Premium renewal rate experiences changes across all major commercial lines of business
“The latest IVANS Index results show varied changes among all commercial lines, with General Liability experiencing the greatest increase month over month since April,” said Brian Wood, vice president of Data Products Group, IVANS Insurance Services. “IVANS Index continues to enable agents to advise clients on expected policy renewal premium changes while providing the market intelligence insurers need to support pricing decisions.”
The IVANS Index is a monthly data-driven report outlining the premium rate renewal trends and conditions across all major commercial lines of business. According to IVANS, the report analyzes and compiles the results from more than 120 million data transactions. As a result, the IVANS Index is able to identify the premium renewal rate change as measured by the premium difference ‘year over year for a single consistent policy.”
In its latest report, the IVANS Index for May 2019 the following changes and variations in the premium renewal rates:
- Commercial Auto: 4.28%, down from 4.33% last month.
- BOP: 4.26%, up from 4.12% at the end of April.
- General Liability: 2.46%, up from 2.18% the month prior.
- Commercial Property: 3.82%, up from 3.69 in April.
- Umbrella: 2.52%, down from 2.59% the month prior.
- Workers’ Compensation: -3.86%, down from -3.77 last month.
U.S. commercial insurance prices increase during the first quarter of 2019
“Overall, price changes were consistent with recent surveys, with the exception of directors and officers liability, where data now indicate an uptick of price increases into the mid-single digits,” said Jeffrey Carlson, director, Insurance Consulting and Technology, Willis Towers Watson. “Also, while estimates of 2018 claim cost inflation are still elevated compared to the recent past, they have moderated somewhat from estimates provided in our last survey, as the data continue to mature.”
According to the latest data, carrier reported price change came in at just above 2% for policies underwritten during the first quarter of 2019, as compared to policies written during the same time period in Q1-2018.
Price changes for most lines were similar to or slightly above those reported last quarter. Four standard lines indicated material price increases: commercial auto, commercial property, excess/umbrella liability, and directors and officers liability. The outlier in the survey results continues to be commercial auto, where significant price increases were again reported — in the double digits for the fourth consecutive quarter. Price changes were positive and of reasonably similar magnitude across all account sizes.
