California surplus lines insurers wrote $6.03 billion in premiumin 2006, exceeding predictions and reversing a downward trend forprevious years, an industry trade group said.

The Surplus Line Association of California (SLA) said itsanalysis of premium placed in the state last year found 509,302insurance policies written for California insurance consumers.

"These figures are higher than predicted for the surplus linemarket and reverse the trend from the previous year," said TedPierce, executive director of SLA, adding that in 2005 the SLAexperienced a 1 percent decrease in premium volume compared to2004.

The organization said the state's top five surplus line brokersin 2006 in terms of premium volume were:

o Western Risk Specialists

o Swett & Crawford

o Marsh USA

o AmWINS Insurance Brokers

o AON Risk Services

The top five lines of coverage written were:

o General Liability

o Errors & Omissions

o Commercial DIC/Stand Alone Earthquake

o Commercial Property

o Excess Liability

The top five surplus line insurers were:

o Lexington Insurance Company

o American International Specialty Lines

Insurance Company

o Scottsdale Insurance Company

o Landmark American Insurance

Company

o Arch Specialty Insurance Company

The combined Lloyd's syndicates wrote 14 percent of Californiapremiums.

The San Francisco-based association also said it elected CeilNorton as its chair. She is the Branch Manager for Burns &Wilcox Insurance in Fresno, Calif.

John Edack of Arch Specialty Insurance Agency Inc. in SanFrancisco was elected vice chairman.

The SLA is an organization of 1,400 surplus line brokers. Itserves as the official surplus line advisory organization to theCalifornia Department of Insurance.