1st Update 2021: The MA Private Passenger Auto Insurance Marketplace

Our first bi-monthly update of the year reviews November 2020 data

The latest numbers for our last bi-monthly market share update on the Massachusetts Private Passenger Auto Insurance marketplace are here. All of the data focuses on NOVEMBER 2020, the latest date for which complete data is available.

As always, many thanks to the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers, which acts as the statistical agent for motor vehicle insurance in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and provides Agency Checklists with all the data presented here.

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An overview of the private passenger marketplace in the United States

The Private Passenger Auto Insurance marketplace continues to be the largest line of insurance in the U.S. with a total of $253,238,614,669 in Direct Written Premiums. This represents approximately 36% of all reported written premiums in the U.S. It is an increase in Direct Written Premiums of $7,166,220,843 when compared to 2018 which had a total of $246,072,393,826.

As for Direct Premiums Earned, the amount also increased to $251,011,648,078 versus $242,054,605,219 in 2018. View Agency Checklists’ NAIC 2020 Market Share Report here.

An overview of the private passenger marketplace in Massachusetts

In addition to CAR’s updates on the Private Passenger Auto Insurance Marketplace throughout the year, the Division of Insurance also publishes an official statement on the state of this market each year.

Unlike CAR’s raw data, however, the Division’s Market Share Report’s most recent report on this marketplace dates from 2018 and reflects an official tally and analysis of complete data for that year. For those interested in accessing the DOI’s latest numbers please refer to Agency Checklists MA Market Share Report 2020: Private Passenger Auto Insurers.

A breakdown of the Marketplace in Massachusetts by Exposures and Market Share

A list all the current writers of Private Passenger Auto Insurers as ranked by premiums and corresponding market share.

COMPANY	EXPOSURES	MA MARKET SHARE
1. COMMERCE	983,397	22.20%
2. GEICO	686,859	15.50%
3. LIBERTY MUTUAL	374,581	8.45%
4. SAFETY	371,902	8.39%
5. ARBELLA	346,314	7.82%
6. PLYMOUTH ROCK	284,697	6.43%
7. PROGRESSIVE	230,189	5.20%
8. STANDARD FIRE	165,131	3.73%
9. U S A A	163,488	3.69%
10. AMICA MUTUAL	133,566	3.01%
11. HANOVER	127,577	2.88%
12. METROPOLITAN	126,690	2.86%
13. ALLSTATE	77,327	1.75%
14. QUINCY MUTUAL	74,884	1.69%
15. NORFOLK AND DEDHAM MUTUAL	54,340	1.23%
16. NATIONAL GRANGE	53,093	1.20%
17. VERMONT MUTUAL	48,671	1.10%
18. PREFERRED MUTUAL	21,281	0.48%
19. STATE FARM	19,030	0.43%
20. GREEN MOUNTAIN	16,478	0.37%
21. BANKERS STANDARD	12,269	0.28%
22. INTEGON	10,188	0.23%
23. PURE	9,390	0.21%
24. ELECTRIC	9,125	0.21%
25. ESURANCE	8,425	0.19%
26. FARM FAMILY	7,228	0.16%
27. TRUMBULL	5,160	0.12%
28. AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL	3,062	0.07%
29. CINCINNATI	2,483	0.06%
30. OCCIDENTAL INS	1,304	0.03%
31. HARLEYSVILLE WORCESTER	1,291	0.03%
32. MIDDLESEX	994	0.02%
33. MARKEL AMERICAN	35	0.00%
TOTALS	4,430,447	100.00%

A look at the shifts & trends in this marketplace over the past decade

In order to give some perspective on the shifts in the marketplace over the past decade, the following three graphs depict the Top Ten Private Passenger insurers for the month of NOVEMBER 2020, followed by the same graph from five years earlier in 2015, and then finally from a decade ago in 2010.

The goal is to present a more complete perspective on how the Massachusetts automobile insurance market has shifted during this highlighted period. Unlike in past years, all of the past years included in this review have now been during “Managed Competition.” With that, the following are some shifts worth noting based on the graphs below.

GEICO continues to increase its market share with a .20% increase to 15.50%. This figure represents more than double its market share in 2015, when it was 7%.
The Commonwealth’s largest auto insurer MAPFRE/Commerce continues to lead the marketplace place with a 22.20% market share. It should be noted, however, that its market share has been reduced 8.4% since 2010 when it commanded a 30.6% share of this same marketplace.
Safety Insurance also has seen a decline in its Private Passenger Automobile market share. In November2010, the Boston-based insurer was the second-largest private passenger auto insurer in the Commonwealth with a 11.6% market share. As of November 2020, it is the fourth-largest with an 8.4% share, albeit only 0.1% less than third-place Liberty Mutual.