Lakeland Fire & Casualty Company

Lakeland Fire & Casualty Company was an insurance company formed by Berkshire Hathaway in Minnesota during 1971 as part of the Home-State Insurance operation.

📝 Marketing and Underwriting

Goal: To bring Minnesota agents and insureds a combination of "large company capability and small company accessibility."
Focus: The company devoted its entire efforts to the single state of Minnesota.
Performance (1972): In its early stages, it experienced high expense ratios and initially unsatisfactory loss ratios on very small volume, typical of a development-stage insurance unit.

🔗 Connections

Parent Operation: Home-State Insurance
Manager: John Ringwalt
Source: 1971 Letter, 1972 Letter

📚 Historical Mentions & Citations (1)

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

📜

1971 LetterExcerpt Available

▼

We inaugurated our “home-state” insurance operation in 1970 by the formation of Corn-husker Casualty Company. To date, this has worked well from both a marketing and an underwriting standpoint. We have therefore further developed this approach by the formation of Lakeland Fire & Casualty Company in Minnesota during 1971, and Texas United Insurance in 1972. Each of these companies will devote its entire efforts to a single state seeking to bring the agents and insureds of its area a combination of large company capability and small company accessibility and sensitivity. John Ringwalt has been in overall charge of this operation since inception. Combining hard work with imagination and intelligence, he has transformed an idea into a well organized business. The “home-state” companies are still very small, accounting for a little over $1.5 million in premium volume during 1971. It looks as though this volume will more than double in 1972 and we will develop a more creditable base upon which to evaluate underwriting performance.

View Source Digest →