Just got my renewal notice and my premium jumped 40% with no claims. Agent says it's market-wide hardening but this is brutal. Anyone else seeing these increases? I'm in Texas working mostly with CenterPoint and AEP accounts.
Anyone else getting hammered on E&O renewals this year?
Same here in Boise. My carrier raised rates 35% and added a bunch of new exclusions. They're specifically worried about solar and distributed generation issues now. Apparently some auditors got sued over net metering calculations with Idaho Power.
The whole market is tightening up. I switched from Hartford to Chubb and saved about 15% but had to accept higher deductibles. The underwriters are asking a lot more questions about what types of audits we do and which utilities we work with.
It's not just E&O - my cyber liability doubled too. Had to shop around to three different brokers before finding decent coverage. Duke Energy accounts require higher cyber limits now, which doesn't help the premium situation.
I think part of the problem is all the new regulations hitting utilities. More complex rate structures mean more ways for auditors to make mistakes. Tennessee Valley Authority just rolled out their new time-of-use rates and they're incredibly complicated.
Warren's right about the solar issues. I had an underwriter specifically ask about my experience with net metering and battery storage audits. Seems like they're worried about the learning curve as these technologies become more common. My Wisconsin utilities are all rolling out new programs.