Among buyers queried for the survey, 54 percent agree that carriers “took advantage of buyers in the hard insurance market”down from 61 percent in the fall, but still a substantial number.

Sean Donaghey, assistant risk manager for Boston College in Newton, Mass., said he hopes insurers will “stop taking advantage. Theyre trying to get back all the money they lost in the soft market in one or two or three years.” He conceded that insurers are entitled to get their money back after years of major losses, “but I wish they would do it over a more gradual increase. Were hoping the bloodletting stops in the next year or two.”

Mr. Donaghey said that for the first time in 15 years, “weve had to go to the financial vice president and ask for increases in our budgetsIm talking about 60 percent additional money.”

“Its been tough,” he said. “The underwriters are looking for all kinds of information they never asked for before. Price increases havent been as much this year, but theyre still going up.”

One of the toughest renewals, he said, has been in workers' compensation. “Were going through the workers comp renewal nowthe excess compand Ive never seen some of the information theyre looking for. Its amazing,” he said.

Underwriters not only requested the number of employees per building, but also wanted to know “the construction type of the building, the year the building was builtthings they never asked for before,” he said. They also requested “all kinds of financial information, and are getting deeper into the loss information. Things they took for granted in the past, they no longer take for granted. They want to get down to the detail of the losses.”

Mr. Donaghey said the excess workers' comp application process “took me longer than normala couple of weeks. I had to go to new sources here at the university to find the information they were looking for. It must be a horrible line across the industries because every year its worsetheyre projecting another 20-to-30 percent increase over last year, and weve never collected $1 from the excess market.” As far as property goes, he said, the news is better. Rates should be neutral or slightly higher than last year.

Steve Howe, corporate risk manager and director of human resources for T.H. Rogers Lumber Company in Edmond, Okla., said he has had better luck on renewals this year. “We look at them every yearwe are still with the same carriers,” he noted. “Its a time-consuming process on my end, but its been better this year than last year.”

Mr. Howe said the market has loosened up a little, but the company's excellent loss history has helped with renewals. “The carriers have come out with some very good programs that I have not seen in the last couple of years,” he said. “So its softening a little bit. Three years ago our carrier offered us a plain vanilla plan. Now they can see our safety programs kicking in. Our losses are very lowwe have no more than a 21.2 percent loss ratio on all lines.”

Albert Knaak, risk manager for GMR Marketing Inc. in New Berlin, Wis., said the company's renewal increases on commercial auto were about 8 percent, and 5 percent on property. “Our employment practices liability jumped about 35 percent, but we had a number of additional personnel in the field,” he added. “We went from 3,000-to-5,000 total employees, but that is part-time…Its so cut-and-dry, and I feel the exposure isnt there, but its hard to convince underwriters.”

John Rath, director of risk management for the Milwaukee County Department Administration, said underwriter requirements for information were definitely higherespecially for property and fiduciary liability. “For 2004, they were asking for considerably more detail concerning loss runs and square footage,” he noted. “Were completing business interruption worksheets for each location, which is extremely difficult, rather than doing it [on] blanket [terms].” The fiduciary side, he said, is requiring a recap of all claims and lawsuitspast and pending.

On the other hand, he said, “we found our airport liability, our general liability, and our automobile and energy systems policy [renewal] relatively simple. We had switched to a three-year policy with a guaranteed renewalthe renewal is guaranteed, [but] the premium could change.”

He said airport liability premiums decreased slightly, while general liability, auto and public official liability had no increase. Property had about a 10 percent hike, he noted. “Weve had relatively few losses with our airport. Our fiduciary was way off the boardthats because of seven or eight pending lawsuits against the pension fund.”

Timothy Miles, risk administrator for the Central Arkansas Risk Management Association in Little Rock, whose jurisdiction is part of a pool of cities, counties and school districts, said renewals “pretty much stayed the same, which in this market is what were looking for.”

Mr. Miles said he is “optimistic that the market will ease up so that our costs will remain relatively constant. As long as we keep our losses in line, I think well keep our costs pretty stable.” He added that the industry is “relaxing a little. We have some control over keeping our costs down. We have less control over the industry as a whole.”

Marie Kupferschmid, director of risk management for ATC Leasing Company in Kenosha, Wis., said the most difficult renewal was directors and officers insurance for her board members. “Our company is pretty small, but its still a hard market for D&O coverage,” she noted. “Our premiums went up about 15 percent and they cut our limits in halfwere paying more and getting less.”

She added that last year, “I dont believe we saw such a significant jump in premium, although they did increase our deductible.” So, overall, their coverage has been “trimmed down,” she noted. “I dont see our renewals necessarily softening, but maintaining. Were seeing the standard 5 percent [hike] on some coveragesits been competitive with last years pricing.”

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, May 21, 2004. Copyright 2004 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.