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October 29, 2013 at 11:55 AM
Executives at Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE:HIG) were bragging today about recent group disability insurance unit performance rather than apologizing for it.
The company talked about disability during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.
Employer downsizing, an increase in claims, problems with getting workers with health problems back to work, and record low interest rates have pounded group disability operations since the economy swooned in 2008.
But, in the third quarter, the group benefits business increased its contribution to the company’s core earnings to $36 million, from $23 million in the third quarter of 2012, “due to improving long-term disability results,” the company said.
Earlier efforts to increase long-term disability (LTD) insurance prices and better claims results helped improve the ratio of claims to premiums, and the LTD recovery picture also looked better, the company said.
Liam McGee, Hartford’s chairman, said today during a conference call with securities analysts that actual recoveries for claims filed in 2011 and 2012 have been better than expected.
