Personal Lines

The commercial auto CoR worsened 7.8 points to 108.6% for the month, while the homeowners’ CoR deteriorated 15.1 points to 82.1%.

At a Tuesday hearing, California's assembly committee on insurance quizzed insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara on the finer points of his sustainable insurance plan.

Cooling CPI metrics and improving loss ratios indicate a positive shift for the personal auto industry, but results are not yet back to where they need to be.

The 2024 budget increases net operating expenses to $40.2mn, up from $35.2mn in the 2023 budget.

It is understood that the cuts are based on a review of five-year loss ratios, and that agents above 70% will be impacted.

Medical care prices – an indicator of medical inflation, a key input to long-tail loss costs – were up 0.2% YoY, after an 0.8% drop for October and a 1.4% drop for September.

The continued negative outlook in Europe and the US can in part be attributed to inflation and the challenge of catastrophe risk management.

The ratings agency also downgraded carrier’s Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR).

Personal auto carriers risk falling behind in the battle between loss costs and approved rate declines, while homeowners carriers’ double-digit filings might not be enough to keep up.

While November’s decline was only slightly less than October’s, the move lower was on Manheim's radar, given the typical seasonal downward trend that paused in August and September.

The commercial lines market is generally rational and disciplined, the CEO told analysts at the Goldman Sachs 2023 US Financial Services Conference.

Reciprocals have been cropping up more recently, with a shift toward cat-exposed lines, giving investors a quick way to tap into the hard market with an expectation of a rich multiple at exit.