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Kansas Fire and Casualty

Kansas Fire and Casualty is an insurance subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, notable for its consistent underwriting profitability in a difficult industry environment.

🏢 Management

In the 1982 Letter, Buffett singled out Floyd Taylor, the manager of Kansas Fire and Casualty, as one of Berkshire's "stars."

Along with Milt Thornton at Cypress Insurance Company, Taylor was praised for producing an underwriting profit every single year since joining Berkshire, even when the broader industry was in a severe downturn.

🔗 Connections

📚 Historical Mentions & Citations (1)

Click a reference document below to expand and read the exact paragraph(s) containing this concept in the archive.

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1978 LetterExcerpt Available
The homestate operation was disappointing in 1978.  Our unsatisfactory underwriting, even though partially explained by an unusual incidence of Midwestern storms, is particularly worrisome against the backdrop of very favorable industry results in the conventional lines written by our homestate group.  We have confidence in John Ringwalt’s ability to correct this situation.  The bright spot in the group was the performance of Kansas Fire and Casualty in its first full year of business.  Under Floyd Taylor, this subsidiary got off to a truly remarkable start.  Of course, it takes at least several years to evaluate underwriting results, but the early signs are encouraging and Floyd’s operation achieved the best loss ratio among the homestate companies in 1978.