Texas Surplus Lines Premiums Hit $836.1M in July
SLTX recorded $836.1M in Texas surplus lines premium during the month of July, with a total of $5.42B year-to-date. This results in a 15.6% (or $113M) increase in premiums over July 2020, and a 16.1% increase in YTD premiums when compared to the same period in 2020. While not a record-breaking month, July 2021 is the highest premium recorded for a July on record and is the 4th largest premium in SLTX’s 33-year history trailing June ($947.5M), May ($884.8M), and March ($877.5M) of this year.
Various lines of business experienced notable growth over July 2020, with the largest increase being Excess / Umbrella coverage, which rose almost $28M (or 25%). Additionally, Fire / Allied Lines (residential, commercial, and historical codes) and Commercial General Liability (including new codes that were historically combined) coverages also recorded growth, up $18.6M (or nearly 7%) and $13.1M (or 13%) respectively. Roughly 53% of total premium increases can be attributed to these three coverages.
July 2021 reflected a 1.6% decrease in the overall number of transactions filed (91,571) over the same period in 2020, resulting in a 0.3% decrease in the overall transactions filed YTD. This same period also reflected a 0.6% decrease in policies filed (62,689), resulting in a 2.5% decrease in policies filed YTD.
Continuing with the YTD trend, 60.4% of premium reported this month is attributed to renewal policies, which accounted for 38% of the items reported. Additionally, 35.2% of premium (and 30% of the items) reported is related to new business, and the remaining 4.4% of the premium (and 32% of the items) is a result of non-policy transactions such as endorsements, cancellations, audits, installments, etc.
SLTX expects Texas surplus lines premiums to continue to trend with the existing hard-market conditions during the remainder of summer renewal cycle and into the fall. SLTX will continue to monitor the Texas surplus lines market and share additional data as it is recorded, or analysis is completed.