COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Most property/casualty insurance policyholders should expect further rate increases in upcoming renewals as insurers consistently seek underwriting profits to make up for lackluster investment results, according to insurer and brokerage executives.

While insurers say average rate hikes likely will be in the high single digits, several brokers say the abundant capacity available in the market likely will lead to more moderate increases.

However, increases may vary significantly depending on line of business and individual policyholders' loss records, said the executives who were attending the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers' Insurance Leadership Forum in Colorado Springs, Colo., Sept. 29-Oct. 3.

The common message from insurance executives, who held numerous private meetings with agents and brokers at the event, was that rates need to increase across most lines.

“The message from the major insurers is very consistent: Most of the major commercial carriers say that rates have to go up between 5% and 10%,” said Philip J. Edmundson, chairman and CEO of William Gallagher Associates in Boston.

He said rate increases for William Gallagher clients have been more in the low single-digit range, but he also that may be due to the risk profile of its large number of high-growth company clients.

Insurers are saying rates will increase further, said Richard C. Hylant, executive vice president of Hylant Group Inc. and president of its Toledo office.

“I think the insurers have been pretty consistent and, in general, they have been getting the rate objectives that they have been trying to accomplish,” he said.

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In particular, on workers compensation and property coverage, insurers have charged higher rates and that is expected to continue. “But the feeling is that this market is much more controlled and we are not seeing the dramatic spikes. The theme seems to be that the insurers are saying that they have to make good underwriting decisions,” Mr. Hylant said.

Insurers are achieving rate increases, said Daniel W. Riordan, CEO global corporate, North America for Zurich Insurance Co. Ltd. “Carriers are looking to be active in the market, but they are also looking to achieve rate and we do see positive rate developments.”

In some “challenging” lines, such as workers compensation, double-digit rate increases are being applied. “I would not see rate as matching the loss activity in that line,” Mr. Riordan said.

Insurers have pushed through some significant rate increases in the past year and, while rates may continue rising, the increases may taper, said Matt Keeping, chief placement officer at Willis North America Inc. in New York.

“There's been steady rate increases over the last 12 months or so. We've seen some lines getting significant rate increases and others getting smaller, single-digit increases. There's an element of sustainability in the lower-single-digit increases, but not the large, double-digit increases, unless the risk justifies it,” he said.

In general, insurers are looking for 5% to 10% increases, but with plentiful capacity in the market, they may have to settle for low single-digit increases to retain business, Mr. Keeping said.

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Though, he said, insurers are being “much more granular” in assessing individual risks.

The property/casualty market appears to be firming further, which is being driven by insurers seeking to return to profitable underwriting, said Kevin T. Kenny, executive vice president, head of insurance brokerage and consulting at Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA Inc. in Madison, N.J.

Insurers are seeing dwindling investment returns and “there's a general desire to return to a more profitable pricing model,” Mr. Kenny said.

In particular, catastrophe-exposed property accounts are seeing increases, but “mini cats” — freak storms, the Virginia earthquake, and tornadoes in Alabama and Mississippi — also are driving rate increases, he said.

Smaller commercial accounts are seeing the biggest reaction to losses from underwriters as large commercial accounts often contain the mini cats in their retentions, he said.

Tornado losses, in particular, are driving up rates as they often are not sufficient to tap reinsurance coverage, but the frequency of the events means some insurers bear multiple tornado losses a year, said Peter Roeder, member of the board of management at Munich Reinsurance Co. in Munich.

“The primary property increases are triggered in part by the fact that some of the natural catastrophe losses were not covered by reinsurance. For tornado losses, most were retained by insurers on their own book,” he said. “That's triggered increases on property personal lines and commercial lines also.”

The rate increases will come as additional burden for policyholders already facing challenges in their core businesses due to the sluggish economy, Mr. Kenny of Wells Fargo said.

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“Very few clients are prepared for an increase in rate now, because they face so many of their own challenges. They are expecting early advice and to be involved in determining how their program could be restructured to absorb some of the pricing adjustments,” he said.

Brokerage clients increasingly use sophisticated data analysis in their own businesses and that is leading them to have higher expectations in terms of using data in the insurance selection process, Mr. Keeping of Willis said.

“The old phrase, "Trust me, I'm your broker,' no longer works. You need to back that up and prove that you should be the broker and that needs to be backed up with data,” he said.