Broker and carrier representatives have slightly different views of conditions in the overall employment practices liability market, but all agree that unchanged prices and enhanced service offerings are possible for individual accounts.

"The economy isn't responsible for everything going on the EPLI market," noted Richard Robin, chief executive officer of NAS Insurance, a managing general underwriter and excess and surplus lines broker in Encino, Calif. "We've been in a soft EPLI market for several years, and there is more supply than demand. So there's downward pressure on pricing."

While broker surveys generally report flattening in property-casualty lines outside of property-catastrophe, Mr. Robin–whose firm places risks at the smaller end of the EPLI market spectrum–said the only flattening he sees in EPLI has occurred "because prices are dropping and then stopping at the minimum premium level."