Texas surplus lines premium slightly up year-over-year in April

The Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX) has recorded premium in April that inched up 0.8 percent over the same month last year, with premium year-to-date in 2021 up 14.2 percent.

SLTX recorded $747.99mn of premium in April, the fifth highest premium in SLTX history, and a 0.8 percent increase over April 2020.

Cumulatively, SLTX has recorded $2.75bn in premium in the first four months of this year, up 14.2 percent over the same period last year. However, by the end of March this year’s premium was up 20 percent over the same period of 2020.

SLTX said several lines of business saw notable increases over April 2020, with the largest increase being attributed to property package, which rose almost $27mn, or 131.8 percent.

The office noted that a recategorization of coverage codes at the beginning of the year means some of this increase is likely attributed to a corresponding decrease in homeowners coverage.

The second-highest premium increase was in allied lines coverage, which gained $13mn, or 135.4 percent.

The overall number of transactions filed in April increased for the second consecutive month. The 93,949 transactions reported in April were an increase of 3.4 percent compared with the same month last year.

The number of policies was also up, rising 0.6 percent to 62,618 over April 2020.

In the first four months of the year 223,204 policies were filed, down 5.3 percent, while the number of overall transactions fell 2.7 percent.

The majority, 61 percent, of the premium reported in April can be attributed to renewal policies, with 34 percent related to new business and 5 percent resulting from non-policy transactions such as endorsements, cancellations, audits and instalments.

“SLTX expects Texas surplus lines premiums to continue to trend with the existing hard-market conditions during the upcoming summer renewal cycle,” the office said.