Segments (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Dec. 31, 2010

Dec. 31, 2009

Segments [Abstract]

Information by business segment

			U.S. Property & Casualty		Professional Liability		Accident & Health		U.S. Surety & Credit		International		Investing		Corporate & Other		Consolidated
Year ended December 31, 2011
Net earned premium			$	333,410	$	410,816	$	803,462	$	210,535	$	368,748	$	0	$	199	$	2,127,170
Other revenue				23,951		912		4,687		1,247		5,309		211,245		(516)		246,835
	Segment revenue			357,361		411,728		808,149		211,782		374,057		211,245		(317)		2,374,005
Loss and LAE				201,017		328,503		586,210		52,206		233,879		0		(2,568)		1,399,247
Other expense				110,184		59,036		121,261		113,932		136,750		0		78,589		619,752
	Segment expense			311,201		387,539		707,471		166,138		370,629		-		76,021		2,018,999
		Segment pretax earnings (loss)	$	46,160	$	24,189	$	100,678	$	45,644	$	3,428	$	211,245	$	(76,338)	$	355,006

Year ended December 31, 2010
Net earned premium			$	339,513	$	425,226	$	760,034	$	199,908	$	316,186	$	0	$	1,057	$	2,041,924
Other revenue				31,201		981		3,875		580		7,344		215,498		851		260,330
	Segment revenue			370,714		426,207		763,909		200,488		323,530		215,498		1,908		2,302,254
Loss and LAE				191,108		265,465		556,848		52,940		143,412		0		3,256		1,213,029
Other expense				103,229		74,524		117,308		109,685		120,956		0		73,696		599,398
	Segment expense			294,337		339,989		674,156		162,625		264,368		-		76,952		1,812,427
		Segment pretax earnings (loss)	$	76,377	$	86,218	$	89,753	$	37,863	$	59,162	$	215,498	$	(75,044)	$	489,827

Total assets by segment

	2011		2010
U.S. Property & Casualty	$	949,100	$	924,219
Professional Liability		1,031,024		997,726
Accident & Health		236,846		238,310
U.S. Surety & Credit		161,968		172,562
International		728,338		609,687
Investing		6,119,288		5,748,822
Corporate & Other		398,689		372,756
Total	$	9,625,253	$	9,064,082

Revenue, pretax earnings and total assets by geographical location

	2011		2010		2009
Domestic	$	1,779,789	$	1,785,865	$	1,833,676
Foreign		594,216		516,389		484,840
Total revenue	$	2,374,005	$	2,302,254	$	2,318,516
Domestic	$	237,056	$	347,841	$	373,292
Foreign		117,950		141,986		145,259
Total pretax earnings	$	355,006	$	489,827	$	518,551

	December 31,
	2011		2010
Domestic	$	7,253,279	$	6,852,148
Foreign		2,371,974		2,211,934
Total assets	$	9,625,253	$	9,064,082