Here are the key reasons why this will be the hardest insurance market in a generation:

For the past 16 years, UK businesses have benefited from the longest period of ‘Soft Market’ conditions on record; this side of the market cycle is characterised by low rates, high limits, flexible contracts, and high availability of coverage.

Soft market characteristics

In soft market conditions, insurance companies often try to expand their market share. They enter growth mode, offering cheap rates, attractive policy terms, and, when allowed, discounted coverage. In the most extreme cases, the soft market resembles a bidding war, to offer the cheapest deals. Brokers should have proactively shopped around for their clients but as more businesses moved to new insurance companies offering lower rates, profits for the entire industry began to reduce. On top of that, when focusing on growth, market share and share price, insurers relaxed their previously stringent underwriting attitude, resulting in rising loss ratios. A correction to this unsustainable situation (reduced profits and rising loss ratios) was necessary, forcing the insurance market to harden.

What is a ‘Hard Market’?

In the insurance industry, a hard market is the upswing in a market cycle, when premiums increase and capacity for most types of insurance decreases. This can be caused by a number of factors, including falling investment returns for insurers due to low interest rates, increases in frequency or severity of losses, EU & regulatory intervention deemed to be against the interests of insurers and increased reinsurance costs.

Hard market characteristics

In a hard market, there’s less desire for growth and more of a restriction in the marketplace as insurance companies re-evaluate their books of business, their risk appetites, and how much capacity they want to present in the marketplace. In hard market conditions, underwriters often adhere to stricter standards in an attempt to correct any adverse loss ratios developed during soft market conditions. As a result, insurance rates often go up, the indemnity limits insurers are willing to provide decreases, and the number of players in the market reduce. This makes it harder for brokers to find coverage options, which means the insurers that are offering coverage can increase their rates.

Several factors have caused this rapid hard market? 

• launched in 2016, Solvency II which applies across the whole of the EU, placed a requirement on UK insurers’ to more than double their spare capital requirements. This has led to a number of insurers leave the market whilst others have significantly reduced their underwriting appetite and capacity

• The Ogden discount rate is a calculation used to determine how much money insurance companies should pay as compensation to people who have suffered life-changing injuries so that it will cover all their predicted future losses. When the Minister of Justice changed the Ogden table rate in December 2016, it meant that insurers had to pay out far more on larger personal injury claims. This figure shocked the insurance world, as reserves on catastrophic injury cases had the potential to double or worse.

• The insurance industry has endured persistent high loss ratios since 2013, primarily caused by an increase in frequency of severe property losses. Property rates in the UK were already far too low as we entered 2020 (affecting most commercial insurance policies).  Soft market rating had become completely uneconomic. Even if we ignore the terrible recent events, insurers needed property rates to increase considerably in 2020

• With property accounts already losing money, the last thing UK insurers needed were floods caused by storms Dennis and Ciara, estimated to cost well over £400 million. Climate change is causing insurers to struggle with correctly predicting floods, and they need to build up a pot of money to take care of the next set of bad floods which will inevitably be on their way

• Reinsurance is a key component of an insurers pricing model and rates will rise significantly leaving insurers with no option other than to reflect these increases in their rates and to reduce their market capacity

• When interest rates are high, insurers can get away with a certain amount of underwriting losses as they generate substantial investment income. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case, as the current interest rates are the lowest in the Bank of England near 300-year history. Insurers therefore have no option but to increase rates to balance their books

• Finally, it is estimated that the combination of Covid-19 insurance claims, reduction in business and investment losses will cost the worldwide industry in excess of £200 billion, making it the most expensive insurance event ever. Clearly the current FCA test cases will have a significant bearing on how much the UK insurance industry will have to pay out in Business Interruption losses relating to Covid-19 but this is unlikely to be determined for several months

Holistic View

This leaves us in the midst of rising insurance rates at a time when business risks are seemingly more prevalent than ever. Cyber breaches, climate change, pandemic, trade and professional risks are at the top of mind for most business owners.

Now is prime time for business leaders to take a thoughtful step back and reassess how they view and manage risk within their organisation. Insurers are in the business of risk but given the rapid hardening of premium and terms, businesses with a strong risk management perspective and a track record of low claim activity can avoid the sweeping increases of premiums and terms, likely to affect the majority of UK businesses. 

Taking a holistic view of risk can help identify ways to treat risk beyond just buying insurance. Analytical tools and a focus on total cost of risk can help businesses take a broader approach to managing and financing their overall business risks. Higher excess and/or deductibles are also ways to mitigate the continuing rate increases in the insurance market.

How Can Hamilton Leigh help you?

• Design and introduce a comprehensive and robust risk management programme
• Ensure your risk management strategy, systems & controls are communicated throughout the business to create a strategy of collective responsibility
• Communicate your risk management strategy with your insurers to demonstrate your proactivity
• Agree a risk retention strategy that accurately reflects the business’s risk tolerance appetite
• Investigate alternative risk retention options such as higher excesses and/or deductibles
• Reassess loss prevention practices
• Introduce you to your insurer to develop a strong, supporting business relationship

For further information, please contact Lee Cohen: M: 07980 606886 E: leecohen@hamiltonleigh.com

Throughout this whole period of uncertainty, employers have been required to react and make decisions quickly. Before returning to work, we would encourage businesses to take the time now to consider all options to create a safe working environment as this will be valuable in mitigating any difficulties and potential liability claims further down the line. Managing and overcoming understandable employee and customer concerns as to potential COVID-19 exposure once they are back at work, commuting or visiting places of business, will be far more challenging. To build such confidence, measures may be required which exceed the minimum required by official guidance.

Review the full update and government advice here.

In preparation for reopening your business and asking employees to come back to work, it’s imperative that your company thoughtfully constructs a return to work plan for its employees to keep everyone healthy and safe following the COVID19 pandemic.

A return to work plan is typically created to help reintegrate workers who have been injured or have been on leave. The plan includes details on how the worker will gradually return to work and any job related specifics. Its purpose is to formalise steps for a safe and quick return to work. Download the full guide to explore what your COVID-19 return to work plan should include.

Download the guide here

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Thermal & Optical Bi-spectrum Network Bullet Camera

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Binocular Face Recognition and Temperature Detection Machine

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Outform’s iDISPLAY Thermometer is designed to instill a sense of trust and safety in people across industries as they re-commence everyday activities, and public gatherings post COVID-19. As we continue to find innovative ways to do our part in flattening the curve, Outform’s non-contact infrared thermometers will enable our customers to invite users back in stores, schools, and work, in a costeffective, efficient, and safe way.

Review the full brochure here

We regularly review our remote working business plan to ensure we continue to operate effectively throughout this pandemic. Every member of our broking and claims team has worked tirelessly to ensure our service proposition during lockdown remained seamless and we shall continue to work remotely following advice and official guidelines from The Government.  We are planning the return to our office premises as and when The Government guidance allows us to do so and currently carrying out specific Covid-19 risk assessments and taking all necessary steps to ensure the safe return of our team.

Like all businesses, we are working on a practical framework to consider new ways of operating, complimenting and improving the service proposition we provide to our clients. In the meantime, contact numbers and email addresses remain unchanged, so you don’t have to do anything differently to get in touch. Some phones however may be diverted to mobiles. We continue to facilitate client and new customer meetings using Zoom video conferencing and to ease the strain on our remote telephony capability we ask that you communicate with us by email, wherever possible. Your business is and will always continue to remain our focus.

Please follow us on our LinkedIn: Hamilton Leigh Ltd or on Twitter @HamiltonLeigh which is where we’ll flag relevant updates rather than sending multiple emails. The webpage we will be updating regularly is as follows: www.hamiltonleigh.com

Now the Government has begun lifting lockdown restrictions and business owners are focusing on getting their businesses back up and running, we want to share some helpful advice to support you with your preparation. From safety checks to supply chain disruption and security measures to staffing, getting back to business will be far more than just switching the lights back on.

This document highlights the exposures that directors, officers and senior managers may face as we return to business, in addition to setting out some considerations you should be taking into account as we enter what can only be described as unchartered waters.

Get back to business the right way.

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK many of our clients are implementing contingency plans such as home-working, skeleton staffing, social distancing and cleansing regimes to maintain operations. However, for some organisations this is not possible, and following the latest government advice some workplaces will now temporarily shut down for a period of time. Buildings, whether temporarily closed or permanently unoccupied can be at greater risk from the likes of arson, antisocial behaviour such as vandalism or squatters, theft, and escape of water.

Read the full guidance here