D&O rates decline amid high capacity, retention rates

Directors and officers liability pricing for publicly held clients that renewed in both this year's and last year's second quarter decreased 9.8%, says Aon Risk Solutions in its latest report.

The overall price change for primary policies alone that renewed with the same limit and deductibles was 3.9%, according to Aon's “Quarterly D&O Pricing Index, Second Quarter 2016,” released Wednesday.

This “obviously means the excess rates are coming down at a much quicker rate than the primary,” said Brian Wanat, New York-based CEO of the U.S. financial services group at Aon Risk Solutions.

According to the survey, 53% of primary policies that renewed with the same limit and deductible experienced a price decrease, while 13% had an increase.

Among other survey findings, 96.1% of primary policies renewed with the same limit, 93.4% renewed with the same deductible and 96.1% renewed with the same insurer.

“You can see the retention rates are incredibly high,” said Mr. Wanat. “The carriers are almost bordering on desperation at this point in terms of their desire to retain and write business.”

It is “very much a buyers' market with a lot of capacity,” he said, “I'd like to think we're at or near the bottom,” Mr. Wanat said, but added he does not know what is going to change the market.