This Just In ...
Property/casualty rates paid by insurance buyers in the United States rose two percent in the first quarter of 2018, according to MarketScout, a Dallas-based insurance exchange. This continues the upward trend from the fourth quarter of last year.
Only workers compensation, with a two percent drop, posted lower rates. It was also the only insurance line that did not have a year-over-year rate increase.
Rates were one percent higher the fourth quarter of 2017 for business interruption, inland marine and professional lines. Employment practices liability insurance rates leveled slightly.
For medium-sized accounts of $25,001 to $250,000 in premium total rates increased from up two percent in the fourth quarter to up three percent in the first quarter.
First quarter rates for professional liability increased two percent, and directors and officers liability rose one percent in the same period.
Service contractors, public entities and energy accounts experienced larger rate increases in the first quarter of 2018 than in fourth-quarter 2017. Transportation account rates went up four percent from five percent, quarter over quarter.
"Automobile and transportation exposures continued to experience the greatest rate increases due to increasing expenses and adverse claim development," said MarketScout CEO Richard Kerr. "Insurers are struggling with this segment of our industry. Part of the problem is actual underwriting results, part is expense ratios, and in our view, a larger part is the uncertainty of the long-term prospects for the auto insurance industry."
Traditional auto insurer opportunities, Mr. Kerr warned, "will shrink unless they adapt their business model to get in the middle of the autonomous vehicle parade."
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