Filing Watch: Southwest — April 2026
Insurance Xdate
FILING WATCH
Southwest Edition · April 2026
Page 1 — Workers Comp & Commercial Auto
Monthly Rate Briefing

Trucking carriers are correcting hard — and stripping coverage on the way up.

Six approved increases cleared our screen this cycle: high-impact, rate-increase filings touching 1,000+ policyholders each (or moving a large book), approved in April 2026. Every one is commercial auto, and several pair the rate hike with new exclusions or vanished credits. Workers comp was quiet on the carrier side this month — the action is squarely on the road.

Industries in this issue's filings

Trucking & Transportation
in 5 of 6 filings
Construction & Trades
in 3 of 6 filings
Auto Service & Dealers
in 2 of 6 filings
Couriers & Last-Mile
in 1 of 6 filings

Lead Filing

TXCommercial AutoSeverity 5/5

Worth files a 107% trucking need in Texas — and excludes injuries to the people in the cab

Approved April 20, effective June 1. Worth Insurance (Incline P&C) reprices its Texas trucking book — $56.5M in premium — against a staggering 106.78% indicated rate need, benchmarked to Canal and Lancer. The coverage cuts are what should worry agents: a new Occupant Exclusion strips bodily-injury coverage for anyone in or entering the vehicle, and a Non-Trucker Liability Exclusion removes bobtail/deadhead coverage when a unit isn't under dispatch or hauling cargo. Towing and recovery (1.68x), log/pulp hauling (1.51x), waste (1.51x) and long-haul over 300 miles pay the most; Dallas, Houston and Austin get no zone discount.

Who feels it: Texas for-hire truckers, especially towing, waste and long-haul operators in the major metros. Move now: the occupant and bobtail exclusions are silent coverage gaps — a driver injured in the cab or a tractor deadheading home may have no protection. Read the new endorsements to every trucking client before binding.

106.78%
Indicated need
Occupant
New exclusion
Bobtail
Coverage cut
$56.5M
Premium

Also Approved This Cycle

CACommercial AutoSev 3

Kemper raises liability 13.4% across 59,184 California auto policies

The region's largest book this cycle — $338.1M premium. Kemper (Infinity Select) lifts mandatory liability 13.4% while cutting physical damage 25.5%, so a renewal can look flat while the legal-protection layer jumps. Large fleets (12+ vehicles) and high-BI/UM-limit risks pay more; the carrier cites attorney representation on 74.7% of 2025 claims.

59,184 policyholders · $338.1M premium · effective Jul 15
CACommercial AutoSev 4

Hyundai Marine deletes its preferred tiers and safety credits

A clean-record fleet just lost its edge: Hyundai Marine & Fire eliminates the Preferred and Superior tiers (forcing top risks into Standard), drops the 5% clean-MVR and 5% continuous-coverage credits, and lifts long-haul (750+ mile) radius factors up to 71.4%. New ventures get a 10% second-term surcharge.

8,949 policyholders · $23.4M premium · effective May 1
CACommercial AutoSev 4

AmGUARD bars 'Any Auto' for contractors and doubles MedPay

AmGUARD takes 14% after admitting to regulators its pre-2024 claims reserving was 'actuarially unsound.' It now prohibits Symbol 1 (Any Auto) for contracting risks — a real coverage gap for hired/newly-acquired vehicles — mandates 9 years' driving experience, and raises Medical Payments 120% and UM/UIM 70%.

5,780 policyholders · $92.3M premium · effective Jul 15
COCommercial AutoSev 4

Selective's 10.7% Colorado average hides a 183% ceiling

Selective takes 10.7% on its Colorado commercial auto book against a 15.1% indication, but the range is extreme — individual increases reach 183.6%. The carrier withdraws its proprietary auto-service non-ownership-liability rule in favor of standard ISO procedures, re-rating repair shops and service operations.

1,518 policyholders · $28.4M premium · effective Mar 1

Where's workers comp this month?

No carrier WC filing cleared our impact-and-reach bar in the Southwest this April. After the Nevada bureau's 21.6% reset in February, comp carriers are still digesting the new loss-cost floor rather than filing fresh increases. Commercial auto, by contrast, is mid-correction — five carriers repriced at once, several adopting newer ISO loss costs. Expect the WC wave to follow as carriers layer their LCMs onto the higher bureau base.

Northeast
Southeast
Midwest / NW
SouthwestThis week
Insurance Xdate
FILING WATCH
Southwest Edition · April 2026
Page 2 — The Wider Market: All Other Lines
Beyond WC & Auto

General liability carriers are getting surgical — naming the classes they no longer want and pricing them out.

Same screen, every other commercial line: this cycle's GL and BOP filings abandon flat increases for class-targeted surgery. Real-estate property managers, health practitioners and personal-services risks absorb 40–73% hits while the rest of the book moves modestly. Credit and roof-age scoring keep spreading.

Industries in this issue's filings

Real Estate & Property Mgmt
class surcharges
Healthcare & Practitioners
BOP re-pricing
Construction & Contractors
GL loss ratios
Nonprofits & Faith
predictive models

Lead Filing

TXGeneral LiabilitySeverity 4/5

Hiscox singles out Texas property managers for a 72.8% hit

Approved April 23, effective August 17. Hiscox's Texas GL book — 27,919 policyholders, $25.7M premium — takes a 33% state indication, but the increase isn't spread evenly. Real-estate property managers (class 47052), Hiscox's worst-performing class, absorb up to 72.8% as the carrier moves the loss-cost multiplier from 2.097 to 2.324. A communicable-disease exclusion attaches to every policy, and new endorsements arrive for Amazon vendors and supplemental business personal property.

Who feels it: Texas real-estate managers and habitational risks first, but the surgical approach signals which classes Hiscox is steering away from. Move now: a 73% renewal is a shop trigger, not a negotiation — get property-management accounts quoted elsewhere well before the August date.

+72.8%
Property mgrs
+33%
State indication
27,919
Policyholders
Comm. disease
New exclusion

Three Filings Worth a Closer Look

TXGeneral LiabilitySev 4

Liberty Mutual takes 12% on a 107% Texas GL loss ratio

Liberty Mutual lifts its Texas GL book 12% (max ~15%) against a 107.6% 2024 loss ratio, adopting ISO loss costs. The quiet hit: Rule 24 raises the mandatory executive/partner payroll base from $33,800 to $35,500, so every owner and officer on the policy costs more even if the base rate held. Houston and DFW contractors carry the highest LCMs.

15,094 policyholders · $79.4M premium · effective May 1
CAProfessional LiabilitySev 4

Church Mutual rolls a predictive model into non-profit liability

Church Mutual takes 10.6% on its California non-profit book and introduces a predictive model that reads Experian Intelliscore, a roof-age variable (16+ years penalized) and a nine-year claim lookback — well beyond the industry's 3-to-5. Mandatory asbestos, lead, nuclear and law-enforcement exclusions attach; the model dislocates some risks up to 100%.

4,920 policyholders · $49.7M premium · effective Sep 1
TXBusinessownersSev 4

Hiscox flattens its BOP revenue curve above $800k

Hiscox's Texas BOP runs the same class-surgery playbook: health practitioners and personal services up to 40%, clothing stores up to 30%, plus a 'revenue curve flattening' that quietly adds 10–15% for accounts over $800k in sales. A new +/-40% schedule-rating plan gives underwriters wide discretion — credits most agents won't apply unless they ask.

8,509 policyholders · $14.7M premium · effective May 18

The Rest of the Qualifying List

StateCarrierLine / Sub-typeSeverityPolicyholdersEffective
CAState Farm GeneralCMP — Contractor Liability5 / 52,230Jul 1, 2026

Also on the radar

The defining story of the month is on Page 3: a wave of market exits. Accredited block non-renewed its entire 1,960-policy California BOP book (the Attune program), GuideOne withdrew two more artisan-contractor programs (package and auto), and State Farm raised contractor liability 44.9% on a book it froze to new business back in 2023. Anyone in California artisan-contractor or habitational classes is shopping right now — and the standard markets to catch them are thinning.

Insurance Xdate
FILING WATCH
Southwest Edition · April 2026
Page 3 — Filing Effects: Guidelines, Coverage & Scoring
Beyond the Rate Number

April was the month carriers walked away — a wave of market exits is reshaping who can even get covered.

Same region, the changes behind the rate number: approved April actions whose real story is a market exit, a coverage cut, or a new scoring model. The pattern is impossible to miss this month — four separate program withdrawals, concentrated in California artisan-contractor and small-business package classes. When carriers exit faster than they enter, the surviving markets get to dictate terms.

Industries in this page's filings

Artisan Contractors
four program exits
Small Business / Habitational
block non-renewals
Trucking
coverage stripped
Nonprofits & Faith
predictive scoring

Lead Filing · Market Exit — Region-Shaping Signal

CABusinessownersSeverity 5/5

Accredited block non-renews its entire California small-business book

Approved April 15, effective June 1. Accredited Surety & Casualty issues a complete block non-renewal of its California businessowners program — the entire Attune-administered book of 1,960 policies, roughly $7.7M in premium — and forces a transition to a Fortegra company. Apartment and condo owners are squarely affected, alongside retail, restaurant and service small businesses. This is a program administrator's strategic exit, not a pricing action, which means there's no rate to negotiate: the policies are leaving the carrier whether the insured likes it or not.

Who feels it: California habitational and small-business owners on Attune/Accredited paper. Move now: a forced bulk transfer can quietly change terms or trigger a lapse — don't let the default Fortegra migration decide coverage. Re-market every affected account before the June non-renewal date.

1,960
Policies
$7.7M
Premium
Block
Non-renewal
Jun 1
Effective

The Exit Wave — Carriers Leaving Classes Behind

CAContractor LiabilitySev 5

State Farm freezes contractors — then raises them 44.9%

State Farm hasn't written a new California contractor since May 2023, and its contractor count has fallen 35% in two years. Now the insureds who stayed take a 44.9% liability increase, with the carrier citing social inflation. A frozen book correcting hard is its own kind of exit — the door is shut, and the people inside pay more.

2,230 policyholders · $11.3M premium · approved Apr 15
CAArtisan PackageSev 5

GuideOne drops its artisan package program

GuideOne withdraws its California Artisan Contractors package program entirely, non-renewing all 501 policies from July 1 and directing insureds to Accelerant. The carrier says remediation — underwriting changes, portfolio mix — couldn't make the program sustainable. The package half of a two-part exit.

501 policyholders · $7.6M premium · approved Apr 30
CAArtisan AutoSev 5

GuideOne drops the auto half too

On the same day, GuideOne withdrew the commercial-auto side of its NIF Artisan Contractors program, non-renewing 396 California policies from July 1. Together with the package exit, it completes GuideOne's full retreat from the artisan-contractor class — the carrier's third California program withdrawal in this backlog window.

396 policyholders · $8.7M premium · approved Apr 30

Coverage Cuts & New Scoring

CACommercial AutoSev 4

AmGUARD bars 'Any Auto' and rewrites its reserving

Behind AmGUARD's 14% rate (Page 1) is a structural reset: the carrier told regulators its pre-June-2024 claims reserving was actuarially unsound, then prohibited Symbol 1 (Any Auto) for all contracting risks and mandated nine years of driving experience for every driver. Contractors relying on Any Auto for hired or newly-acquired vehicles now carry a real coverage gap.

5,780 policyholders · $92.3M premium · approved Apr 21
CAProfessional LiabilitySev 4

Church Mutual scores roofs, credit and a 9-year claim history

Church Mutual's non-profit predictive model (also Page 2) reads Experian Intelliscore, a roof-age variable that penalizes anything over 16 years, and a nine-year claim lookback — nearly double the industry norm. Mandatory asbestos, lead, nuclear and law-enforcement exclusions attach. The carrier calls it revenue-neutral; some risks dislocate up to 100%.

4,920 policyholders · $49.7M premium · approved Apr 9

Also on the radar

Stack April's exits on the prior months and the trend is unmistakable: Markel (Jan farm), GuideOne (Jan/Feb artisan + repo), State Farm (Mar package purge), and now Accredited, State Farm contractors and GuideOne again. The Southwest's standard market is actively shedding artisan-contractor, habitational and hospitality classes. For agents, the playbook is the same every month — build a target list of affected classes the moment a withdrawal posts, and place those accounts before the non-renewal wave floods the surviving carriers.