No More Price Cuts for D&O

Tuesday, Sep 15,2009, 12:50:39 PM Click:

In August 2009, after two years and nine months of rate reductions, pricing for D&O insurance is no longer in decline. MarketScout expects the pricing for other lines of business to reverse the downward trend as well; however, most will moderate slowly so don’t expect general price increases until 2010.

The overall composite rate for US Property & Casualty business for August 2009 was minus 5%, according to data analyzed by MarketScout.

Richard Kerr, CEO of MarketScout summarized the August results. “While the overall P&C market is still soft, the market is continuing to moderate with composite rate reductions of -5% in August 2009 as compared to -6% in July 2009 and -10% one year ago. Insurance buyers purchasing D&O coverage are no longer enjoying premium reductions. Professional liability and small commercial (BOP) business are experiencing only very small rate reductions. General Liability and Workers’ Compensation decreased the most with declines of -7%. It now appears two admitted insurers who traditionally write small commercial business are tightening their underwriting guidelines and no longer accepting tougher classes of business. If this more conservative underwriting position holds, we will see some pretty quick rate increases for those small classes of business that must move from admitted to non admitted insurers.”

The National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research conducted pricing surveys that were used in MarketScout’s analysis of market conditions.

The rates for August 2009 are as follows:

MarketScout

The barometer is compiled by MarketScout, a Dallas, Texas based electronic insurance exchange which underwrites and distributes hundreds of product lines to its over 35,000-member agency network across the United States. Over 50 "A" rated carriers participate in the MarketScout exchange platform at www.marketscout.com.