Insurance companies of Canada

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 30. Chapters: Fairfax Financial, Sun Life Financial, State Farm Insurance, Great-West Lifeco, Industrial Alliance, Manulife Financial, Aviva Canada, List of Canadian insurance companies, Saskatchewan Government Insurance, National Bank of Canada, Intact Financial, Federated Insurance Company of Canada, President's Choice Financial, Maritime Life, Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, The Co-operators, Standard Life, The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Co., Benecaid, Medavie Blue Cross, Canada Life Financial, H.L. Staebler Company, The Great-West Life Assurance Company, Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec, Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, Manitoba Public Insurance, AXA Canada, Hub International, The Guarantee Company of North America, London Life Insurance Company, Desjardins Financial Security, Harvard Developments, Townsend Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, The Personal Insurance Company. Excerpt: Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (TSX: FFH) is a financial holding company based in Toronto, Ontario, which is engaged in property, casualty, and life insurance and reinsurance, investment management, and insurance claims management. The company operates primarily through several subsidiaries, including Odyssey Re, Northbridge Financial, Crum & Forster and Zenith Insurance Company. As of December 31, 2010, Fairfax had total assets of approximately $31.7 billion, and its revenue for the prior twelve months was approximately $6.2 billion. Over the last 25 years (that is, since present management took over - until fiscal year Dec. 31, 2010), the company book value per share has compounded by 25% per year, while the common stock price has followed the growth at 21% per year. Fairfax Financial has worldwide over 8,200 employees (5,000 of them work throughout the United States). There are just 30 employees at head office in Toronto. Source: Fairfax - Corporate Profile Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. ("Fairfax") was incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act on March 13, 1951 and continued under the Canada Business Corporations Act in 1976. Fairfax's original name was Markel Service of Canada Ltd., The name was subsequently changed to Markel Financial Holdings Ltd. and, in May 1987, to their current name of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Fairfax is led by Chairman and CEO Prem Watsa. Watsa controls nearly half of Fairfax; his value-oriented investing strategies have been compared to those of Warren Buffett. Fairfax is similar to Leucadia National Corporation (NYSE:LUK) and Markel Corp (NYSE:MKL). Leucadia and Markel are also value-oriented firms that follow, to varying degrees, the principles outlined by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd in their texts Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor. Fairfax Financial's investment team at "Hamblin Watsa Investment Council" (HWIC), an affiliate of Fairfax has achieved similar outstanding long term results. From 1985 to t