Insurance Market Update
You know we couldn’t send out a newsletter without providing you with an insurance market update for the 3rd Quarter of 2023, right? (This update was part of our customer and prospect e-newsletter. If you would like to be a part of that, contact us here.) So here we go…
Rates continue to rise and carriers continue to make hardline decisions on what they will insure! Please do not let anyone fool you into thinking that insurance rates are going to go down or carriers are going to be less demanding. If you have heard that, that person is apparently not in touch with today’s insurance industry.
This is one of the hardest markets the insurance industry has seen according to the Insurance Journal. This market we have entered is multilayered due to reinsurance, inflation, valuation adjustments, claims costs, and weather losses. Nationwide has put a pause on writing new business in Georgia. Hippo Insurance, as of August, has put a pause on writing all new business insurance countrywide. During this hard market, insurance carriers are having to re-evaluate who they currently insure and what type of customer they want insure in the future to stay profitable.
Thomas Holzheu, Chief Economist Americas, Swiss Re Institute and James Finucane, Senior Economist, said that “[t]he P&C industry has not yet reached the inflection point between premium growth rates and claims costs. Instead, strong and accelerating rate increases in personal lines, an ongoing hard market in commercial property and high reinvestment yields were offset by the costliest second quarter for natural catastrophes since 2011, persistent inflation, and slowing favorable reserve development.”
While we are weathering this insurance storm together, we want to remind you of a few things you can do to protect your insurability:
- Do not let your insurance coverage lapse.
- Pay your premiums on time.
- Keep your properties maintained.
- Do not file low dollar claims.
Our most important goals are to help keep our insureds insurable and insured with a strongly rated carrier. We promise that we will do what we can to help keep your premiums down, but for the foreseeable future, we do not see insurance rates decreasing.
Call us at 803-791-1120 if you ever want to discuss this in further detail. And remember, we are all in this insurance market together!