markets, Reinsurance, International – is comprised of individual operating units that serve a market defined by geography, products, services, or types of customers.
Our growth is based on meeting the needs of customers, maintaining a high-quality balance sheet, and allocating capital to our best opportunities.
Specialty
The Specialty units underwrite complex and sophisticated risks, including general, professional, product, excess and umbrella liability, workers' compensation and property coverages as well as aviation, commercial transportation and program business. Business is written on both an excess and surplus lines and admitted basis.
Regional
The Regional units, which are leaders in their local markets, write commercial lines coverages for small and mid-sized business firms and governmental entities. This segment also writes surety coverages.
Alternative Markets
The Alternative Markets units offer insurance products and develop and administer self-insurance programs and other alternative risk transfer mechanisms. Workers' compensation is the predominant line of business in this segment. This segment also writes hospital professional liability and medical stop loss insurance.
Reinsurance
The Reinsurance units write reinsurance on both a facultative and treaty basis. In addition, the Company participates in business written through Lloyd's and in several specialty niches.
International
The Company's International business operates in selected regions
W. R. Berkley Corporation is a financial services company focused on the property and casualty insurance business. It has been uniquely successful in meeting the needs of its various constituencies. Over the past 42 years, the Company has achieved an outstanding record of consistently providing insurance products and services that meet the needs of its customers. It has provided its employees with a challenging and rewarding workplace while also making both economic and civic contributions to the communities in which it operates. Most significantly, it has been able to do these things while providing outstanding returns to its shareholders.
It includes 35 wholly owned subsidiaries offering a variety of insurance services from reinsurance to workers comp TPAs. In 2008, W.R. Berkley's total revenue was $4.71 Billion, of which $1.62 Billion came from the company's Specialty, $1.45B from Speciality Lines, $1.21B from Regional, $622 Million from Alternative Markets, $435 Million from Reinsurance, $312 Million from insurance, and $287 Million from International Markets.
W.R. Berkley Corporation is an insurance holding company with five major business segments: regional property casualty; specialty lines; reinsurance; alternative markets; and international. Through its subsidiaries, W.R. Berkley operates as a leading commercial lines property casualty insurance provider. The company's numerous specialty and regional subsidiaries are located in 27 states while its international arm oversees operations in Argentina and Asia.
W.R. Berkley Corporation is the creation of entrepreneur and investor William R. Berkley. Berkley got his start as an investor at the age of 12, when he began using spare money from his lawn-mowing business to buy stocks. Among his top picks at the time was Decca Record Company, which signed many of the most promising British rock artists of the 1960s. Decca's stock jumped in price from $13 to $42, encouraging Berkley to become to pursue further ventures in the stock market. In the late 1960s, the brilliant Berkley attended Harvard's business school, where he and a classmate ran a $2 million mutual fund out of their four-bedroom apartment. The fund, which formed the foundation for W.R. Berkley's predecessor (Berkley Dean & Co.), was a smashing success. Its assets ballooned to $10 million by the time Berkley was out of college, and it turned out to be one of the hottest mutual funds of the period.
Berkley earned a reputation at Harvard as brilliant, arrogant, and boastful. "This guy was very confident, there's no doubt," recalled Dennis Duggan, a reporter that profiled Berkley in the 1960s for New York Newsday. Duggan added, "He said he'd be rich. He wanted to be one of the richest people in America. He was arrogant; he exuded it." Berkley's swaggering style earned him a cream pie in the face from his contemptuous Harvard classmates, but it apparently also helped to make him very wealthy. By the time Berkley was 23 years old, in fact, Berkley Dean & Co. was managing $10 million in mutual fund assets, as well as $15 million in other investments, and generating nearly $1 billion in annual revenues. Berkley would later attribute his cockiness to youth and simplistic views of the world but not before building the multi-million-dollar insurance holding company that became W.R. Berkley Corporation.
Berkley succeeded in the stock market during the 1960s and early 1970s by purchasing the stocks of companies with earnings that were growing faster than the economy. He was widely publicized at the time as an investment genius for his ability to sniff out undervalued stocks. In reality, much of his success at the time was the result of a strong bull market that complemented his investment strategy. When the market stalled in the early 1970s, Berkley's investment performance waned. Berkley bailed out of the stock-picking business and decided to jump into the insurance business with the purchase of Houston General Insurance Co. He bought the company because the sale price was low. However, it represented the first of a large portfolio of companies, rather than stocks, that Berkley would accrue during the next 20 years.
Each of our five business segments – Specialty, Regional, Alternative Markets, Reinsurance, International – is comprised of individual operating units that serve a market defined by geography, products, services, or types of customers.
Our growth is based on meeting the needs of customers, maintaining a high-quality balance sheet, and allocating capital to our best opportunities.
Specialty
The Specialty units underwrite complex and sophisticated risks, including general, professional, product, excess and umbrella liability, workers' compensation and property coverages as well as aviation, commercial transportation and program business. Business is written on both an excess and surplus lines and admitted basis.
Regional
The Regional units, which are leaders in their local markets, write commercial lines coverages for small and mid-sized business firms and governmental entities. This segment also writes surety coverages.
Alternative Markets
The Alternative Markets units offer insurance products and develop and administer self-insurance programs and other alternative risk transfer mechanisms. Workers' compensation is the predominant line of business in this segment. This segment also writes hospital professional liability and medical stop loss insurance.
Reinsurance
The Reinsurance units write reinsurance on both a facultative and treaty basis. In addition, the Company participates in business written through Lloyd's and in several specialty niches.
International
The Company's International business operates in selected regions
W. R. Berkley Corporation is a financial services company focused on the property and casualty insurance business. It has been uniquely successful in meeting the needs of its various constituencies. Over the past 42 years, the Company has achieved an outstanding record of consistently providing insurance products and services that meet the needs of its customers. It has provided its employees with a challenging and rewarding workplace while also making both economic and civic contributions to the communities in which it operates. Most significantly, it has been able to do these things while providing outstanding returns to its shareholders.
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