$884.75M in Texas Surplus Lines Premiums Recorded in May

The Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX) recorded $884.75 million in surplus lines insurance premium for May, with a total of $3.63 billion year-to-date.

This represents a 14.5% increase in premiums over May 2020, and a 14.2% increase in year-to-date premiums when compared to the same period in 2020.

The premium amount for May 2021 is the largest for a single month ever reported in SLTX’s 33-year history, exceeding the $772.88M record set in May 2020 by nearly $112 million. May premium also exceeds SLTX’s most recent record-breaking month (March 2021) by more than $7 million.

Various lines of business experienced notable growth over May 2020, with the largest increase attributed to excess/umbrella coverage, which rose almost $28 million — 23.9%. Additionally, commercial auto liability coverage reflected a $24 million — 132.3% — increase over the same period. Roughly 47% of total premium increases from May 2021 over May 2020 can be attributed to these two coverages. The calculations are for a single-month period and do not necessarily indicate a market trend, SLTX noted.

May 2021 saw an 8.5% increase in the overall number of transactions filed — 90,794 — over the same period in 2020, resulting in a 0.5% decrease in the overall transactions filed YTD. This same period also reflected a 4.1% increase in policies filed — 61,441. Still, SLTX noted, there has been a 3.4% decrease in total policies filed YTD.

The majority of the premium reported in May can be attributed to renewal policies (61%) and accounted for only 37% of the items reported. Additionally, 36% of premium (and 30% of the items) reported is related to new business while the remaining 3% is a result of non-policy transactions such as endorsements, cancellations, audits, installments, etc.