With plenty of capital still in the pipelines, no industrywide price increase is expected from Japan’s Tohoku earthquake, and any talk about a hard market is being greeted with skepticism, according to a financial analyst.

The California Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Board’s Actuarial Committee said its analysis continues to show “significant pure premium rate inadequacy,” which could lead to a rate increase request up to 12 percentage points higher than the 27.7 percent request made for Jan. 1.

Following months of rates stuck firmly in a soft market mud, MarketScout reports the overall composite rate for U.S. property and casualty commercial insurance policies measured minus-4 percent in March after four consecutive months of minus-5 percent.

Following months of rates stuck firmly in a soft market mud, MarketScout reports the overall composite rate for U.S. property and casualty commercial insurance policies measured minus-4 percent in March after four consecutive months of minus-5 percent.

Storm losses in the United States over the past month are expected to exceed $100 million, according to a report issued by Aon Benfield.

Independent agents continue to lose personal lines market share to direct writers, and combating that means conveying to customers the unique abilities producers bring to the table, says the chairman of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.

XL Group says pretax losses from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami will be between $190 million and $290 million.

In the insurance industry, the two most common customer acquisition approaches both have unique challenges.