What to Expect With Insurance and Rates in 2024
As I forecast insurance for 2024, I’m trying to have cautious optimism as preliminary trends are showing positive trends. We as agents and customers are ready for the mess to be over and arrive on the other side with a stable insurance market. We’ve been in a hard market for about six years where insurance companies were leaving the state, and the remaining companies passed their financial burden over to customers by way of premium increases. As we prepare for another hard year, keep hope that there is an end in sight.
Home Insurance
Home Insurance has been rough over the last few years; the catastrophic losses from the last decade caught up to premiums drastically increasing many rates. We saw many customers getting 25-70% rate increases in 2023.The good news is 2023 had no major storms and the legislative reform from 2023 is already starting to show positive effects. The last two years have seen a decrease of 10% in Florida’s amount of insurance litigation. We can’t be overly optimistic thinking that we’re completely over this phase of rate increases, but the 2024 outlook is forecasting a premium increase of a much more reasonable increase of 15%.
Auto Insurance
Advancements in technology are the biggest driving force in premium changes for auto insurance. Monitoring devices give accurate information and risk assessments about driving habits that could either increase or decrease a driver’s rate. New trends like ridesharing, electric vehicles, and autonomous vehicles will create new risks and opportunities for insurers, as they will have to adjust their products and pricing to reflect the changing exposure and liability of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. For example, electric vehicles may have lower maintenance and fuel costs, but higher repair and replacement costs due to the complexity and scarcity of parts. Ride-sharing and micro-mobility may offer convenience and affordability, but also raise issues of ownership, responsibility, and coverage. Coupled with inflation, we’re estimating an average increase of about 10% for auto insurance.
Commercial
Commercial insurance is a mixed bag of rate increases and decreases depending on the coverage. Last year, Florida legislation was passed to lower the average workers compensation rate by 15.1%. with increased safety standards and lower claims, business owners are one of the few sectors getting a break with insurance rates.
As with home insurance, commercial property is facing the same struggle with rate increases. Last year, we saw many rates increase on average of 50%. But the worst is over and this year rates are only forecasted to rise between 5%-30%.
A skyrocketing threat that business owners need to be prepared for is Cyber Risk. The last few years have seen a 100% YOY increase in number and severity of threats. Cyber criminals especially like to target small businesses to get access to sensitive customer data. If you don’t already have a cyber insurance policy for your business, now is the time to do so.
Our agency has served the Emerald Coast for more than forty years. And while the rate increases of the last few years have been unprecedented, we have the experience and knowledge to get our customers through this current market. We're all in this together.