Latest Pricing Trends Headlines

All the headlines from our Pricing Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.

United Fire Sees Higher Net Income but Premium Decrease in 2010

Feb 15 2011 // United Fire & Casualty Co., headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, reported an increase in net income for the fourth quarter and full year 2010, but net premiums earned decreased by 1.9 percent for the year and by 0.7...

Coakley Urges Massachusetts Regulators to Reject Rate Hike by Progressive

Feb 11 2011 // Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is urging state insurance regulators to reject Progressive’s request for a 23.5 percent rate hike for commercial auto coverage. Coakley’s office says...

Soft Market Not Over Yet

Feb 7 2011 // Average renewal premiums for commercial lines property/ casualty insurance were largely unchanged during the fourth quarter of 2010 and that may remain the case for awhile. According to the RIMS Benchmark Survey, directors...

Iowa Commissioner: Wellmark May Increase Rates by 8.5%, not 10.8%

Feb 3 2011 // After completing a review of health insurer Wellmark’s November 2010 rate increase request, Iowa Insurance Commissioner Susan E. Voss has determined the company will not be allowed to raise individual health...

State Farm Florida Seeks 28% Home Insurance Rate Hike

Feb 1 2011 // State Farm of Florida is requesting a statewide average 27.7 percent homeowners insurance rate increase citing the rising costs of sinkhole claims. The request comes as Florida lawmakers are trying to broker a deal over...

Washington Approves 12% Workers’ Comp Rate Hike

Jan 31 2011 // Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) has approved an increase to the state’s workers’ compensation premium rates by an average 12 percent or 6.5 cents per hour for 2011. The new...

Marsh Sees Soft Commercial Insurance Market Continuing

Jan 31 2011 // Another report indicates that soft commercial insurance market conditions that persisted throughout the U.S. in 2010 will continue into 2011. Key commercial insurance market drivers from 2009—including intense...

Oklahoma Senator Seeking Transparency in Health Insurance Rate Increases

Jan 28 2011 // Oklahoma State Sen. Earl Garrison wants insurance companies to be accountable to citizens and justify any rate increases. He has introduced Senate Bill 354, which would ensure that premium rate information relating to the...

State Farm Plans Small Hike in Tennessee Auto Rates

Jan 25 2011 // State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the largest insurer of autos in Tennessee, is increasing its overall rate level in the state an average of 0.4 percent effective Feb. 21. After this rate change is implemented,...

Think Soft Market Is Over? Think Again

Jan 24 2011 // Average renewal premiums for commercial lines property/ casualty insurance were largely unchanged during the fourth quarter of 2010 and that may remain the case for awhile. According to the RIMS Benchmark Survey, directors...

North Carolina Insurers Seek Dwelling Rate Hike

Jan 24 2011 // North Carolina insurers are looking to raise rates from 7 percent to 25 percent, or an average 20.9 percent statewide, for 2011 on dwelling fire and extended coverage policies. If approved the higher rates would affect...

Workplace Deaths Rise in North Carolina; Overall Injury Rate Drops

Jan 19 2011 // There were 48 fatal workplace accidents in North Carolina in 2010, a tally that is up from 34 in the previous year but below the five-year average of 53.2. At the same time, the state’s overall injury and illness...

Florida Home Insurance Rates Rising

Jan 10 2011 // Florida regulators have approved $718 million in rate increases that will affect 4 million policyholders — even though there have been no hurricanes for five years. The insurance industry says the increases are needed...

Calif. Commissioner Asks Blue Shield to Delay Rate Increases

Jan 7 2011 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has called on Blue Shield of California to delay its implementation of a new round of substantial individual health insurance premium increases that would impact tens of...

North Carolina Insurers Seek Rate Hike on Dwelling Fire Policies

Jan 5 2011 // North Carolina insurers are looking to raise rates from 7 percent to 25 percent, or an average 20.9 percent statewide, for 2011 on dwelling fire and extended coverage policies. If approved the higher rates would affect...

Iowa to Allow Broad Public Access to Wellmark Rate Increase Hearing

Jan 4 2011 // Iowa’s Insurance Commissioner Susan Voss announced that she has made arrangements for unprecedented access to a Jan. 6, 2011, hearing that will be held at the Iowa Insurance Division, 330 Maple Street, Des Moines,...

Willis Re: Overcapacity Keeps Renewal Rates in Reinsurance Down

Dec 31 2010 // “Overcapitalization in the reinsurance market continues to gradually push rates downwards with price reductions at the January 1, 2011 reinsurance renewals averaging between 5 percent and 10 percent, according to the...

Idaho Workers’ Comp Insurance Rates To Increase 3.7%

Dec 31 2010 // Idaho workers’ compensation insurance rates will be increasing an average of 3.7 percent in 2011, according to the state Department of Insurance. The average rate increase is based on National Council on Compensation...

2011 Outlook: Too Much Capacity + Stagnant Demand = a Soft Market

Dec 31 2010 // A quick, and as yet incomplete, survey of re/insurance industry leaders indicates that the main concern they will have to deal with in the coming year isn’t climate change, or Solvency II, but the insurance...

Reinsurance Renewal Rates On the Decline, Reports Claim

Dec 30 2010 // Reinsurance rates for 2011 are falling at the same or greater pace than traditional insurers and further softening of the market is to come, according to two industry reports. For the second year in a row, global...