This hard market is killing me - Commercial P&C

[Matthew Labb]

I'm in Oregon, which I hear isn't as hard as California. You guys have so many regulations, our agency has some California policies and they always seem even more difficult than what we're dealing with.

And agreed, that's the hard thing is that it seems there is no light at the end of the tunnel for when we might see the market soften.

I was talking to one of our carrier reps and he was trying to convince me the hard market is a good thing for prospecting business because it gives people more reason to switch carriers... but on many lines of business there's only a handful of carriers you might be able to switch them to if you're lucky, and you may not even get quotes out of all of them.

I've seen this type of talking points along with the "hard market means bigger premiums which means bigger commissions!" chatter... blah blah blah.

Anytime agents are struggling to find markets to take on risks, and seeing tons of non renewals, massive premium hikes, it creates an environment that is hard to navigate.

That's what we're seeing now.

As a network we've never seen so much inbound interest because people are struggling to get appointed with carriers.

We've spent $0.00 on ads and yet we're the 566th fastest growing company in the US.

We offer a lot more than carriers, but a big component to our growth is the ability to solve agency's primary pain point - carrier access.

 

[Al3x Lee]

I've seen this type of talking points along with the "hard market means bigger premiums which means bigger commissions!" chatter... blah blah blah.

Anytime agents are struggling to find markets to take on risks, and seeing tons of non renewals, massive premium hikes, it creates an environment that is hard to navigate.

That's what we're seeing now.

As a network we've never seen so much inbound interest because people are struggling to get appointed with carriers.

We've spent $0.00 on ads and yet we're the 566th fastest growing company in the US.

We offer a lot more than carriers, but a big component to our growth is the ability to solve agency's primary pain point - carrier access.

That's how I see it, and it's a massive pain point, especially when you're trying to grow a book. It's amazing how much of your day can get spent just trying to find markets to retain accounts that are already on the books. The stipulations carriers have are also time consuming on many accounts as well.

 

[Matthew Labb]

That's how I see it, and it's a massive pain point, especially when you're trying to grow a book. It's amazing how much of your day can get spent just trying to find markets to retain accounts that are already on the books. The stipulations carriers have are also time consuming on many accounts as well.

the struggle is real!

In an ideal world we don't write business, or, we don't spend alot of resources and time writing business unless we have three markets for that particular risk. But with the hardening market, that's something of a pipedream.

I wish I could offer you better advice rather than the generic "stick with it, this too shall pass!" but unfortunately I can't.

Be happy you aren't in FL or CA LOL.

What verticals do you spend the most time prospecting, or, which verticals are giving you the most problems right now?

 

[Al3x Lee]

Be happy you aren't in FL or CA LOL.

What verticals do you spend the most time prospecting, or, which verticals are giving you the most problems right now?

I count my lucky stars I'm not in one of those states .. not far off from California though so I do see some policies that trickle down there. I try to avoid them.

I write a good amount of transportation, contractors, BOPs, etc. Have a little bit of agriculture, but I try to avoid it as I find farmers to be a pain in the ass to deal with. They're great at farming, but worse than truck drivers or contractors when it comes to paperwork.

I think the market is hard across the board though, some things worse than others. What kind of business are you writing and what are you seeing?

 

[Matthew Labb]

I count my lucky stars I'm not in one of those states .. not far off from California though so I do see some policies that trickle down there. I try to avoid them.

I write a good amount of transportation, contractors, BOPs, etc. Have a little bit of agriculture, but I try to avoid it as I find farmers to be a pain in the ass to deal with. They're great at farming, but worse than truck drivers or contractors when it comes to paperwork.

I think the market is hard across the board though, some things worse than others. What kind of business are you writing and what are you seeing?

I don't write insurance anymore, I work in business development for a P&C network. Think we've already pointed this out in the thread, but it seems like commercial auto is really hard right now!!

There's an argument to be made that the cyber liability is historically hard right now as well.

Rising interest rates have increased the cost of doing business across the board, carriers included. The cheap money is gone for now - insurance companies like anyone else were having cheap money thrown at them for years and that is no longer the case. This obviously affects profitability.

This too shall pass... hopefully sooner than later!

 

[myfakename]

I just found out that Arrowhead is shutting down their core commercial department.

We may not have hit bottom yet.

Off topic:

Do you like Arrowhead in general? Im not in CA, but am working to get appointed to one of their specialty programs.

 

[Markthebroker]

Off topic:

Do you like Arrowhead in general? Im not in CA, but am working to get appointed to one of their specialty programs.

Well, I did like the pricing and underwriting flexibility on their core commercial and earthquake, but they shut both of those down. They can sometimes be super competitive on auto repair and body shops, but I try to avoid them for a number of underwriting and coverage reasons. My office writes a lot of competitive wc with them, but I don't personally as I have my favorite wc markets.

I hope that helps. Ymmv.