Specialty Insurance Blog

AM Best E&S Insurance Review

AM Best has released the 2009 review of the excess & surplus lines (E&S) insurance market (see here, PW protected?), called 2009 Special Report, U.S. Surplus Lines – Market Review. The annual review is conducted by AM Best from a grant provided by the Derek Hughes/NAPSLO Educational Foundation and has been produced annually for a number of years. The review notes: Market competition has driven both premiums and profitability down Surplus lines premium totaled $34.4 billion in 2008, while the entire property/casualty insurance industry premium totaled $493 billion The total PC industry DPW declined by 2.63% in 2008, while the total surplus lines industry premium declined by 6.2% Overall, the surplus lines industry posted a 2008 combined ratio of 93.6... Read more →

Insurance Predictions

Dr. Robert P. Hartwig, CPCU, President of the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.), provided some insights into the economy and the insurance industry at the recent NAPSLO annual meeting. See his slides here, and a National Underwriter summary here. Some interesting observations: We are facing a recession and a soft market at the same time, which is not typical and has dramatically reduced demand. The economic challenges have changed insurance customer behavior including increased efforts to reduce insurance costs, like shopping, and causing higher claims frequency in lines such as workers comp. Business starts normally rise at the end of a recession and drive job creation, but the seizure in the credit markets has prevented an increase in new businesses so... Read more →