76 percent of risk managers surveyed were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the availability of commercial insurance.

77 percent were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the price of cover.

While 92 percent described their relationships with their lead insurers as good or very good, 41 percent said they had changed their lead insurers during the past two years.

Risk managers who use brokers were generally happy with the service received, with 88 percent describing it as good or very good.

65 percent were either very satisfied or satisfied with claims paying

60 percent of the risk managers said they had not been in contact with their reinsurers during the past year, while 40 percent said they had.

Survey results related to expectations regarding insurance prices found that risk managers expect the cost of liability insurance to rise over the coming year with 90 percent expecting employers liability to be higher or much higher, 92 percent for directors and officers, and 89 percent for professional indemnity.

The cost of property, motor and business interruption is expected to be far more stable.

On the subject of self-insurance, 86 percent of risk managers expect to make greater use of self-insurance (such as captives and retentions) in the next five years and no one expects to reduce self-insurance.

As for board interest in insurance, 83 percent said their boards have shown more or much more interest regarding insurance in general.

At the same time, 77 percent of the boards of respondents have shown more or much more interest in D&O insurance, while 65 percent have shown more or much more interest in risk management (excluding insurance).

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, August 18, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.