Management Statistics

The stats

As this month's reportage shows, the theme of liability is a wide and varied one, incorporating a mixture of risks.

This month’s Keychoice statistics have measured the combination of public, product and employers’ liability for larger risks. It does not measure liability per capita for self-employed people, such as for plumbers or bricklayers, who would generate average premiums at the lower end of the premium scale for brokers.

Whereas the solicitors’ professional indemnity graph (Insurance Age, September 2011) had one natural peak in October for the simple reason that the renewal season occurs then, the combined liability graph – with its Toblerone-esque shape – is in truth a more curious entity.

Peaks in January, April and June could in theory be ascribed to financial year-ends but thereafter the reasons behind its shape are unclear.

February saw the biggest fall in average premiums of 5.6% on a year-by-year basis. Brokers will have been pleased that April was the only other month – albeit June and July came close to parity – to show any sign of market softening. They will perhaps have been even more pleased that following on instantly from February’s low, the market rebounded to its biggest gain of the year with a 19.2% gap between average premiums in March 2010 and March 2011.

The second half of 2011 will also have provided room for nascent optimism. July aside, each month saw stronger average premiums for what are likely to have been similar if not identical risks each year. However, even this burst of positivity appears to be in danger of being short lived. After strong double digit growth at the start of the third quarter, the increases have tailed away to the point where the year closed with average premiums up only 3.7%. The figure is less than basic inflation in the wider economy and thus it is unlikely brokers will be able to grow their business and highly unlikely for insurers to be covering claims inflation.

Those brokers involved in the market will surely be hoping that the start of 2012 will involve a return to the rate improvements seen last summer, rather than a repeat of the fall in February 2011.

A.M. Best Company top 10 commercial lines financial loss insurers in the UK

Stats archive

Stats - January 2012 | Stats - December 2011 | Stats - November 2011 | Stats - October 2011 | Stats - September 2011 | Stats - August 2011 | Stats - July 2011 | Stats - June 2011 | Stats - May 2011 | Stats - April 2011