MARKET OUTLOOK
Wisconsin Insurance Market Outlook
The year 2019 marked
a changing tide for the casualty insurance market as loss trends continued to deteriorate from prior years . Insurance companies responded with reduced capacity , conservative underwriting practices , and increased rates , causing a broad firming in the primary liability and umbrella / excess liability marketplace . This firming trend continued well into
2020 , with expectations that things would remain unchanged likely into 2021 . The umbrella / excess market during each quarter of 2020 experienced double-digit — and higher — rate increases and reductions in limits . Insurance companies began reducing limits in the umbrella / excess market in 2019 . At that time , it was quite easy to obtain limits up to $ 25 million . Throughout 2020 , capacity to get limits in excess of $ 10 million were extremely hard to obtain , and in some cases , $ 5 million was the maximum . Actuaries are taking a close look at the origin of losses , which has resulted in only a handful of carriers ready to take the lead layer and asking for significant premiums to do so .
The reduced limits in the excess market , however , do not come with a corresponding decrease in rates , causing more insureds to cut back on the limits they purchase . Each umbrella renewal
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