Flood fears prove costly

Commercial property owners in Connecticut are absorbing some of the biggest insurance hikes in the United States, according to a new study, reflecting both escalated costs to repair damage as a result of inflation, as well as underwriters steeling for more catastrophic losses along the East Coast including New England.

On average, the property analysis firm Trepp calculated about a 23-percent increase in commercial property and casualty insurance premiums last year for the Bridgeport-Stamford corridor, as calculated on a cost-per-square-foot basis. No other Northeast geography made the top 10, with New Orleans having the biggest bump in the nation at 37 percent, followed by Louisville, Kentucky, and Miami.

Trepp analyzes "line-item" insurance premium costs reported by commercial property owners to reach aggregate estimates for any one market. Insurance carriers have been hiking rates across both commercial and personal lines of property and casualty insurance, as the case with health insurers.

Trepp said the higher costs reflect a combination of factors, including natural disasters; changing underwriting guidelines in the context of cyber security among other factors; and investment returns on insurance company assets.

Connecticut got a fresh reminder of the need for adequate property insurance coverage in August, when floods devastated portions of the Housatonic River valley including in hard-hit Oxford and Southbury. It was the second federal disaster declaration for Connecticut this year after flooding and storm damage in mid-January, with standard insurance policies not covering flood damage.

"Factors include rising construction and labor costs, inflation, and higher property values, which have raised the cost to repair and rebuild," Trepp spokesperson Jennifer Spillane said in an email response to a CT Insider query on the study. "Increased risks from natural disasters, particularly storms and flooding, and shifts in property use from hybrid work trends have led insurers to adjust premiums. Higher reinsurance costs and increased claim activity in the region have also contributed to these rising insurance expenses."

Connecticut shoreline properties alone were valued at $675 billion according to the most recent estimates published by the Connecticut Insurance Department.

In Marsh & McLennan's own study of commercial insurance trends released earlier this year, cybersecurity and data privacy was the top risk for the largest number of businesses surveyed. But half of those polled cited natural disasters as an ongoing area of concern in the context of business insurance costs.

The property and casualty insurance market is far more competitive than the health insurance market in Connecticut, with 825 P&C underwriters providing options for coverage in the state under the purview of the Connecticut Insurance Department.

One major carrier and Connecticut employer is girding for more catastrophic payouts in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions -- Travelers, the second-largest commercial carrier in the country after Chubb, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Travelers tacked on an extra $150 million of coverage this summer on a reinsurance contract to push its total to $1 billion, a 17-percent increase. The contract covers single episodes of hurricanes or other perils from Virginia to Maine, which was pounded last winter by a successive storms that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

Some commercial property owners have been pressing for moderation in pricing, Travelers executives reported in July, particularly national accounts. Travelers indicated it chose to walk away from some of that business rather than lock in "terms we weren't willing to accept" in the words of Greg Toczydlowski, president of business insurance lines for Travelers.

"We're going through and looking at the book of business and understanding parts of it where we need to get a better risk return profile," Toczydlowski told analysts in a July conference call.

The Hartford, ranked eighth for commercial insurance premiums by III, likewise reported double-digit growth in pricing for property insurance during its second quarter results released in July.

"Overall, commercial property pricing has begun to moderate, but was strong," said CEO Christopher Swift, speaking in July on a conference call. "I don't think the environment is going to let up, so you should expect us to continue to be disciplined in risk selection and disciplined in pushing for rate."

Includes prior reporting by Ken Dixon and Liese Klein.