I was reading Dan's series on insurance costs. He mentions that, "[The]increase is not due to triathlon loss ratios..."

This is true of all insurance. If anyone is wondering why insurance costs have spiked right now (and do so every now and then), look no farther than your mortgage rate. As interest rates reach a bottom, insurance companies earn dramatically less on the "float" -- which is your premium dollars they hold while waiting to pay any claims. This is the profit in insurance. With low interest rates, profits plummet, and the companies must raise premiums to survive. Of course, they more typically go on a PR campaign blaming the rate increases on claims and trial lawyers. But those causes have been definitively proven to have no connection whatsoever to rates changes. Even a claim like 9/11/01 doesn't really affect premiums. It's all about interest earnings on the float.

So, when you gripe about your homeowners, business, auto and triathlon insurance premium increases, remember the 5.25% mortgage you have now and that 0% car loan you got last summer.

--- A friendly public service bit from a holder of the CFA and CFP certifications that researches this kind of stuff all day long.