The revamped Acturis Premium Index, with a revised first quarter 2010 baseline, now also includes a new measure – the Acturis commercial broker index – designed to represent premium movements in a typical broker’s book of commercial business.
This index, weighted across five lines of business (see box on page 32), is fascinating. In essence it shows that since the first quarter of 2010, a typical commercial broker will have found average premium has not increased at all, in fact it has decreased to 98.9% of the original.
Within premium there are two elements – size of risk and rate – so the fall could have been driven by movements in either part. But no matter how it has occurred it makes for a grim outcome. Given commission rates are likely to have been constant at best for brokers, then the pressure of increased regulatory fees and general inflationary costs has had to be met without any natural uptick in business.
of the Acturis Premium Index