As losses from the pandemic continue to mount, the already hard market has rapidly grown even harder, according to Marsh’s latest Global Insurance Market Index. Global commercial insurance prices increased 20% in the third quarter of 2020, marking the largest surge since the index was first published in 2012 and the twelfth consecutive quarter of price increases. Property insurance pricing rose 21%, while financial and professional lines were up an average of 40%, and casualty pricing was up 6%. Composite pricing increased in all regions for the eighth consecutive quarter.
Some of the sharpest increases were for public company directors and officers coverage, as pricing rose more than 100% in the U.K. and Australia and nearly 60% in the United States, where nine out of 10 public company clients saw an increase. “For many clients, these conditions are occurring at a time when they can least withstand them, and are leading many companies to rethink their insurance buying patterns, including increasing retentions, reducing limits, and modifying policy terms and conditions,” said Lucy Clarke, president of Marsh JLT Specialty and Marsh Global Placement.