NEW ORLEANS— Burns & Wilcox CEO Alan Kaufman says the wholesale broker is writing more business, and insurance pricing is increasing, but market capacity and the economy are impeding the rate of incline.

“Rates are firming, but not increasing that much,” says Kaufman at the 87th annual meeting of American Association of Managing General Agents here.

Kaufman says pricing is not showing signs of retreat, with increases averaging 5 percent. He says property and professional liability are two lines where increases are higher than other business. Property rates are increasing significantly in Louisiana and Texas. Florida may finally “open some opportunity” if the state's insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., pulls back from the property market.

Casualty is “not going down,” but it is not increasing by much, he adds.

He says rates remain low because of market over-capacity and the U.S. economy is “not booming.” Resolving the political discord in Washington will be necessary before businesses begins to pick-up. When the economy does pick-up, so will the need for insurance, but until then, rates still have a way to go, Kaufman explains.

Rates are averaging 20 percent below what they were in 2005 and 2006, the benchmark he says underwriters need to reach for underwriting profitability. In the meantime, the current gradual increase in rates is on a sustainable trajectory.

Rate increases and the return of traditional business to the wholesale markets were credited for the second highest attendance at the AAMGA annual meeting.

Approximately 1,125 members, associate members and others registered to attend this week's event here, which AAMGA President R.C. Chaffin says underscores the wholesale community's desire to reinforce relationships between carriers and the MGA community as business begins to pick-up.

Chaffin, chairman and CEO of Sea Coast Underwriters Inc. in Coral Gables, Fla., says companies are getting increases in the range of 5 percent to 9 percent and no accounts “are going the other way around.” His own agency saw an uptick in Casualty and professional liability accounts. Losses are catching up with commercial auto writers, resulting in moderate increases, he adds.

AAMGA President-elect Frank Mastowski, and chairman of Montvale, N.J.-based JIMCOR Agencies, says his firm is seeing large increases on commercial and personal lines accounts post-Superstorm Sandy, enough where revenues rose 10 percent over last year. He attributes the increase to the return of traditional risks—especially in catastrophe-prone areas—from the standard markets to the Excess and Surplus lines markets.

While standard writers are following the same pattern of cutting lose accounts that no longer fit their appetite, he says this phase of the market cycle is different from any he has seen in the past. Carriers are not abandoning whole books of business. Instead, they are very selective about what they keep. He believes carriers are doing a better job of data mining, digging deeper into their wealth of information before underwriting accounts and leaving tougher exposures to the non-admitted markets.

However, the rest of the country is not experiencing the same rate of increase, says Mastowski. Rates are rising in Texas and California for example, he says, but not as much as the Northeast.

“Everyone is recognizing the need for rate increases,” says Mastowski. “There is no investment income and carriers are being forced to make a profit from underwriting.”

Special Reports /

Heard at AAMGA: Rates Firming, but Slowly; Risks Returning to E&S

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