Warren Buffett：Berkshire Hathaway 2000 Letter, Additional Excerpt 2

Finally, the competitive picture changed in at least one important respect: State Farm — by far the largest personal auto insurer, with about 19% of the market — has been very slow to raise prices. Its costs, however, are clearly increasing right along with those of the rest of the industry. Consequently, State Farm had an underwriting loss last year from auto insurance (including rebates to policyholders) of 18% of premiums, compared to 4% at GEICO. Our loss produced a float cost for us of 6.1%, an unsatisfactory result. (Indeed, at GEICO we expect float, over time, to be free.) But we estimate that State Farm's float cost in 2000 was about 23%. The willingness of the largest player in the industry to tolerate such a cost makes the economics difficult for other participants.

Source： https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2000ar/2000letter.html
Locator：2000 Chairman's Letter, additional excerpt 2 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

版权仍存续；仅摘录并链接伯克希尔官网原文，不托管全文。

This text is still in copyright. Only a short excerpt is shown; read the full text at the official link above. Copyright

← Back to the library