1 Aetna Life & Casualty Co. 's third-quarter net income fell 22% to $182.6 million, or $1.63 a share, reflecting the damages from Hurricane Hugo and lower results for some of the company's major divisions.
2 Catastrophe losses reduced Aetna's net income by $50 million, including $36 million from Hugo.
3 Last year catastrophe losses totaled $5 million, when net was $235.5 million, or $2.07 a share.
4 The year-earlier results have been restated to reflect an accounting change.
5 The insurer has started processing claims from the Northern California earthquake nearly two weeks ago.
6 But because these claims are more difficult to evaluate and have been coming in more slowly, the company has no estimate of the impact of the earthquake on fourth-quarter results.
7 In New York Stock Exchange composite trading Friday, Aetna closed at $60, down 50 cents.
8 In the latest quarter, Aetna had a $23 million loss on its auto/homeowners line, compared with earnings of $33 million last year.
9 Profit for its commercial insurance division fell 30% to $59 million, reflecting higher catastrophe losses and the price war in the property/casualty market for nearly three years.
10 However, Aetna's employee benefits division, which includes its group health insurance operations, posted a 34% profit gain to $106 million.
11 Third-quarter results included net realized capital gains of $48 million, which included $27 million from the sale of Federated Investors in August and a $15 million tax credit.
12 In the nine months, net rose 4.3% to $525.8 million or $4.67 a share, from $504.2 million, or $4.41 a share, last year.

The year - earlier results have been restated to reflect an accounting change .
accounting change
What exactly was the accounting change?