Willis Towers Watson reports ‘meaningful’ price hike in commercial auto, modest price drops in other lines

Commercial auto prices were generally up year over year in the third quarter, but there were “modest” prices decreases in other lines including commercial property and surety bonds, Willis Towers Watson plc said in its most recent Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing (CLIPS) survey report, released Monday.

In its quarterly CLIPS report, Willis Towers Watson compared “prices charged on policies written during the third quarter of 2016 to those charged for the same coverage during the equivalent quarter last year.”

For most lines, the percentage change in price decrease was in the “low single digits” noted London-based Willis Towers Watson.

Generally those price changes, in most lines of business, “were fairly consistent with changes reported in the second quarter,” Willis Towers Watson stated. “Three lines (workers compensation, commercial property and surety bonds) indicated modest price decreases, and directors and officers data indicated larger and accelerating price decreases.”

However there was an “outlier” in commercial auto, with “meaningful” price increases.

“Unfavorable loss trends persisted in commercial auto,” stated Alejandra Nolibos, director in Willis Towers Watson’s Americas property and casualty insurance practice.

For the CLIPS report, Willis Towers Watson gets its information once every quarter from participating insurers. It breaks it out by small, middle markets and large accounts and also by line, such as such as directors and officers, errors and omissions, professional liability, employment practices liability and surety.

Willis Towers Watson was formed earlier this year with the merger of commercial brokerage Willis Group Holdings plc and Towers Watson & Co., an Arlington, Va.-based provider of insurance related services such as actuarial valuation, predictive modeling, claims consulting and catastrophe modeling.