Our monthly look at the Personal and Commercial Lines Rates courtesy of MarketScout
An aberration or a reverse in the trend asks Dallas-based MarketScout in this month’s look at this month’s data. Across all property and casualty lines across all states, the US composite rate was up 1 percent in February as compared to being flat at the start of 2015 in January. In questioning the rise, Richard Kerr, CEO of MarketScout said, “Could this mean underwriting executives are actually walking away from underpriced business?”
According to MarketScout CEIO, Februray is traditionally a low volume month and as such does not carry as much weight in predicting trends.
“February is normally a low volume premium month so we would caution about putting too much credibility in these metrics,” cautioned Kerr, “However, historically once the insurance market starts softening it normally accelerates rather than moderates or turns around. We speculate insurers are not going to cut deep and long in this cycle. Big data, modeling software and improved underwriting acumen are resulting in insurers simply being too smart to fall for extended and deep price cuts.”
A summary of the February 2015 rates
By Coverage Class | January 2015 Rates | February 2015 Rates |
Commercial Property | Up 1% | Up 1% |
Business Interruption | Up 0% | Up 0% |
BOP | Up 1% | Up 1% |
Inland Marine | Up 0% | Up 0% |
General Liability | Up 1% | Up 1% |
Umbrella/Excess | Up 1% | Up 1% |
Commercial Auto | Up 1% | Up 2% |
Workers’ Compensation | Up 0% | Up 0% |
Professional Liability | Up 1% | Up 2% |
D&O Liability | Up 1% | Up 1% |
EPLI | Up 1% | Up 2% |
Fiduciary | Up 0% | Up 0% |
Crime | Up 0% | Up 0% |
Surety | Up 0% | Up 0% |
The Feburary numbers by Account Size
By Account Size | January 2015 | February 2015 |
Small Accounts (Up to $25,000) | Up 1% | Up 2% |
Medium Accounts ($25,001 – $250,000) | Up 1% | Up 1% |
Large Accounts ($250,001 – $1 million) | Up 0% | Up 1% |
Jumbo Accounts (Over $1 million) | Up 0% | Up 0% |
The February Numbers by Industry Class
By Industry Class | January 2015 | February 2015 |
Manufacturing | Up 0% | Up 0% |
Contracting | Up 1% | Up 2% |
Service | Up 1% | Up 1% |
Habitational | Up 0% | Up 1% |
Public Entity | Up 0% | Up 1% |
Transportation | Up 1% | Up 2% |
Energy | Up 0% | Up 0% |