BY CAROLINE MCDONALD
NU Online News Service
Corporate risk managers are the beneficiaries of a market with continually falling insurance rates , in the largest quarterly drop since 2005, according to the RIMS Benchmark Survey of policy renewal prices as reported by corporate risk managers.
The momentum at which the market has softened “has been a surprise,” David Bradford, editor-in-chief of Advisen, told National Underwriter. “I’m not entirely sure why we saw things surge a little bit in this quarter.”
Mr. Bradford said the insurance industry “continues to be overcapitalized, continues to post profits, and surplus continues to accumulate—all factors that contribute to the competitiveness of the market.”
He noted, however, that “it’s not entirely clear why this state of affairs has been more or less constant over the past couple of years—that it should suddenly result in an uptick in the rate the market is softening.”
What will change the momentum? Barring a “fairly substantial natural catastrophe—maybe even required on the order of 2005, certainly 2004—I don’t think anything’s going to stop it in the near term,” he said.
Mr. Bradford pointed out that insurers are still posting favorable results, and “Lloyd’s had a banner year.” He added, however, that one thing not often discussed is that “rate levels are a year old by the time they get published. The fact that insurers are still publishing such strong results keeps the pressure on them to write more business at the supposedly very profitable rates.”
While underwriting discipline is difficult to project, he said that since the beginning of 2004, rate levels overall have lost 50 percent of the gains made from 2001 to 2003.
“When you’ve given up half of those gains,” he said, “it’s hard to say that underwriting discipline is holding. There’s no question that the market is extremely competitive.”
What’s more, in some lines of liability—like general liability and workers’ compensation—Mr. Bradford said insurers have given up about two-thirds of the gains they made between 2001 and the end of 2003.
All this, however, is good news for risk managers. “There’s no question this is definitely a buyers’ market right now,” he said. “The problem is, though, the market tends to boomerang. Once it turns, it’s going to turn sharply. So I’m not sure the cycle does anybody any good in the long run. But at this point in the cycle it certainly looks good for risk managers. So they should take advantage while it lasts.”
According to the report, u ndeterred by mounting claims from the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market, the average directors and officers liability (D&O) premium fell 19 percent in the first quarter — the largest decrease of all the lines of business tracked by Advisen for the survey.
Continuing the trend of steady, moderate decreases exhibited over the past two years, general liability premiums fell another 2 percent. After demonstrating a moderating trend over the course of 2007, workers ’ comp price decreases surged down during the first quarter, falling 11 percent. In a clear indication that competition is returning to catastrophe-exposed regions, property premiums fell 6 percent—the largest quarterly de crease since Hurricane Katrina, according to the survey.
“We expected to see the soft market continue into 2008,” John R. Phelps, a member of RIMS board of directors and director of business risk solutions for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc., said in a statement. “Not only are soft market conditions ongoing, they appear to be accelerating, due in no small part to the excellent combined ratios for key markets. This bodes well for insurance buyers this year.”
Mr. Bradford said in a statement: “It is an indication of just how overcapitalized the commercial property and casualty insurance industry is. Rapidly deteriorating rate levels will probably wipe out insurer underwriting profits this year, but if there are no major catastrophes, premiums should still continue to fall for a while.”