For the first quarter of 2024, U.S. commercial insurance price rises of 6.3% were in line with the post-pandemic trend, with quarterly price increases of approximately 6% having remained steady, according to re/insurance broker WTW’s latest Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey (CLIPS).
The overall increase of 6.3% for the first quarter of 2024 is almost identical to the rate for the fourth quarter of 2023 for the same group of participants in the CLIPS study.
Nevertheless, WTW notes that some coverages do stand out. This includes excess umbrella liability coverage, which has shown significant price increases over the last few years, with double-digit quarterly price increases evident since the start of last year.
Looking at commercial property rate activity, WTW highlights that from Q1 2021 through Q4 2022, quarterly rate increases had slowed to single digits. However, rates have since experienced increases and have remained at double-digit increases for the last five quarters.
While the overall price change reported by the participating firms in the study was positive, for some lines, such as cyber, price decreases have occurred in the last few quarters with the most recent one moving into a single-digit price decrease. This follows significant rate increases from mid-2020 to the third quarter of 2022.
Directors & Officers Liability (D&O) coverage is another area of the market that experienced low to mid-single digit decreases in Q1 2024, although this is an improvement on the double-digit levels seen in previous quarters.
“Rates continued to harden across many coverage lines in the first quarter of 2024, but have slowed somewhat from the previous quarter, with the exception of excess/umbrella liability, where we saw an acceleration of rate increases since the first quarter of 2023,” said Yi Jing, Senior Director, Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT), WTW.
