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Underwriters Weigh InTM Survey
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Q8
Will you quote the primary layer for most public companies?
2025 Survey Results:
of underwriters surveyed will quote the primary layer for most public companies and this is likely a bi g part of why we are still in a soft D&O market.
Woodruff Sawyer Commentary
We are perplexed. On the one hand, the percent of carriers unwilling to quote primary halved. On the other hand, carrier sentiment about providing competitive primary quotes is strikingly negative. This may suggest that incumbents are quoting aggressively in order to retain their clients.
Underwriter Comments
Typically, we have quoted primary with moderately aggressive pricing. We can still quote primary but generally find premiums to be well below what is needed for profitability.
We will quote the primary, but given the market conditions, we do not expect to be competitive.
The carrier I work for has plenty of capacity to offer, we need just to be paid appropriately.
We feel primary is the best place to be on any tower, not only because we value having that relationship with the clients, but due to the erosion in ILFs and expansion of entity coverage, it’s now difficult to achieve adequate returns on excess positions, with the exception of Side A layers.
We typically quote the primary but as the market further softens, our pricing is remaining stable and less likely to win out.
Given the low movement rates of primary layers and the sheer number of competitors even if a layer does seem like it will move, we need to be mindful of how much time we commit to quoting business that we have a very low chance of winning.
Getting 400 primary indications is a waste of time if you’re not going to move the account.