Massachusetts-based p/c insurer Hanover Insurance Group...
...had 2008 net earnings of $20.6m, a decline of 92% that included a 41% drop in operating earnings in its personal lines operations to $123.5m, a swing to $73.5m in losses from discontinued operations from year-earlier gains of $24m, and a jump in realized investment losses to $97.8m from $900,000.The drop in p/c earnings largely reflected a more than doubling of pre-tax catastrophe losses to $169.7m from $65.2m.