Best’s Special Report: U.S. Property/Casualty Insurance Segment Rating Upgrades Increased in 2024, While Downgrades Marked a Decline

Issuer Credit Rating (rating) downgrades on U.S. property/casualty (P/C) insurers leveled off to 43 in 2024, compared with 55 in the previous year, despite the ongoing challenging conditions in the personal lines segment, according to a new AM Best special report.

The Best’s Special Report, titled, “US Property/Casualty: Rating Upgrades Up, Downgrades Down in 2024,” cites inflation and rising reinsurance costs as ongoing themes that continue to affect P/C insurers. The majority of the 2024 downgrades were on insurers with property exposures and reflect heightened catastrophe risk exposures, losses from more frequent secondary perils, and elevated reinsurance costs and retentions.

Rating upgrades increased to 42 in 2024, compared with just 35 in the same prior-year period. That improvement was bolstered by the commercial lines segment, which notched 34 upgrades last year versus 12 rating downgrades. The commercial lines segment had recorded 21 upgrades and 15 downgrades in 2023.

“The underwriting performance and overall reserve development for commercial lines insurers has been consistently solid, with positive pricing momentum and underwriting discipline positioning the segment to navigate the headwinds,” said Helen Andersen, industry research analyst, AM Best.

Other highlights from the report include:

• AM Best assigned 33 initial ratings in 2024, accounting for 4.5% of rating actions, up slightly from 26 initial ratings in 2023. The majority of initial ratings were in the commercial lines segment, with only three in the personal lines segment and one reinsurer.
• As of Dec. 31, 2024, 25.6% of personal lines insurers had negative outlooks, up from 17.9% on Dec. 31, 2023. The percentage of P/C personal lines insurers with positive outlooks increased very slightly to 1.8% from 1.3%, while companies under review rose from 4.7% to 6.7%.
• The most common driver of P/C ratings upgrades was operating performance, at 40.5% of companies. Just under a quarter (23.8%) of ratings upgrades were due to a change in rating unit, as an insurer merged with a higher-rated group.
• Just over a third (34.9%) of downgrades were due to changes in balance sheet strength. Poor operating performance accounted for 27.9% of downgrades, with another 14% of downgrades due to adjustments to more than one building block, all of which included balance sheet strength.

To access the full copy of this special report, please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=352013.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

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