With all of the recent natural disasters that have happened over the last couple of years, USI practice leaders are predicting that insurance carriers are going to push for increased rates on property insurance.
The industry reached an all-time high surplus in 2017, with over $700 billion. With multiple disasters taking place, and rate decreases over the prior years, profits were looking thin. Providers will want to raise rates as a whole to increase profits and recuperate from the weak profits of the previous year.
Right now we are expecting the property market to rise with respect to pricing, terms and conditions, with renewal rates ranging from flat to increase of 20 percent.
Not only property, we’re expecting some changes to happen to other insurance lines as well.
Expect Worker’s Compensation to decrease by as much as 5% for good record workplaces. Places with deteriorating loss experience can expect a fluctuation of about +5%. Guaranteed-cost programs are expected to experience an estimated +/-10 percent change.
Primary foreign casualty guaranteed-cost programs should experience rate decreases of 5 percent to 15 percent. Primary foreign property programs should see rate increases of 2 percent to 8 percent.
Environmental rates seem to be staying stable, with a +/-5% change for pollution legal liability and combined general liability/pollution. Contractor’s liability will be a touch sharper with a +/-10% shift.
Those owning property in higher risk zones will likely notice this the most. Especially if you own multiple bug out locations. Not much can be done about this in the singular scale, but to be informed is to be prepared.