The Main Street America Group of Jacksonville is the only Florida-based company to be named to the 2011 Ward Group's listing of the 50 top-performing property & casualty insurance companies in the U.S.

The super-regional carrier is being recognized for achieving superior financial performance over a five-year period (2006-2010) while maintaining safety and consistency. Key areas of measurement by Ward's include:

• Five-year average return on equity
• Five-year average return on total revenue
• Five-year growth in net premiums written
• Five-year improvement in leverage ratio
• Five-year average combined ratio.

"The Main Street America Group is honored to be included on this prestigious list of top-performing U.S. property & casualty companies," says Tom Van Berkel, Main Street America's chairman, president and CEO. "Over the past five years, we have achieved an annual underwriting profit despite a challenging pricing environment. During this timeframe, Main Street America's surplus has increased 47 percent (from $524 million to $770 million) and our annual return on equity has averaged 12.5 percent. Our strong financial position enables us to continue to invest in new products and new technology to help our distribution force of independent agent-customers profitably grow their 'Main Street' books of business with us."

Annually, the Ward Group analyzes the performance of more than 3,000 p & c insurance companies and 800 life & health insurance companies domiciled in the U.S. and identifies the top performers in each sector.