“Insurers have bounced back from the worst first quarter on record, but their results are still pretty grim,” says Dave Bradford, Advisen executive vice president and editor-in-chief of the survey. “Carriers are posting underwriting losses, but in this recession, they have found it nearly impossible to push through rate increases except in a few especially distressed areas.”

Property insurance policies renewed in the third quarter with essentially no change in average premium. Directors and officers liability (D&O) policies also renewed with no change in average premium, though the D&O market remains divided between the financial institution segment, which was pummeled by the subprime mortgage market meltdown and has seen premiums rise, and the rest of the market, which still is seeing premiums drift lower. The average general liability premium fell 3.7 percent and the average workers’ compensation premium was down 4.5 percent. Contributing to lower general liability and workers compensation average premiums were declining sales and payrolls, which are used to calculate premiums.

“It’s still a buyer’s market, and it looks as if it may stay that way for a while,” says Daniel H. Kugler, ARM, CEBS, CPCU, AIC, ACI, member of RIMS board of directors and assistant treasurer, risk management, at Snap-on, Inc. “Under normal circumstances, premiums should be rising by now. But many companies are buying less insurance, and underwriters feel pressured to keep prices low to hold on to the remaining premium dollars.”

About The RIMS Benchmark Survey^TM

RIMS Benchmark Survey™ is produced by Advisen, Ltd., which collects and analyzes the data and provides the technology infrastructure for the survey’s online services. Risk managers and buyers of insurance either contribute directly to RIMS Benchmark Survey™ or by using our “data participation letter” to authorize their broker to provide the client’s program details. The letter is available at www.RIMS.org/brokerform or by calling 800-655-6590. Risk management professionals can also contribute by e-mailing current and prior year policy schedules to Benchmark@RIMS.org or by faxing to 212-655-7453.

Risk managers who contribute data to the survey can benchmark the structure of their commercial insurance programs, retained loss costs, exposure demographics and Total Cost of Risk (TCOR) against a highly relevant group of peer companies. Additionally, survey respondents can use software personalized and configured for their needs to view detailed schedules of insurance, programs for current and past years and full-color program tower charts. Both benchmark charts and program charts can be downloaded into any presentation for senior management. The results of the RIMS Benchmark Surveyâ„¢ are available online or in an annually-published book. Visit www.RIMS.org/benchmark for details.