Premium increases slowed across the board in Q4 2023 according to The Council’s recently released quarterly survey. The average premium increase across all account sizes was 7.0%, down from 8.1% in the previous quarter. Nevertheless, this was still the 25th quarter of consecutive increases.
Almost all lines of business recorded smaller increases than in the previous quarter, often lower by a percentage point or more. Cyber premiums increased by just 0.7%, and D&O was even lower, at 0.1%.
Commercial property premiums rose by 11.8%, down noticeably from 17.1% in Q3 2023, but still the highest increase of all lines. All the same factors as in previous quarters were still at play: issues with reinsurance affordability and availability, climate change-driven natural catastrophe losses, and inflation. Resulting carrier caution at deploying underwriting capacity for the line made commercial property the “main challenge” for many respondents when it came to placement.
Market conditions continued to wear down broker clients. Respondents said on average 62% of their clients felt some level of rate fatigue in Q4. This was lower than last quarter’s average of 70%, possibly due to the lower increases. On the other hand, respondents reported that, on average, 55% of their clients felt burdened by carrier requests for information, up from 45% last quarter. Likewise, 45% of clients told their brokers they had some level of mistrust for the industry, also higher than last quarter’s 42%.
Enhancing the customer experience surged to the forefront as a top priority for brokers going into 2024, with more than half of respondents (52%) naming it as one of their top-three priorities. Current market conditions were a clear motivator—several respondents commented that the “current rate environment” meant that enhancing the customer experience was more crucial than ever for client retention. They hoped that leveraging AI would allow them to streamline customer interactions and improve client and employee access to data, with the goal of serving clients “when, how, and where they desire.”