US P&C Rate Trends: Commercial Rates Continue To Slide in October

Our monthly look at the U.S. Commercial Lines Rate trends courtesy of MarketScout

October saw another slide in U.S. Commercial Lines in October with the property and casualty rate index down another 2 percent.

“Insurers are hungry for premium and capital providers are searching for ways to get in on the action,” commented Richard Kerr, CEO of Dallas-based MarketScout. “The obvious result is more competition resulting in rate reductions.”

An in-depth look at the numbers

Each month, MarketScout analyzes pricing surveys conducted by The National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research in order to provide a snapshot of the personal and commercial lines rate trends. For example, in the past month the only coverage classifications which saw an increase in rates were commercial auto, crime and business owners’ policies (BOP). Each coverage classification saw a plus 1 percent increase. All other coverage classifications either saw a decrease of 1 to 2 percent or remained flat.

As for account size, MarketScout noted that both medium sized ($25,001 to $250,000) and jumbo (over $1,000,000) accounts enjoyed the most competitive pricing this month. Both account sizes have rates down 2 percent. In comparison, jumbo accounts were down 4% in September demonstrating a notable adjustment over the past two months for this category. As for other accout sizes, the rest were down 1 percent.

Pricing for industry classifications also showed minor fluctuations. Only industry classifications of habitational and energy business were prices the most aggressively, down 2 percent. The rest of the classifications remain either flat or down 1 percent for this month.

A summary of the October 2015 rates by Coverage Class

The October numbers by Account Size

The October Numbers by Industry Class