GuideOne Mutual Insurance Co., a West Des Moines-based property and casualty insurer that specializes in providing coverage to churches, has been included for the first time in the Property-Casualty Ward’s 50 list of top-performing insurers.

For the past 21 years, Ward Group, a Cincinnati-based insurance research group, has conducted an annual analysis of the financial performance of more than 3,000 property and casualty companies to compile the benchmarking list. Ward also produces a list of the 50 top-performing life-health insurers based on analyses of nearly 800 life and health insurance companies.

GuideOne last year reported net income of $39.8 million and a record surplus of nearly $495 million. The company’s return on equity was 8.8 percent.

“We are honored to receive this recognition, as it is a testament of our company’s strength and stability, especially during some very difficult economic years,” said Jim Wallace, GuideOne’s chairman, president and CEO. “We’ve created a strong GuideOne, and we’re very proud.”

Four other insurers with home offices or major operations in Greater Des Moines have earned places on the 2011 Ward’s 50 lists. In evaluating company performance, Ward Group assesses a number of criteria, including the following:

• Surplus, premium and net income levels for each of the past five years;

• Five-year average returns on average equity, average assets and total revenue; and

• Five-year growth in net premiums written and improvement in leverage ratio.

Collectively, the Ward’s 50 life-health companies produced an 18.7 percent return on average equity from 2006 to 2010, compared with 5.7 percent for the life-health industry overall. The Ward’s 50 property-casualty group of insurance companies also outpaced the industry, with a 13.8 percent return on average equity from 2006 to 2010, compared with 8.7 percent for the property-casualty industry.