Commercial insurance buyers have endured price hikes in most major coverage lines for six years, and there seems little to suggest that rates will soften anytime soon.
According to Business Insurance’s quarterly pricing chart, which aggregates major industry quarterly pricing reports, prices have risen most for property insurance coverage, with rate hikes peaking at 14.4% in the second quarter of 2023. Umbrella rates saw the second largest average increase, peaking at 12.7% in the first quarter of 2021; followed by commercial auto, peaking at 8.3% in the second quarter of 2023; and general liability, which peaked at 5.8% in the same quarter. The interactive pricing chart is available at businessinsurance.com.
Some specialty lines, such as public company directors and officers liability insurance, have recently seen decreases, but overall the trend has been toward higher rates.
The only major line to show consistent decreases over the past six years was workers compensation, but the fall in rates was modest — the biggest decline was 2.8% in the 2018 second quarter — and employers still faced challenges with issues such as loss control and return-to-work…
