The key life and health and property/casualty subsidiaries of Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. have been removed from a review with negative implications by A.M. Best Co., the Oldwick, N.J., rating agency that also affirmed the A-plus financial strength ratings and AA-minus issuer credit ratings of the Hartford units.
Concurrently, A.M. Best said Tuesday that it had removed from a review with negative implications and downgraded the issuer credit ratings of Hartford and Hartford Life Inc. to A-minus, from A, and the companies' senior debt ratings to A-minus, from A. The outlook assigned to these ratings is negative.
The companies were placed under review Oct. 6 after Hartford's announcement that it had entered into a binding agreement with Allianz Societes Europaea (Germany) to provide a $2.5 billion capital investment in view of significant realized and unrealized investment losses and other charges incurred through the third quarter.
