Commercial insurance

SURE and SageSure launch non-admitted BOP in California

SureChoice Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange, in partnership with SageSure, has launched its first non-admitted business owner’s policy in California.

Paragon forms small commercial division with hire of RPS’s Lasher

Paragon Insurance Holdings has formed a new small commercial division led by Charles Lasher, who has joined the multiline MGA from RPS Atlas.

Chubb names Lupica president of E&S unit Westchester among further NA leadership changes

David Lupica has been promoted to vice president of Chubb Group and division president of its $4bn-premium E&S unit Westchester, with the insurer also announcing several new leadership roles across North America lower middle market and small commercial.

Tim Turner: Property will continue to be “strong driver” amid market stabilisation

Tim Turner has said that the property segment will continue to be a “strong driver” for Ryan Specialty even as conditions stablise, as business continues to flow into the E&S channel, with the executive also flagging accelerated rate increases in casualty.

Amwins: Hospitality contending with liquor liability-led insurance challenges

While the hospitality industry last year made what market analysts believe is a full recovery following the pandemic, the sector is contending with an increasingly challenged insurance market where liquor liability protection remains the most stressed coverage class, according to Amwins.

Swift: E&S is “next real growth journey” for Hartford’s small commercial business

The Hartford’s chairman and CEO Christopher Swift has commented that his company will continue to push for rate increases in the high single to low double digits for liability, and double digits for property, while also identifying an E&S opportunity in its small commercial segment.

AM Best: US commercial lines resilient despite inflation challenges

AM Best has maintained its stable market segment outlook on the US commercial lines insurance market for 2024, citing persistently strong underwriting results despite economic and social inflation.

RT Connector readies to add cyber and commercial auto to platform

RT Connector - RT Specialty’s digital marketplace for micro commercial business – is adding further offerings to its product suite with the platform poised to launch cyber liability and commercial auto coverages in the next few months.

S&P intelligence: Specialty writers dominate 2022 performance rankings

Half of the top eight best performing insurers in S&P Global Market Intelligence’s inaugural US Property and Casualty Rankings have significant excess and surplus lines (E&S) operations, suggesting that “public and private investors' recent enthusiasm for this business model has been well-placed”.

E&S market leaders aim technology at major small commercial opportunity

Small commercial represents the next major growth opportunity for the burgeoning E&S sector as technology investments are made to cut friction from the process of placing and writing the business, according to leaders of wholesale brokers and carriers at the E&S Insurer conference last week.

CEO panel: E&S poised for further hardening

The E&S market is poised for a further hardening while it is “impossible” that excess casualty underwriters are currently on top of loss costs given the continued impact of both social and economic inflation and jury awards and settlements that remain on the rise, delegates at the E&S Insurer Conference in New York City heard on Wednesday.

Nationwide names Johnston to lead combined commercial lines unit

Nationwide has appointed Russ Johnston to head up the newly unified commercial lines business unit within the mutual giant’s P&C organisation.

LIO Insurance Group’s specialty subsidiary gets A- rating from AM Best

LIO Specialty Insurance Company has been assigned a financial strength rating of A- and a long-term issuer credit rating of “a-” by AM Best, with the ratings of its more established parent LIO Insurance Company affirmed.

Ask The Hard Market

In a new E&S Insurer column we have enlisted Instagram’s The Hard Market to answer a selection of your questions. Please get submitting for next month’s issue!

RLI property treaties renew with higher retentions and 40%+ rate hikes

RLI was hit with 40 percent-plus risk-adjusted rate increases on both its property per-risk and catastrophe treaties at 1 January while the carrier raised the retentions on both programs following what president and CEO Craig Kliethermes said was “a hard reboot” in the reinsurance market.

WR Berkley delivers 18.8% Q2 operating ROE with most lines now hitting return targets

WR Berkley reported a solid Q2 earnings beat and said that after several years of rate increases most of its business are now achieving or exceeding targeted return on equity (ROE) as it now places greater emphasis on exposure growth.

Zurich NA names IFG’s Lewis as head of new E&S unit

Zurich North America has named former International Financial Group (IFG) president and CEO Christopher Lewis as executive vice president and head of its new, standalone business unit dedicated to the E&S market.

Applied Underwriters targets major M&A and organic growth in 2022

Following a highly active 2021, expansive carrier and MGA platform Applied Underwriters has a pipeline of larger scale transactions and is also looking to drive strong organic growth this year, especially in the E&S market.

Hallmark shares up 8% after specialty commercial IPO plans pulled

Shares in Hallmark Financial Services were trading up almost 8 percent after it confirmed it is no longer actively seeking the separation of its specialty commercial business segment and will not proceed with the previously announced IPO.

RLI: Small casualty and wheels price increases slow in Q3

While rates continued to rise across much of RLI’s portfolio in Q3 2021 and helped to fuel net premiums written (NPW) growth of 19 percent during the period, pricing in lines like commercial auto and smaller casualty has started to taper off, according to president and chief operating officer Craig Kliethermes.