* Ward Group salutes operationally effective insurers
* 2002 list marks 12th consecutive Ward's 50 honor for Cincinnati's
property casualty group
CINCINNATI, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cincinnati Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CINF) today announced that Ward Group has named The Cincinnati Insurance Companies as one of the nation's top performers in both the property casualty insurance and life and health insurance sectors.
Ward Group, an insurance management consulting firm, studied statutory information to identify insurers that excelled at balancing financial safety, consistency and performance over the past five years. Ward's data covered 2,700 property casualty and 1,200 life and health insurers and groups.
Cincinnati is one of just eight companies that has qualified for the Ward's 50 list of property casualty insurers every year since the study's inception 12 years ago. The Company also is one of only eight insurers that merited a place on both lists, which separately name the top 50 companies for each sector, property casualty insurance and life and health insurance.
Ward conducted an extensive supplemental analysis of 300 firms in its database to find best practices in areas such as operating structure, claims service, technology strategy, commercial policy processing and underwriting. Benchmarks showed that the insurance industry's best performers have a centralized operating structure and a wide, flat organizational structure. Their representatives work closely with agents to inspect and underwrite specific risks.
"For more than 50 years, The Cincinnati Insurance Companies have operated from a single headquarters with no branch office bureaucracy separating us from agents and policyholders," said John J. Schiff, Jr., CPCU, chairman and chief executive officer of Cincinnati and its parent company, Cincinnati Financial Corporation. "Our field representatives live in the same communities as our policyholders and local independent agents, working from offices in their homes. This lets the people with the most customer contact be highly productive decision makers, using their strong local knowledge to provide quick and accurate quotes and prompt, fair claims service."
Cincinnati Financial Corporation offers property and casualty insurance, our main business, through The Cincinnati Insurance Company, The Cincinnati Indemnity Company and The Cincinnati Casualty Company. The Cincinnati Life Insurance Company markets life, disability income and long-term care insurance and annuities. CFC Investment Company supports the insurance subsidiaries and their independent agent representatives through commercial leasing and financing activities. CinFin Capital Management provides asset management services to institutions, corporations and individuals. For additional information, please visit our Web site at www.cinfin.com . SOURCE Cincinnati Financial Corporation
/CONTACT: Kenneth W. Stecher, Chief Financial Officer of Cincinnati Financial Corporation, +1-513-603-5236/