Report: E&S insurance market demonstrates ongoing strength
Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association President and CEO Brady Kelly dissects fresh E&S market research.
Surplus lines insurers in 2023 reported another year of improved underwriting and operating results, with most performance metrics outpacing the broader P&C industry, according to the annual wholesale insurance market report card compiled by AM Best and the WSIA Education Foundation.
The report’s authors say this is an indication of just how essential wholesale insurance options have become.
“The wholesale and specialty channel is there to provide solutions when the standard market either cannot or will not take on the risk,” Brady Kelly, president and CEO of the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association (WSIA) says on this week’s episode of Insurance Speak. Kelly sat down for an interview in the run up to his organization’s 2024 Annual Marketplace, an event in which thousands of insurance professionals converge in San Diego to fortify business relationships and forge new ones.
Here are some additional takeaways from the 2024 Market Segment Report on U.S. Surplus Lines produced by AM Best and the WSIA Education Foundation:
- Growth of 16.8% in surplus lines direct premium written in 2023, a new record of $115.1 billion (up from $98.5 billion in 2022).
- No financial impairments in the surplus lines segment, in contrast to 11 admitted property/casualty company impairments in 2023. Since 2003, AM Best has reported just one surplus lines company impairment, in contrast to the admitted property/casualty industry’s 302.
- Domestic professional surplus lines insurers continue to maintain a higher proportion of secure ratings than the overall property/casualty industry. Through midyear 2024, 100% of surplus lines companies maintained secure AM Best ratings compared to 96% for the total property/casualty industry, with surplus lines carriers having much higher proportions in the Exceptional, Superior and Excellent rating categories.
- Surplus lines insurers’ market share has more than tripled since the start of the century, from 3.6% of total property/casualty direct premiums written in 2000 to 11.9% at the end of 2023. During that same period, the surplus lines market’s share of commercial lines direct written premium has also more than tripled, from 7.1% to 23.7%.
Listen to our our full conversation with Brady Kelly above or subscribe to Insurance Speak on Spotify, Apple Music or Libsyn.
Each September, PropertyCasualty360 takes a deep dive into the wholesale, excess and surplus lines insurance market. Follow this link to find all of the related coverage in the 2024 Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Market Update.
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