World's Best Insurance Companies

Standard homeowners, renters and business insurance policies do not cover damage from earthquakes.

($000) Rank Group/company Direct premiums written (1) Market share (2) 1 California Earthquake Authority $573,960 20.0% 2 State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance 228,898 8.0 3 Zurich Insurance Group (3) 217,978 7.6 4 American International Group 150,861 5.3 5 Travelers Companies Inc. 143,022 5.0 6 GeoVera Insurance Holdings Ltd. 118,128 4.1 7 Liberty Mutual 100,496 3.5 8 ACE Ltd. 86,556 3.0 9 Swiss Re Ltd. 84,249 2.9 10 Chubb Corp. 58,990 2.1 (1) Before reinsurance transactions, includes state funds. (2) Based on U.S. total, includes territories. (3) Data for Farmers Insurance Group of Companies and Zurich Financial Group (which owns Farmers' management company) are reported separately by SNL Financial. Source: SNL Financial LC.

($ billions) Rank Date Location Magnitude Insured loss (current exposures) 1 Feb. 7, 1812 New Madrid, MO 7.7 $112 2 Apr. 18, 1906 San Francisco, CA 7.8 93 3 Aug. 31, 1886 Charleston, SC 7.3 44 4 Jun.  1, 1838 San Francisco, CA 7.4 30 5 Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge, CA 6.7 23 6 Oct. 21, 1868 Hayward, CA 7.0 23 7 Jan. 9, 1857 Fort Tejon, CA 7.9 8 8 Oct. 17, 1989 Loma Prieta, CA 6.3 7 9 Mar. 10, 1933 Long Beach, CA 6.4 5 10 Jul. 1, 1911 Calaveras, CA 6.4 4 (1) Modeled loss to property, contents, business interruption and additional living expenses for residential, mobile home, commercial and auto exposures as of December 31, 2011. Losses include demand surge and fire following earthquake. Policy conditions and earthquake insurance take-up rates are based on estimates by state insurance departments and client claims data. Source: AIR Worldwide Corporation.

$ millions)         Insured losses (2)   Rank Date Location Overall losses when occurred Dollars when occurred In 2014 dollars (3) Fatalities 1 Jan. 17, 1994 California: Northridge, Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, Ventura, Orange $44,000 $15,300 $24,440 61 2 Apr. 18, 1906 California: San Francisco, Santa Rosa, San Jose 524 180 4,300 (4) 3,000 3 Oct. 17, 1989 California: Loma Prieta, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Silicon Valley 10,000 960 1,830 68 4 Feb. 28, 2001 Washington: Olympia, Seattle, Tacoma; Oregon 2,000 300 400 1 5 Mar. 27-28, 1964 Alaska: Anchorage, Kodiak Island, Seward, Valdez, Portage, Whittier, Cordova, Homer, Seldovia 540 45 340 131 6 Feb. 9, 1971 California: San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles 553 35 200 65 7 Oct. 1, 1987 California: Los Angeles, Whittier 360 75 160 8 8 Aug. 24, 2014 California: Napa, Vallejo, Solano, Sonoma, American Canyon 700 150 150 1 9 Apr. 4, 2010 California: San Diego, Calexi...

$ millions)         Losses when occurred    Rank Date Event Location Overall  Insured (2) Fatalities 1 Mar. 11, 2011 Earthquake, tsunami Japan: Aomori, Chiba, Fukushima, lbaraki, lwate, Miyagi, Tochigi, Tokyo, Yamagata $210,000 $40,000 15,880 2 Feb. 22, 2011 Earthquake New Zealand: Canterbury, Christchurch, Lyttelton 24,000 16,500 185 3 Jan. 17, 1994 Earthquake USA: CA: Northridge, Los Angeles, San Femando Valley, Ventura, Orange 44,000 15,300 61 4 Feb. 27, 2010 Earthquake, tsunami Chile: Concepcion, Metropolitana, Rancagua, Talca, Temuco, Valparaiso 30,000 8,000 520 5 Sep. 4, 2010 Earthquake New Zealand: Canterbury, Christchurch, Avonside, Omihi, Timaru, Kaiapoi, Lyttelton 10,000 7,400 NA 6 Jan. 17, 1995 Earthquake Japan: Hyogo, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto 100,000 3,000 6,430 7 Jun. 13, 2011 Earthquake New Zealand: Canterbury, Christchurch, Lyttelton 2,700 2,100 1 8 May 20 and May 29, 2012 Earthquake (series) Italy: Emilia-Romagn...