FILING WATCH
National Recap · August 2026
National Recap — The Big Picture
August inverted the usual read: the story wasn't the biggest percentage, it was the biggest book. Five of the six largest filings by policyholder count were commercial package or businessowners programs — Auto-Owners in North Carolina (31,223) and Georgia (27,872), The Hartford in Massachusetts (24,991) and Connecticut (17,178), State Farm's Maryland multi-peril (19,394). When the reach concentrates in package lines, Main Street feels the month even though no single rate looks dramatic.
The indicated-vs-filed gap stayed wide and, if anything, widened. AmTrust took 13.9% on Georgia businessowners against a 94.8% indication; Liberty Mutual 25.8% in California against 51.9%; The Hartford's Spectrum books sit at roughly a quarter of a ~30% need; Church Mutual took 14.7% on California comp against 27.6%. Read a moderate approved increase on a stressed package or liability book as a partial payment — the balance is filed and waiting.
The rate line keeps hiding the real repricing. Twenty-four filings this month were rating overhauls or scoring models rather than clean rate changes — Acuity's revenue-neutral ISO-2022 rebuilds in Kansas and Indiana (0% average, individual swings of −30% to +92%), Farmers' BOP360 habitational re-rates, Central's seven-tier Kentucky umbrella, Acuity's Colorado vehicle-history score. On these books the filed percentage is noise; the account's placement in the new plan is the signal.
And the exits kept coming. Six carriers walked away from whole classes or states — Next from Mississippi day-care liability, AmGUARD from California towing, Harco from California trucking, Accredited from the Kansas businessowners market, Midvale from Oklahoma auto dealers, Service American from a California parcel-delivery comp program. Every one is a book of accounts shopping now, most in classes that were already hard to place.
Package is where the reach is
Commercial package and BOP filings dominated the month's largest books. The rate moves look tame (+3% to +9%), but they touch tens of thousands of Main Street accounts each — and they're being taken well below indicated need, so the trajectory is up.
The gap is the tell
The most useful number in an August filing is the indication behind the approved rate. Gaps of two-to-seven times recurred (AmTrust 13.9 vs 94.8; Liberty 25.8 vs 51.9; Hartford ~8 vs ~30). Wide gaps signal a book that's under water and a follow-on filing that's already loading.
Averages are meaningless on an overhauled book
A 0% headline increasingly hides a full rebuild. Acuity's ISO-2022 auto overhauls and Farmers' BOP360 re-rates move individual accounts by 30–90 points while netting to zero. Ask where your client lands in the new plan, not what the filing 'averaged.'
Umbrella keeps firming ahead of primary
Excess ran hotter than the primary lines beneath it — State Farm +38.5% (its first umbrella change since 2012), Central +17.1%, Brethren +20% — a familiar sign that reinsurers are pushing severity assumptions down the tower.
The exit list is a prospecting list
Six class or state exits this month. Towing and trucking in California, day-care in Mississippi, auto dealers in Oklahoma, the Kansas BOP market — each is a cohort of non-renewing accounts. Knowing who sits on an exiting book before the carrier tells them is the whole game.
Coverage & Structural Watch
Coverage floors keep dropping
Great American's sports & wellness takeover (RI, WV this month) halves the medical-expense limit from $25,000 to $10,000; Spinnaker added total roofing and open-roof exclusions to its Oregon GL; carriers continue trimming coverage on filings whose headline rate barely moves.
Third-party data is the new rating manual
Vehicle-history scores (Acuity CO), ISO-2022 class-plan rebuilds (Acuity KS/IN), seven-tier weight-based umbrella ILFs (Central KY), and predictive BOP tiers (Farmers BOP360) all landed in August. The underwriting is moving into the model.
Bureau signals cut both ways
AAIS trimmed advisory GL loss costs in Georgia and North Carolina (−8.8% NC), a favorable bureau signal — even as individual carriers filed double-digit catch-ups on the same line. The advisory floor and the carrier's filed rate are diverging.