INSURANCE AT A PREMIUM. If the insurance industry is about assessing risk, Hartford Financial Services had an easy task. On Tuesday, the board of directors at the $24 billion Connecticut-based property and casualty firm unanimously rejected a takeover offer from larger rival Chubb. It’s not hard to see why Hartford plans to take its chances on its own. At $65 per share, Chubb’s proposal was measly. Since the news was confirmed last Thursday, Hartford’s stock has been trading a few bucks above the offer making the board’s calculation a no-brainer. Besides, the global insurance industry is poised to come back from the depths of the pandemic, with non-life insurers’ premiums forecast by Deloitte to go up 3% in 2021. Hartford can capture some of that upside too. It is currently worth 1.3 forward book value. That’s a vast improvement from last spring but still below its five-year peak at more than 1.5 book value in January 2018, according to Refinitiv. Hartford can afford to give Chubb the snub. (By Jennifer Saba)