By Paolo Laudani

(Reuters) - Zurich Insurance reported slightly higher-than-expected annual operating profit on Thursday, as insurers ride out the impact of climate disasters and wars.

It also said it will propose the election of Thomas Jordan, who lead the Swiss National Bank for 12 years until stepping down last September, to its board.

Europe's fifth-largest insurer reported operating profit of $7.8 billion for 2024, just ahead of analysts' estimate of $7.7 billion in a company-provided consensus.

The closeness with consensus is "perhaps the clearest indication that the group has become reassuringly reliable," Jefferies analysts wrote in a note.

The insurer said that the fires in California, which destroyed thousands of homes and killed dozens of people, heightening concerns for insurers, are estimated to have a pre-tax impact of $200 million including its Farmers business.

"It is definitely not too much," CEO Mario Greco said in a call after results about the impact.

"However, we are not insuring private homes in California as Zurich. This is what Farmers do. So, we have exposure only to some commercial businesses there" he said. Zurich does not own the Farmer business but it manages it and receives fees from it.

As anticipated in a three-year plan in November, the company expects compound annual growth in core earnings per share to exceed 9% between 2025 and 2027.

Greco said that there is no space for a yearly buyback with the dividend policy its company is following, as Zurich proposed an increased dividend of 28 Swiss francs ($31.02) per share.

It posted rising combined ratio in its core property and casualty business (P&C), which came in line with analysts' expectations of 94.2%. A ratio below 100 signifies the insurer earned more from premiums than it paid out in claims.

About interest rates in the United States, Zurich's largest market, Chief Financial Officer Claudia Cordioli said that for the company "the fact that interest rates in the U.S. seem to stay higher for longer is not necessarily a disadvantage but the opposite."

($1 = 0.9025 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Paolo Laudani in Gdansk; additional reporting by Paul Arnold; Editing by Milla Nissi, Rashmi Aich and Tomasz Janowski)