The U.S. personal auto insurance industry saw a significant turnaround in 2024, achieving its best underwriting result since the pandemic began. In fact, with a net combined ratio of 95.3, personal auto insurance has outperformed the broader property and casualty insurance industry in terms of underwriting profitability for 10 out of the last 20 years. While the overall P/C industry outpaced personal auto in premium growth from 2018 to 2022, personal auto saw a strong rebound in 2023 and 2024, with double-digit premium growth rates of 14.4 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively.
Florida’s legislative reforms to address claim fraud and legal system abuse are stabilizing the state’s property/casualty insurance market. Claims-related litigation has significantly declined over the past two years, and premium averages are nearly flat, with several insurers requesting rate decreases from the state’s insurance regulator.
Even as California moves to address regulatory obstacles to fair, actuarially sound insurance underwriting and pricing, the state’s risk profile continues to evolve in ways that impede progress.
Record-breaking distracted driving has created a great deal of alarm on the roadways, with more frequent and dangerous crashes – many of which are caused by cell phone use – becoming part of the norm in the U.S. While the coronavirus pandemic upended traffic patterns, these trends have continued long past the height of the health crisis and pose a significant risk to both the wellbeing of drivers and the viability of personal auto lines. Progress is needed, and telematics may be a necessary facet in improving the safety of roadways, as well as helping lower premiums for motorists.
Wildfire risk is strongly conditioned by geographic considerations that vary widely by state and even within states. Temperature, humidity, wind, and topography vary too widely for a single “one size fits all” mitigation approach.
Severe convective storms are among the most common, most damaging natural catastrophes in the United States. The result of warm, moist air rising from the earth, they manifest in various ways, depending on atmospheric conditions—from drenching thunderstorms with lightning, to tornadoes, hail, or destructive straight-line winds. Recent years have seen an increase in organized lines of thunderstorms with widespread damaging winds, known as derechos. As of late September 2023, U.S.
The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene across a 500-mile swath of the U.S. Southeast, including Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Tennessee, is just the latest example in recent years of the growing vulnerability of inland areas to flooding from both tropical storms and severe convective storms. These events also highlight the scale of the flood-protection gap in non-coastal areas.