US commercial rate growth slows to just under 6% in Q2: WTW

US commercial insurance prices rose by nearly 6% on average in the second quarter of 2022, a continued slowdown from a peak reached in the latter portions of 2020, the  WTW Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey (CLIPS) has shown.

“The price increases for most lines continued to be strong in the second quarter of 2022,” WTW's director of insurance consulting and technology, Yi Jing, said of survey results.

The aggregate commercial rate reading had pointed to annual growth rates above 10% from Q2 through Q4 2020 before beginning to trail off.

Cyber continued to lead amongst lines with major price gains, “although the reported volume is much smaller than other lines.”

Commercial property broke the recent deceleration trend with a higher rate of price increase than one quarter prior, in contrast to all other surveyed lines of business.

“This seems to be consistent with the impact of recent changes in general inflation, particularly with the cost of materials and labour related to property damage repairs,” Jing noted.

Only workers compensation and directors & officers (D&O) saw price declines. Workers’ compensation continued with the slight declines witnessed in prior quarters. D&O reversed into price declines after gains in previous periods.

The CLIPS survey of covers pricing on policies underwritten during a given quarter bearing identical coverage to policies written in the prior year period.

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