RJ and Makay

Though March saw commercial property & casualty (P&C) rates fall yet again, the average decline of 4% was at least smaller than the 5% drop that occurred in each of the previous four months. Also, several lines of coverage — workers comp, property, business interruption, small commercial, general liability, and automotive — are showing a moderation of rate cuts, MarketScout reports.

“We have finally broken out of the doldrums. Rates are moving,” remarks MarketScout CEO Richard Kerr. “It looks like the soft market from 2005 to 2011 will end with workers compensation and catastrophe exposed property risks leading the way out.”

$309 billion. That's the latest estimate by the government of Japan on the cost of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern part of the country.

If the estimate proves correct, the incident in Japan will be by far the most expensive natural disaster in history. Hurricane Katrina, by comparison, which ravaged the New Orleans area in 2005, cost $125 billion, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

So far, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have not affected property-casualty (P&C) insurance costs for U.S. policyholders, reports industry expert Alfred Tobin, managing director of Aon Risk Solutions. According to Tobin, U.S. insurers have not raised rates or issued rate recissions on policies coming up for renewal April 1, the biggest day for P&C renewals.

“Carriers behaved well, but we have a few exceptions,” relates Tobin, though he's not naming names. Rate quotes issued in the first quarter of this year have mirrored those for all of 2010, with single-digit reductions the norm, he says.