Property rates remained flat in May, while workers' compensation fell 1 percent, casualty premiums declined 2 percent and management liability dropped 4 percent.

Small accounts saw prices stay flat, while rates of medium-sized accounts went down 2 percent and large accounts dropped 6 percent.

Richard Kerr, chief executive of Dallas-based MarketScout.com, observed that in the current market, prices could soften, “but at a very slow, measured pace…resulting in the elimination of wildly fluctuating premiums.” He cited the absence of “rogue underwriters”–insurers who would cut rates deeply as the soft cycle begins–as a cause for optimism.

Mr. Kerr said that in the “good old days” when the industry entered a softening market, “there were always seven or eight insurers who would blaze the trail by deeply discounting rates.” These companies, he added, were almost always staffed by a senior “rogue” underwriter who would try to make a name for himself by becoming known as “the hottest hand.”

However, according to Mr. Kerr, “something very strange is happening in the soft market of 2005. There are very few rogue underwriters.” He said that with new requirements for fiscal responsibility and accountability, it just may be possible the rogue underwriter has become extinct. “That would be a positive move for the industry,” he added.