Did you know that PIA’s company council, The PIA Partnership, has conducted nationwide research about the insurance buying preferences of small business owners?
The research is encouraging because it found that small business owners strongly prefer independent insurance agents as they make choices in today’s online world.
However, the results also serve as a wake-up call that agents must take steps to continue to demonstrate their value and also be more engaged online.
PIA and the companies belonging to The PIA Partnership have created a public website that helps agents understand PIA’s findings.
PIA members also have access to a private website containing a series of strategies and tools to help them stay ahead of online competition in commercial lines.
To access the newest PIA Partnership project, Small Business Insurance & The Internet — The Voice of the Commercial Lines Customer.
If you are not a PIA member and want to access all of the tools available through this program, contact us for a membership application or visit us online at www.pianational.org/header-utility-items/join/Join-PIA
N. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314-2353 www.pianet.com | membership@pianet.org | (703) 836-9340
Executive Stress:
More Stressed in 2025 than 2024 | 7
Sentry Insurance hired Wakefield Research to look into insurance executive stress.
PIA Western Alliance States & Federal Financial Dependence | 9
President Donald Trump and DOGE head, Elon Musk are making huge cuts in federal agency funding and are also laying off thousands of federal employees.
Flood Insurance and the NFIP: A Senate Bill Wants an Extension into 2026 | 10
Louisiana Senators, and Republicans, Sen. Bill Cassidy and Sen. John Kennedy have introduced a bill in the senate to extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to December 31, 2026.
AM Best 2024 Downgrades & Upgrades | 11
AM Best released a report on insurance company downgrades and upgrades.
Just for Fun — A Really Dumb Criminal and a Not-so-Dumb 4-year Old | 12
A 25-year old man in Pennsylvania called his insurance company and said his car was in a crash and he wanted to file a claim.
Allstate Survey:
Worries about Tax Return Scams | 14
Allstate Property Protection just released the results of an interesting survey.
Is this a Surprise? Women Make up the Majority of the Insurance Workforce | 16
The Triple I released some not-surprising information last week. Women — the group says — make up the majority in the insurance industry workforce.
Annual P&C Direct Premiums Hit $1 Trillion | 17
S&P Global Market Intelligence has crunched the numbers and found the 2024 end of year
figures for annual direct written premiums hitting $1 trillion for the first time.
Social Media, the Insurance Industry & Claims | 26
The insurance industry finds social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to be fertile ground for finding reasons to dispute, or even reject, a claim.
Trump’s Tariffs and Insurance: A Big Concern | 27
Financial and insurance experts the world over say the tariffs announced by President Trump could end up pushing up costs for consumers and for insurers.
National Association of Insurance Commissioner List the Top P&C Insurers | 29
As it does every year about this time, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) lists its analysis of how the nation’s property and casualty insurers are doing.
Upcoming Events Calendar 2024 | 20
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EXECUTIVE STRESS
More Stressed in 2025 than 2024
Sentry Insurance hired Wakefield Research to look into insurance executive stress. It turns out that 67% of insurance executives are more stressed this year than they were last year. David Dickenson is Sentry’s customer research director. He said 74% of the executives identified inadequate insurance coverages as a prime driver of that stress.
“Our research highlighted a recurring theme: managing risk is a big part of managing stress,” Dickenson said. “Executives are experiencing worsening external challenges and putting strategies in place to protect the future of their businesses. This year, many are increasing safety measures, reassessing their insurance, and making adjustments to navigate external pressures.”
Results of the Survey:
• 67% of the execs are more stressed in 2025 than in 2024
• However, 47% expect their businesses to thrive in 2025
• 47% worry about economic uncertainty
• 44% are concerned about supply chain challenges
• 41% worry about the cost of employee healthcare
• 38% lose sleep over labor shortages
• 36% find inflation a huge concern
Insurance Needs:
• 44% are increasing coverage as their business expands
• 43% are lowering risk by adding more coverage
• 38% say there are areas in their business that are not covered but should be covered
• 36% say business changes require dropping some coverages
• 35% are experiencing new types of weather experiences
• 31% say the current cost of coverage is too high
One of the biggest worries — say 72% of the executives — is more litigation and the multimillion dollar verdicts impacting insurance.
“In 2025, many leaders appear to be basing their approach to business insurance on their outlooks for their respective businesses,” Sentry’s report said. “The majority of leaders (55%) who expect their companies to thrive this year are planning to boost their insurance coverage for additional protection.”
Source: Insurance Journal
FEDERAL FINANCIAL DEPENDENCE
President Donald Trump and DOGE head, Elon Musk are making huge cuts in federal agency funding and are also laying off thousands of federal employees. At this point no one knows how these funding cuts and layoffs will end up but most believe federal dollars flowing to states will be impacted.
The consumer website, WalletHub did research and looked at states receiving more money from the federal government than others. Company analyst, Chip Lupo said to come to its conclusions, WalletHub looked at all 50 states with three metrics in mind.
1. The return on taxes paid to the federal government
2. The number of federal jobs in the state
3. Federal funding’s percentage of the state’s revenue
“Regardless of whether the distribution of federal funds is fair or not, living in one of the most federally dependent states can be beneficial for residents,” Lupo said. “For every dollar residents of the top states pay in taxes, they get several dollars back in federal funding, which often leads to higher-quality infrastructure, education, public health and more.”
10 STATES MOST RELIANT ON FEDERAL FUNDS — ALASKA, NEW MEXICO & ARIZONA AMONG THEM
1. ALASKA
Total score: 87.04
Resident dependency score: 6
State government dependency score: 2
2. KENTUCKY
Total score: 82.28
Resident dependency score: 4
State government dependency score: 7
3. WEST VIRGINIA
Total score: 81.06
Resident dependency score: 2
State government dependency score: 8
4. MISSISSIPPI
Total score: 71.49
Resident dependency score: 8
State government dependency score: 9
5. SOUTH CAROLINA
Total score: 70.08
Resident dependency score: 5
State government dependency score: 21
6. NEW MEXICO
Total score: 66.77
Resident dependency score: 1
State government dependency score: 34
7. LOUSIANA
Total score: 63.41
Resident dependency score: 23
State government dependency score: 1
8. ARIZONA
Total score: 63.39
Resident dependency score: 21
State government dependency score: 3
9. INDIANA
Total score: 61.80
Resident dependency score: 9
State government dependency score: 17
10. ALABAMA
Total score: 61.04
Resident dependency score: 12
State government dependency score: 12
WHERE DO NEBRASKA & IOWA RANK?
34. NEBRASKA
Total score: 35.53
Resident dependency score: 41
State government dependency score: 24
41. IOWA
Total score: 28.95
Resident dependency score: 34
State government dependency score: 37
The amount of federal contracts received per $ in federal paid taxes has the state of Virginia as the highest with California close behind. The lowest amount belongs to Delaware.
The number of grants received per $ of federal taxes paid has California with the most grants. The lowest number is found in Wyoming.
The amount of other federal assistance received per $ in federal taxes paid again has California ranked at the top with Wyoming as the lowest.
The gross domestic product per capita ranks New York at the top followed by Massachusetts. Mississippi has the lowest domestic product per capita.
Source: WalletHub
FLOOD INSURANCE AND THE NFIP
A Senate Bill Wants an Extension into 2026
Louisiana Senators, and Republicans, Sen. Bill Cassidy and Sen. John Kennedy have introduced a bill in the senate to extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to December 31, 2026.
If passed, it will be the first long-term extension of the NFIP in over a decade. In the last 10 years, the NFIP has seen 32 short-term extensions. Cassidy says the short-term extensions are crippling the ability of the NFIP to protect its 4.7 million policyholders.
“The purpose of an insurance program is to provide certainty. Renewing every two months is not that,” Cassidy said. We need to make flood insurance affordable again — and I will keep working to do that.”
Cassidy and Kennedy have been very critical of the NFIP’s Risk Rating 2.0 implementation a couple of years ago. They say it has caused unfair rate hikes in some cases.
Source: Insurance Business America and Louisiana News
AM BEST 2024 DOWNGRADES & UPGRADES
AM Best released a report on insurance company downgrades and upgrades. In 2024 downgrades dropped to 43 from 55 in 2023. The ratings company says, surprisingly, the drop in downgrades comes in spite of increasing challenges in personal lines.
The report is titled, US Property/Casualty: Rating Upgrades Up, Downgrades Down in 2024 and it says insurance firms struggled most of last year with inflation and the rising cost of reinsurance. The downgrades — however — were from a lot of property exposure to catastrophe risks, more losses in secondary buildings and property, and higher reinsurance costs, and the ability to retain reinsurance.
Most of the 42 upgrades — up from 35 in 2023 — were in commercial lines. That segment saw 34 upgrades and just 12 downgrades. In 2023 those numbers were 21 upgrades and downgrades totaling 15.
Personal lines insurers continue to be hard hit with 25.6% of them having negative outlooks at the end of 2024. That’s a significant rise from 2023’s number of 17.9%. Upgrades were largely given for operating performance. On that subject, 23.8% got a positive hike because of merging with higher-rated firms.
Downgrades — 34.9% — came from deteriorating balance sheets.
Source: Reinsurance News
JUST FOR FUN A REALLY DUMB CRIMINAL AND
A NOT-SO-DUMB 4-YEAR OLD it unusual, and what piqued the interest of his insurance company, is the call coming just eight minutes after he purchased the policy.
A 25-year old man in Pennsylvania called his insurance company and said his car was in a crash and he wanted to file a claim. What makes
401(k) PLAN?
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The guy claimed his vehicle was hit on a freeway, had significant damage and the driver that hit him didn’t stop. Police were quickly able to determine that the man’s car had been parked at a gas station in the area for several weeks.
Oh, and he also told the insurance company the “accident” left him with a headache. It turns out the headache is now a much different kind.
Then there’s the 4-year old boy who called the police and said “mom is being bad” and hung up. Worried police were dispatched to the boy’s home in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin expecting the worst.
The worst turned out to be an angry boy whose mother ate his ice cream. The boy thought his mother should go to jail for the theft. The police report said once the two officers arrived on the scene, the boy changed his mind and “he no longer wanted her to go to jail and just wanted some ice cream.”
At least he knew who to call if an emergency arises. No word as to whether the boy got some ice cream or not.
Sources: Business Insurance and ABC News
ALLSTATE SURVEY WORRIES ABOUT TAX RETURN SCAMS
Allstate Property Protection just released the results of an interesting survey. It seems that 64% of us worry that a scammer of some sort will steal personal information like a Social Security number and file a tax return under that number and steal a potential refund.
Company spokeswoman, Caroline Slane said while this might sound far-fetched, the reality is that 40% of her company’s ID restoration cases were reported during tax season.
“Tax season is prime time for identity theft, with refunds on the line that are often worth thousands,” Slane said. “We help people take control before fraud happens and get their life back on track when it does.”
RESULTS OF THE SURVEY:
• 20% of those surveyed are more worried about tax-related ID theft this year than in the past
• 44% say that concern is just as high as it has been in the past
WHAT’S FUELING THE CONCERN?
• 43% say news about rising tax fraud has them concerned
• 42% worry about IRS staff shortages and delays
• 42% worry about fraud powered by AI
And when it comes to fraud verses other financial setbacks, Allstate’s survey found:
• 59% would rather lose their wallet with all their credit cards than be a victim of fraud
• 58% would rather have their phone hacked
• 58% would rather see their credit score drop 100 points at once
• 54% would rather unexpectedly lose their job
• 52% would rather have their bank account drained
Source: PropertyCasualty360.com
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IS THIS A SURPRISE?
Women Make up the Majority of the Insurance Workforce
The Triple I released some not-surprising information last week. Women — the group says — make up the majority in the insurance industry workforce. Since 2012, women held almost 60% of the industry’s three million jobs.
McKinsey agrees with the Triple-I and says insurance is in front of banking, asset management and other financial industries in the employment of women. Last year, women held 59% of insurance jobs. In 2024, the number of female underwriters rose 5% to 61.9% from 56.9%.
Unfortunately, McKinsey’s data shows a high percentage of jobs held by women at the entry
level. Most are call centers where 66% of those positions are held by women. Black women are over 7% of the entry-level workforce.
When it comes to higher-up positions, women hold just 22% of C-Suite level jobs. Just two Fortune 500 insurance companies — Progressive and TIAA — have women in the top post. Women — however — do better at the top than their male counterparts. A study from the Journal of Risk and Insurance says female leaders tend to have lower insurer insolvency propensity, a higher z-score and a lower standard deviation of return on assets.
Source: PropertyCasualty360.com
Annual P&C Direct Premiums Hit $1 Trillion
S&P Global Market Intelligence has crunched the numbers and found the 2024 end of year figures for annual direct written premiums hitting $1 trillion for the first time. The total is $1.05 trillion and it’s up 8% from the 2023 end of year figure.
Commercial business lines saw growth of 4% from 2023 to 2024 and ended the year at $502.35 billion. Three commercial property lines — allied lines, fire and commercial multiperil and non-liability — had a 2024 end of year total of $103.97 billion.
The combination of product liability, medical professional liability, commercial multi-peril
liability and “other” liability saw $162.7 billion in direct written premiums in 2024.
Commercial auto direct written premiums rose 10.2% to $70.94 billion while workers’ compensation direct written premiums fell 5.3% to $55.44 billion. Accident and health lines were close to flat at $8.63 billion.
That compares to $8.46 billion in 2023.
Personal lines direct written premiums for homeowners, farm owners and private auto saw a total of $534.92 billion. That compares to $477.04 billion in 2023.
Source: Business Insurance
Events Calendar 2025
May 6, 2025 CISR: Other Personal Lines Solutions
May 6, 2025 Certificates, Contractors, and You: Fights, Coverage Issues, Best Practices
May 6, 2025 Ethics in Insurance - Protecting the Client and the Agency
May 8, 2025 The Fine Print: Understanding the Contractual Obligations of Your Insured
May 13, 2025 Big Rig, Big Risk: Mastering Trucking Accounts
May 13, 2025 Liar!: An Agent's Role in Identifying & Handling Fraud
May 15, 2025 Just Use Mine: Home, Vehicle and Other Sharing Exposures Insurance Doesn’t Like
May 21, 2025 Reasons Personal Lines are Broken (and What to Do About It)
May 22, 2025 Homeowners Endorsements Insureds Don't Want (But Do Need) NE/IA
May 22, 2025 An Hour with Nicole: Personal Lines: Read the %^&* Form!
May 29-30, 2025 Ruble Graduate Seminar
June 4-5, 2025 CIC: Commercial Property Institute
June 4-5, 2025 CIC: Commercial Property Institute
June 10, 2025 CISR: Elements of Risk Management
June 10, 2025 Definition of Insanity: Common Home and Auto Exposures We Know Are There & Do Nothing About
June 10, 2025 Stinkin Rich, Insurance Poor: P&C Coverage Challenges for High-Net-Worth Individuals
June 12, 2025 Eroding: The Personal Lines Implosion and What Happens Next
June 12, 2025 CGL Endorsements That Will Break Your Policy
June 17, 2025 Why Inadequate EPLI Will Close Your Business (and What to Do About It)
June 17, 2025 An Hour with Cathy: Understanding (Finally!) How Claims Made Policies Work
June 19, 2025 Commercial Property: Claims, Coverages, Consequences
June 24, 2025 Social Security and Medicare: Your Questions Answered
June 25, 2025 An Hour with Dave: Rental Cars: Issues, Answers, Horror Stories NE/IA
June 26, 2025 Name That Endorsement: Business Auto and Commercial Property Edition
June 26, 2025 Ethics, Diligence, Success: What Agencies Need to Know NE/IA
July 22-23, 2025 CIC: Personal Lines Institute
July 8, 2025 CISR: Commercial Casualty 2
July 16, 2025 CISR: Insuring Commercial Property
August 5-6, 2025 CIC Life & Health Institute
August 25, 2025 CISR: William T. Hold Seminar
August 28, 2025 CPIA: Loss Control for All Agencies
September 3, 2025 CPIA 1: Position for Success
September 9, 2025 CISR: Agency Operations
September 11-12, 2025 CIC: Commercial Property Institute
September 11-12, 2025 CIC: Commercial Property Institute
October 7, 2025 CISR: Life & Health Essentials
October 9, 2025 CPIA 2: Implement for Success
Webinar: 8 - 11 AM
States
- 4:15 PM
Webinar: 8:30 - 4:15 PM
States Live Webinar: 8:30 - 4:15 PM
October 21-22, 2025 CIC: Commercial Multiline Institute All States Omaha, NE
October 21-22, 2025 CIC: Commercial Multiline Institute
8 - 5 PM
November 4, 2025 CPIA 3: Sustain Success
November
SOCIAL MEDIA, THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY & CLAIMS
The insurance industry finds social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to be fertile ground for finding reasons to dispute, or even reject, a claim. That effort has ended up with an average of $9,800 savings per claim.
Or so says The Texas Law Dog. It’s an injury law firm.
Texas Law Dog looked at 57 insurance companies, and over 450 court documents, and found 68% of those firms have a dedicated social claims review unit. When it comes to auto and health risk assessments, those firms now use AI-based digital behavior scoring.
Most of the content flags came from Instagram. That outlet had 25% of them, Facebook saw 18% and TikTok sat at 13%.
Source: Business Insurance
TRUMP’S TARIFFS AND INSURANCE A BIG CONCERN
Financial and insurance experts the world over say the tariffs announced by President Trump could end up pushing up costs for consumers and for insurers. To begin, look for higher costs for auto parts imported from other countries. The supply chain will also likely be impacted which also drives up costs.
YOU’VE HEARD OF TARIFFS — HERE ARE THE HIGHEST RATES
• Vietnam — 46%
• China — 34%
• Taiwan — 32%
• The European Union — 20%
Canada and Mexico will also face high tariffs averaging 25%.
Dr. Robert Hartwig is an insurance guru who — at one time — headed up the Triple-I and was the go-to person when media had insurance questions. Hartwig is now a professor of finance and director of the Center for Risk and Uncertainty Management at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.
“The tariffs are more sweeping than I would have anticipated,” he said and noted the tariffs will seriously impact the cost of autos and could end up adding over $11 billion to auto insurance premiums.
“It would be billions more additional dollars in commercial auto,” he said.
So far, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) has not issued a yay or nay on the tariffs but it did agree with Dr. Hartwig that the tariffs could drive up the cost of new vehicles. The APCIA also pointed out that 60% of auto replacement parts used in the U.S. come from Canada, China or Mexico.
Alex Bertolotti of PricewaterhouseCoopers in London says insurance costs may rise due to import delays.
“Anything that extends the time taken to undertake a repair increases the expense of an insurance claim,” he said. “And imposing tariffs typically leads to supply chain pressures as it takes longer to import goods due to the time taken to administer or implement the tariff.”
He also pointed out that the supply chain disruptions may drive up the cost of business interruption claims.
Last week, AM Best director Ann Modica said the tariffs could put a lot of uncertainty in underwriting and insurance company investing.
Sources: Business Insurance and Insurance Business America
Richard Kerr is the former MarketScout CEO and now the CEO of Novatae Risk Group who purchased MarketScout a couple of years ago. He said umbrella, excess liability and commercial auto had the biggest increases. They averaged 6.7%.
Average Increases Across Most Insurance Lines
• Umbrella/excess liability averaged 6.7%
• Commercial auto is up 6.7%
• Commercial property rose 3.6% on average
• Business owner’s policies went up an average of 3%
• General liability’s average was 2.3%
• Cyber premiums jumped 1.7%
• Inland marine is up 1.67%
• Professional liability rose an average of 1.3%
• Employment practices liability is up 1.3%
• Fiduciary insurance averaged 1.3%
• Surety bonds rose 1.3%
• D&O jumped a small percentage at 1%
• Workers’ compensation stayed even at 0% change
Account Size
Small accounts up to $25,000 — 4.7% increase
Medium accounts from $25,001 to $250,000 — 3.7% jump
Large accounts from $250,001 to $1 million — rose 3%
Jumbo accounts over $1 million — up 2.3% on average
Industry Sectors
• Transportation — rose 5%
• Habitational insurance — up 4.7%
• Manufacturing — increased 3%
• Service premiums — rose 3%
• Contracting — up 2.7%
• Energy — averaged 2.3%
Personal lines averaged increases of 4.9% up from 4% in the 4th quarter of 2024. Homeowners premiums led the way with policies for homes of $1 million or more going up 7.3%. Homes under $1 million saw a 4% jump.
Kerr said the California wildfires added to the increases as did the coming hurricane season.
Source: Insurance Business America, Reinsurance News and Insurance Journal
COMMISSIONER LIST THE TOP P&C INSURERS
Each year, the NAIC reports on property and casualty insurers, highlighting top writers and market share leaders.
Looking at the results sent in by 98% of the insurers reporting to the NAIC, the commissioners found the P&C industry posted close to $1.06 trillion in direct written premium last year.
At 51%, the top-10 insurers hold a little over half of the total market share. The NAIC report also points out the largest line of insurance continues to be personal auto.
Total written premium for that line in 2024 was $344.11 billion. It’s about 35% of the total market.
