Today at the Casual Investor, in keeping with the tenet of diversification, I have been trying to branch out over the sectors and industries with my stock picks.  For today's pick, I decided to check out the life insurance industries.

I have never been as universally disappointed with a sector as I was today.  My "rule of 20" was completely inapplicable to just about any of these companies' profit margins or management effectiveness.  Only 3 of 66 matches provided data indicating a profit margin higher than 20%.  This whole sector follows a different set of rules.  So is all lost with life insurance?  Maybe, maybe not.  The best of breed could still make money.  A bowl of rotten apples just means you need to do a little closer inspection.

Although Metlife had some of the best fundamentals in this sector, they also have a huge average daily volume.  With a shaky sector, I'm looking for something a little more insulated from the market direction.  CRM Holdings Ltd (CRMH) is such a company.  Its average daily volume is less than 1,000 shares.

Why CRMH instead of one of the others?  It has a 13.3% profit margin, which is above average for this sector.  The P/E is 6.30 and the P/S is 0.85, averaging 3.575, which is a killer statistic in any market.  CRMH is also a small cap, weighing in at $123.06M, and its current price per share is $7.63.

So, CRMH is isolated from the market, on average, and it is a small cap with good price ratios.  Out of this bowl of rotten apples, this one only has a few bad spots.  This looks to me like the best choice for a life insurance buy.