Property & Casualty Losses Hit $25.3 Billion in 2017

I recently wrote an auto insurance policy for a new client, and due in large part to the insured’s claims spiraling out of control, premiums increased from $77,000 annually to its current annual premium of $225,000!While we were not the broker on the previous policy, we are now the ones helping to fix the mess the client is in. Receiving a premium three times more expensive than the previous policy is going to significantly impact  profits!

What happened? According to a new A.M. Best report, 2017’s underwriting loss reached $25.3 billion– dwarfing 2016’s $6.3 billion loss – as catastrophe losses in the United States hit levels not seen since 2005.

The U.S. Property/Casualty industry was able to offset the underwriting losses with higher investment income, but it doesn’t take a psychic to know that the losses will be pushed back to business owners.

As the worst performing commercial line in recent years, commercial auto has been taking advantage of significant, compounded rate increases and re-underwriting efforts have led to some improvement. To maintain this improvement, A.M. Best suggests that carriers are likely to continue to press for commercial auto rate increases in 2018.

Premium increases are real. They’re growing daily. That’s why business owners should ACT NOW, before premium increases grow further.

Get in touch with us today – call or visit – and we can set up a brief appointment to discuss Van Beurden Insurance’s exclusive risk assessment process to prevent such a large premium increase from shocking your bottom line.