Most commercial lines see rate hikes in August: Ivans

Most lines of commercial insurance saw year-over-year increases in average premium renewal rates during August except workers compensation, which saw a negative change in premium, according to insurance exchange Ivans Insurance Services, a division of Tampa-based Applied Systems Inc.

General liability, commercial property, business owners policy, umbrella and workers compensations all saw positive month-over-month renewal rate change in August while commercial auto was down.

By line of business, premium renewal rate changes for August 2020 included business owners policies rising 5.00% in August, up from 4.38%; general liability increasing 3.61%, up from 3.45% last month; commercial property rising 5.48%, up from 5.42%; umbrella increasing 3.27%, up from 3.23%; workers compensation falling 2.51%, up from a 2.66% decrease; and commercial auto’s increase slipped to 3.2%, compared with 5.01% last month.

“As the pandemic progresses, we continue to see a hardening in the market across all lines of business, but August showed a noticeable downshift in commercial auto as compared to July and will be a line of business to watch closely,” Brian Wood, vice president of data products group for Ivans, said in the statement, adding “…data shows that rates are likely to stay up year over year and offset other negative impacts on the industry.”

Ivans Index analyzes more than 120 million data transactions, from more than 32,000 agencies and 400 insurers and MGAs.