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P&C Rates Drop 1% in March

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The composite rate for property and casualty insurance dropped 1% in March compared to March 2014, indicating a softening market, according to MarketScout.

“March is an important month. There is a considerable volume of U.S. business placed with both the U.S. and international insurers,” noted Richard Kerr, CEO of MarketScout. “While a small change from February, the downward adjustment in rates may be an indicator of what is to come for the next six months.”

By coverage classification, general liability and umbrella/excess liability dropped from up 1% in February to flat or 0% in March. Commercial auto, professional liability, and employment practices liability (EPLI) were also down 1% in February as compared to March. No coverages reflected a rate decrease.

By account size, small accounts (up to $25,000 premium) adjusted downward from up 2% to up 1%. Large accounts ($250,000 to $1,000,000 premium) were flat as compared to up 1% in February. The rates for all other accounts were unchanged.

Industry classifications all remained the same as in February, except for contracting and transportation, which were up 1%t in March, compared to up 2% in February. Habitational was flat or up 0% in March, compared to up 1% in February.

Summary of the March 2015 rates by coverage, industry class and account size:

By Coverage Class
Commercial Property Up 1%
Business Interruption Up 0%
BOP Up 1%
Inland Marine Up 0%
General Liability Up 0%
Umbrella/Excess Up 0%
Commercial Auto Up 1%
Workers’ Compensation Up 0%
Professional Liability Up 1%
D&O Liability Up 1%
EPLI Up 1%
Fiduciary Up 0%
Crime Up 0%
Surety Up 0%

 

Haulers of Crude Finding Coverage Scarce

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HOUSTON—The recent spike in oil and natural gas production has led trucking companies to grow so quickly that they sometimes scramble to find qualified drivers. This has meant tightening coverage with a limited number of carriers and a market in “disarray,” Anthony Dorn, a broker with Sloan Mason Insurance Services, said today at the IRMI Energy Risk and Insurance Conference.

“Carriers have taken a bath on construction risks,” he said. “Only nine carriers will write crude hauling.”

There is a huge need for risk management in trucking right now, he added. “A lot of these are fly-by-night companies. They are running with drivers that have no experience, they are getting violations from the DOT left and right for not having licenses and adequate brakes on their trucks and they are running on dirt roads that aren’t made for 100,000 pound units,” Dorn said. “It’s a very risky place for underwriters. If we don’t do something as agents and as risk managers there will be fewer carriers.”

The recent downturn in the oil and gas market has also been a game-changer for some companies. Dorn predicts a “cleaning of the crop” of truckers. Inexperienced companies with new drivers will “fall by the wayside. What we are going to be left with are companies that are well-run with proper safety procedures in their fleet.”

Once that happens, he believes more carriers will enter the market. “But as of now, in general the whole market is in disarray,” he said.

He noted that agencies such as the Department of Transportation have vehicle reports available online, which insurers now frequently access when considering whether to take on a trucking company as a risk. He suggested that companies looking for coverage also check these reports and work closely with their risk managers and safety directors to correct any problems, such as drivers without adequate experience.

“There is a huge opportunity out there right now for risk managers to approach these companies and tell them, ‘If you don’t have a risk manager to help with your losses, you are not going to be able to find insurance.’ Right off the bat, I’d say 50% [of trucking companies] are declined as soon as they walk in the door,” Dorn said. As a result, he has seen companies declined by every insurer and forced to form a new LLC or even shut down.

Loren Henry, also a broker with Sloan Mason, said that another thing they are seeing as oil prices drop is companies formed to haul salt water for hydraulic fracturing looking to other opportunities. “They start hauling agricultural products and paper products, whatever there is that is not oil and gas related,” he said. “That is typically not going to be covered under their auto policy.” He advised fleet owners to be aware of this and communicate any changes to their broker to find out specifically what is covered.

“We have had some losses recently, where a company made a shift from what they were hauling because they had lost some saltwater accounts. They were hauling cattle and they had a loss and it wasn’t covered because it is not in the policy language,” Henry explained.

“I don’t know where all these water-haulers are going to go,” Dorn added. “You’re going to see massive fleets go on sale and you’ll get huge discounts on trucks. You are going to see some transitions.”

Dorn added that one of his clients is now hauling salt water with half of his trucks and cattle with the rest. He advised his client to form another LLC for the cattle-hauling if he expects to get insurance coverage, as insurers would cover one or the other, but not both.

Asked whether companies are hiring risk managers and if they are also listening to their advice, he said, “Yes, especially after they get their premium. When they go from $5,000 a unit to $12,000 a unit their ears perk up pretty quick. They are willing to do almost anything to get that pricing down. It’s sad because companies are actually being put out of business because their premiums are too high.”

He expects the next year to see a lot of changes. “A lot of companies will go by the wayside,” he said. “A lot of smaller companies will be gone—they will sell their trucks or be bought out by bigger fleets.”

P&C Rates in U.S. Rise 1% in February

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The composite rate in the U.S. in 2015 for all property and casualty lines was up 1% in February, compared to flat in January 2015, MarketScout said today.

Pricing measurements by coverage showed no further price deterioration in any line and an increase of 1% in auto, professional liability and EPLI, from plus 1% to plus 2%. By account size, large accounts ($250,001 to $1,000,000 premium) increased from flat to plus 1%, while all other account sizes remained the same as in January, according to MarketScout.

“Could this mean underwriting executives are actually walking away from underpriced business?” asked Richard Kerr, MarketScout CEO.

“February is normally a low volume premium month so we would caution about putting too much credibility in these metrics; however, historically once the insurance market starts softening it normally accelerates rather than moderates or turns around,” he said in a statement. “We speculate insurers are not going to cut deep and long in this cycle. Big data, modeling software and improved underwriting acumen are resulting in insurers simply being too smart to fall for extended and deep price cuts.”

When measuring by industry classification, contracting, habitational, public entity and transportation all increased by 1% in February compared to January.

Summary of the February 2015 rates by coverage, industry class and account size:

By Coverage

Commercial Property         Up 1%

Business Interruption       Up 0%

BOP                                  Up 1%

Inland Marine                   Up 0%

General Liability                Up 1%

Umbrella/Excess               Up 1%

Commercial Auto              Up 2%

Workers Compensation     Up 0%

Professional Liability          Up 2%

D&O Liability                    Up 1%
EPLI                                Up 2%

Fiduciary                          Up 0%

Crime                               Up 0%

Surety                              Up 0%

 

 

 

 

 

Insurers Will Be Found Not Guilty of Fraud in Sandy Payouts, Expert Says

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Insurers will be vindicated of accusations of fraud for rejecting flood damage claims made by Superstorm Sandy victims, an insurance industry expert predicts.

New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has opened an investigation into accusations against insurers Wright National Flood Insurance Co., units of Travelers Cos. and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., which contract with the government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), of rejecting property flood damage claims of Sandy victims based on falsified engineering reports, Bloomberg reported this week.

Called a Write Your Own program (WYO), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) allows participating property and casualty insurers to write and service the Standard Flood Insurance Policy in their own names.

Under the WYO program, insurers receive an expense allowance for policies written and claims processed while the federal government retains responsibility for underwriting losses.

The WYO Program operates as part of the NFIP, and is subject to its rules and regulations, according to FEMA, which oversees the flood insurance program.

“I am confident that the attorney general will be satisfied that insurers involved with the Write Your Own program were operating in a manner consistent with NFIP guidelines,” said Robert P. Hartwig, Ph.D., president of the Insurance Information Institute.

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Lawsuits in federal court accuse the insurers of colluding with engineering firms and others to deny or reduce damage payouts based on fraudulent reports. Schneiderman is investigating whether any crimes were committed. According to The Hartford Courant, more than 1,000 lawsuits are involved, alleging that homeowners were underpaid by insurance companies. Attorneys said insurers accepted altered engineering reports in a “peer review” process.

Insurers point out that the property disputes involve only about 1% of all flood claims and that the peer-review process is common practice—a quality control measure to make sure the federal government doesn’t overpay on flood claims.

Regarding the lawsuits that have been filed, Hartwig said, “I am equally confident that the evidence will indicate once again that insurers were operating in a manner consistent with NFIP guidelines.”

He explained that the lawsuits lodged against insurers alleging that certain insurers and firms hired to perform engineering analyses on flood-damaged properties were acting together to reduce or deny claims, “reflect a fundamental  misunderstanding of how the NFIP WYO program works. Engineering firms routinely and appropriately use a peer review process to review work performed. Occasionally, that process leads to additional opinions being reflected in an engineering report, which can thus impact the dollar amount received by claimants. This is part of a routine and necessary quality-control process.”

Hartwig said that this process is “no different than peer review in other technical and scientific disciplines. Using medicine as an example, test results are routinely reviewed by more than one medical professional before a diagnosis and course of treatments are rendered.”

Moreover, he added, insurers and the engineering firms hired are not financially motivated “to pay claimants anything other than a fair and accurate assessment of the losses compensable under the NFIP policy purchased. Insurers that consistently underpay or overpay claims can be removed from the program by the NFIP/FEMA.”