Moody's Estimates Wildfire Damage

Wildfires in Southern California caused between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion, somewhat higher than previous industry estimates, according to Moody's Investor Services.The "vast majority" of these losses will be absorbed by primary personal lines insurers, with reinsurance companies taking a larger portion of the liability in "some exceptional cases," Moody's said. The agency doesn't plan to alter its rating or outlook of the insurance sector as a whole because of the damage, but said that "losses will be evaluated in the context of earnings and capitalization expectations for individual firms' ratings." Moody's can be found on the Web at http://www.moodys.com.