Texas surplus lines premium up 15.7% in September

The Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas has recorded $699.8mn in premium during September, up 15.7 percent over September 2020, bringing the total for the year to date to $6.88bn, up 15.0 percent on the same period last year.

The premium in September 2021 was the highest recorded September ever and the 14th largest monthly premium in SLTX’s 33-year history.

Notable growth was recorded by fire/allied lines coverage (residential, commercial, and historical codes), which rose 18.5 percent, or $30.9mn.

Additionally, excess/umbrella premium was up 23.3 percent (or up $23.7mn) and commercial general liability was up 25.0 percent ($20.2mn).

The 93,125 overall number of transactions filed in September 2021 was up 6.4 percent over the same period in 2020, resulting in a year to date increase of 0.1 percent in transactions filed.

September 2021 also included a 4.5 percent increase in policies filed, to 60,761, resulting in a 2.4 percent decrease year to date.

Some 54.2 percent of premium reported during the month was attributed to renewal policies, accounting for 35.0 percent of items reported.

In addition, 40.0 percent of premium reported was related to new business, and 5.8 percent was the result of non-policy transactions such as endorsements, cancellations, audits and instalments.

“Texas surplus lines premiums will continue to trend with the existing hard-market conditions throughout the year, including results of the changes to the diligent effort requirements (TX87 SB1367),” SLTX commented.