Predictions For The 2023 Casualty Insurance Market

Rates will continue to increase but more slowly, according to a casualty specialist from insurance brokerage Woodruff Sawyer, as the first of his five predictions for 2023. Each prediction is followed by recommendations for addressing the issues raised, and with regard to the anticipated rate increases he advises risk managers to think more like actuaries, as they try to arrive at some optimum balance between insured and retained risk.

In the area of workers compensation, the writer expects rates to be stable, but he notes that prevention strategies will need to take an unanticipated turn because of the work-from-home phenomenon. Exposure to injury remains present, but it’s become more of a 24/7 phenomenon, he says, “especially in the areas of ergonomics, cumulative trauma from repetitive motion, and slip/trip and falls.” His prevention advice gets into what yesterday’s risk managers might have called soft science – things like mental health services, yoga, and recommending YouTube videos on ergonomics.

His final prediction puts something of a damper on the first, regarding anticipated moderate rate increases. The widely acknowledged hard market for insurance, he notes, is about a lot more than rates. (In the retail world, they call it “shrinkflation.”) -Today’s General Counsel/DR