Hard market continues with commercial premiums rates accelerating

Average premium renewal rate increases in the US accelerated across most commercial lines in the third quarter. According to the IVANS Insurance Solutions’ premium renewal rate index, only workers compensation saw rates decline.

Commercial auto was also something of an exception, with slower increases, but, even there, the average premium renewal rate for the quarter was 4.32%, down from 4.51% for the second quarter. Business owner policy (BOP) premiums averaged 5.05% up from 4.59% in Q2; general liability rose 4.21% against 3.95%; commercial property was 5.77% versus 5.54%; and umbrella premiums increased 4.85%, up from 4.40% in the previous quarter.

Workers compensation premium renewal rates fell an average -1.40%, although the decline slowed from -1.74% in Q2.

“The Q3 results of the IVANS Index continues to show we operate in a hard market,” said Kathy Hrach, vice president of Product Management, IVANS Insurance. “In fact, commercial auto, BOP, general liability, umbrella and workers’ compensation reached their highest average premium renewal rate of the year in September.”

The IVANS Index is produced monthly for the most placed commercial lines of business in the insurance industry and analyses more than 120 million data transactions from the US market.