MarketScout: Rates up 3%

That’s a touch better than 2% last month. More here. The Dallas insurance exchange also notes that rates in the non-admitted market are trending up. Usually in a hard market, admitted insurers abandon the non-admitted market, which is where the hard-to-write risks reside. That action allows non-admitted rates to accelerate.

Me me me

Contingencies publishes my article on rate monitors.

MarketScout: January rates up 1%

Here’s a breakout by line of business:  

CIAB: Rates up 2.8% in Q4

Workers comp rates up 7.5%. Commercial property up 5.7%. Accompanying the press release is this handy chart:

GuyCarp: Reinsurance renewals

I have nothing to add to this: Words here.

Quote of the Day – reinsurance renewals

Brian Boornazian, Aspen Re chief executive: What actually happened on Jan. 1 is that we saw a market hardening in certain lines, but not a ‘classic’ hard market. The signs all point to an industry awareness that the risk being assumed needs more rate to produce adequate returns. The insurance and reinsurance markets are starting [...]

Towers survey: Yup, it’s a hard market

Rates up 2% in the latest CLIPS survey. Q3 increases were bigger than Q2 increases in standard lines (property, GL, comp), suggesting the trend is accelerating. Professional liability rates remain soft, especially in D&O.

RIMS survey: 8-year soft market ending

Via Advisen: New York (November 15, 2011) – Average renewal premiums in three of four lines of business tracked by the RIMS Benchmark Survey™ increased in the third quarter, strongly suggesting that an eight year period of falling commercial insurance rates is at its end. The RIMS Benchmark Survey™ tracks changes in average program renewal [...]

Aon: Homeowners’ rates still too low

Largest U.S. HO insurers would return 4.8% on equity, according to the Aon’s latest. That’s down from last year’s projection of 6.9%. Reasons: Lower investment returns and higher projected cat losses. That’s not an adequate return on capital, the A-Team says. Here’s a link to the press release. I can’t find the actual study. Here’s [...]

Chubb points to 4% rate increase, hardening U.S. market

First Travelers commented on rate increases, now Chubb. From Thursday’s conference call transcript, Paul Krump, executive vice president and president of commercial and specialty lines: We are encouraged that [Chubb Commercial Insurance] CCI’s average renewal rates were up 4% in the United States, up from the 2% renewal increase we reported in the second quarter [...]