The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB) has reported that premium pricing across all-sized commercial property and casualty (P&C) accounts saw continued increases during the first quarter of 2019.
Average pricing increases across all account sizes in Q1 2019 was 3.5%, according to CIAB, compared to 2.4% in Q4 2018 and 1.6% in Q3 2018.
The Council noted that it also marked the seventh consecutive quarter of increased premium by account size.
Companies experienced increases in premium pricing for all lines of business except for workers’ compensation, which saw a 3.3% decrease during the quarter.
The lines with the highest rate increases included commercial auto (8.8%), commercial property (5.9%) and umbrella (3.3%).
Q1 also represented the 31st consecutive quarter of increased commercial auto rates, CIAB said, with a nearly 9% increase in premium pricing, which was the highest rate change since the trend began in Q3 2011.
Additionally, about three quarters of the companies surveyed by CIAB said they had seen a somewhat or significant increase in demand for cyber coverage, showing that interest in Cyber Insurance remained consistently high between Q4 2018 and Q1 2019.
“Driving organic growth” and “recruiting and developing talent” again ranked as the top two priorities and the top two challenges for respondents’ firms.
Meanwhile, on the client side, cyber risk and future premium increases remained top client concerns.
“Trends gathered from this survey’s results, along with other market surveys, events and publications, confirmed the growing consensus that there were definitive signs of broad market firming in previous quarters,” said Ken A. Crerar, President and CEO of The Council.
“However, I believe we are going to have to come up with another way to describe the environment we are operating in now versus characterizing as it a hard or soft market,” he continued.
“A confluence of factors and market dynamics illustrate a new story where companies now examine each line of business and make analytical, data-driven decisions. It is a transitioning market with a keen emphasis on new mechanisms to achieve profitable underwriting and improve loss ratios.”
