Filing Watch: Midwest / NW — January 2026
Insurance Xdate
FILING WATCH
Midwest / NW Edition · January 2026
Page 1 — Workers Comp & Commercial Auto
Monthly Rate Briefing

Trucking and fleet rates open 2026 climbing across the Midwest — and the rating math is changing underneath them.

Two commercial-auto increases cleared our screen this cycle: approved in January, unfavorable, high-severity, touching 1,000+ policyholders each. Both are trucking-and-fleet books, and both pair the rate hike with a new way of pricing you. Here's what your clients are about to feel.

Industries in this issue's filings

Trucking & Motor Carriers
in 2 of 2 filings
Construction & Trades
rated in both
Delivery & Service Fleets
rated in both

Lead Filing

KSCommercial Auto — TruckersSeverity 4/5

Great West's 14% Kansas trucking hike hides a 38.5% reality for small fleets

Approved Jan 30, effective May 1. Great West repriced its $33.6M Kansas trucking book — 1,206 policyholders — at a 14% average, but the structure is where it bites: primary liability, PIP and medical-payments base rates jump 20.2%, and the size multiplier for 2-to-4-unit fleets climbs roughly 9%. Dumping operations get singled out, their multiplier raised from 1.08 to 1.18. Maximum individual impact filed: 38.5%.

This is a true motor-carrier filing (SERFF sub-type Truckers, NAICS 484), so the language fits: small for-hire fleets in metro territories carry the heaviest load.

+14%
Average
+38.5%
Max
1,206
Policyholders
$33.6M
Premium

Also Approved This Cycle

MOCommercial AutoSev 4

State Farm adds telematics surcharge to a 21,180-policy Missouri book

A ~10% average increase, but trucking renewals can swing up to 50%. Uninsured BI rises 17.3%, and a new Drive Safe & Save Business telematics program starts at a 5% discount and can surcharge up to 15% on how your crew drives. A revised Customer Rating Index resets the baseline.

21,180 policyholders · $16.5M premium · effective Dec 29

Why only two auto stories — and no workers comp?

The Midwest/NW page-1 screen is genuinely quiet on rate this month. Workers comp here runs through NCCI loss-cost adoptions and tier programs that were favorable or neutral for policyholders in January — no qualifying WC rate increase cleared the bar. Commercial auto is the live wire, and the real story isn't the headline percentage: it's the scoring models and telematics now riding underneath the rate. Three of those are on page 3.

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

The package and habitational market is repricing landlords and Main Street.

Same screen, every other commercial line: the qualifying rate increases this cycle center on businessowners and habitational risk. The headline is American Family resetting Kansas landlord pricing — and quietly removing the deductible option that used to soften the blow.

Industries in this issue's filings

Rental & Habitational
lead filing
Office & Mercantile
in scope
Service & Retail
in scope

Lead Filing

KSBusinessownersSeverity 4/5

American Family raises Kansas rental dwellings 24.7% — and drops the $500 deductible

Approved Jan 9, effective May 1. The region's largest qualifying package filing this cycle: 3,216 Kansas Fusion BOP policyholders, $10.2M in premium. Rental-dwelling base rates rise an average 24.7% — some landlords up to 56% — and office buildings climb 11.6%. The quieter move is the coverage cut: the $500 Loss Assessment deductible is eliminated, forcing $1,000 or $2,500 minimums. The carrier's indicated need was 20.4%, so this is a catch-up, not a one-off.

Who feels it: landlords, condo and rental-dwelling owners, and small office/mercantile risks. Move now: re-quote habitational accounts before the May effective date and flag the deductible change — it raises out-of-pocket risk even where the rate looks manageable.

+24.7%
Rental avg
+56%
Max
3,216
Policyholders
$10.2M
Premium

Worth a Closer Look

KSOther LiabilitySev 4

Berkley reprices high-hazard counseling abuse cover +23.1%

Berkley Regional raised base rates 23.1% on a small Kansas abuse-liability program and moved Class 7 high-hazard counseling (drug dependency, physical and sexual abuse) from 1.2x to 1.5x of Class 6 — individual increases up to 54.6% on a class flagged as a six-year loss outlier.

18 policyholders · $167K premium · effective May 1

The Rest of the Qualifying List

StateCarrierLine / Sub-typeSeverityPolicyholdersEffective
KSBerkley (Riverport / Berkley Natl)Other Liability — Abuse program4 / 518May 1, 2026

Also on the radar

Two big-reach moves just miss our commercial bar but reset budgets: a Missouri personal-umbrella increase touching 31,713 policyholders (approved Jan 30) and a Kansas personal-umbrella filing at 52,155 policyholders — both personal lines, but a signal the umbrella market is hardening regionally. And a 13,336-policyholder Missouri workers-comp tiering revision (Jan-effective) is neutral on average yet reshuffles experience tiers — the kind of change that raises a client's comp premium while the bureau softens.

Insurance Xdate
FILING WATCH
Midwest / NW Edition · January 2026
Page 3 — Filing Effects: Guidelines, Coverage & Scoring
Beyond the Rate Number

The real January story isn't the rate — it's the third-party data quietly pricing your fleet.

Same six states, the structural changes the rate filings hide: scoring models, credit-based tiering, and new exclusions approved in January. Four verified scoring or credit-tiering filings this window — LexisNexis, CAB and TransUnion data are now openly pricing Midwest commercial risk.

Industries in this page's filings

Trucking & Fleets
in 5 of 11 filings
Agriculture & Farm Auto
in 3 of 11 filings
Construction & Trades
in 4 of 11 filings
Main Street & Service
in 3 of 11 filings

Lead Filing · Scoring Model — Market Signal

MOCommercial AutoSeverity 4/5

State Farm puts a telematics dial on 21,180 Missouri fleets — and a CRI rescore underneath

Approved Jan 29, effective Dec 29. Beyond its ~10% rate move, State Farm introduced Drive Safe & Save Business: a telematics program that uses smartphone and device data to swing premium from a 5% starting discount to a 15% surcharge based on driving index scores. In the same filing, the Customer Rating Index factors for commercial vehicles were rebuilt — a quiet rescore that moves premium before any single client changes behavior. When the largest commercial auto writer in the state hard-wires telematics into pricing, every adopting competitor's renewal conversation changes too.

-20% to +15%
Telematics swing
CRI rebuilt
Scoring reset
21,180
Policyholders
+17.3%
Uninsured BI

New Scoring Models — The Trend Is Real

MOCommercial AutoSev 3

Nationwide Agribusiness scores farm fleets on credit and driver data

A new LexisNexis risk-score segmentation plan can swing farm-auto premium up to 9.5%, and a driver-based plan now rates on age, gender and violation history. New PFAS, communicable-disease and cannabis exclusions ride along — and a single-deductible endorsement ties farm property and auto together.

765 policyholders · $7.2M premium · approved Jan 27
IACommercial AutoSev 3

National General launches a GLM trucking program built on CAB and LexisNexis

The new CRAD 3.0 program rates Iowa commercial auto on the LexisNexis C118 driver model, CAB trucking factors and TransUnion credit — a genuine bright spot for clean fleets, but vehicle-history factors run to 1.79 and drivers under 21 carry a 5.20 factor. Third-party data, in both directions.

n/d new program · approved Jan 21 · favorable for clean books
KSCommercial AutoSev 4

Great West retiers small Kansas fleets

Behind the 14% headline (page 1) sits a tiering revision: policy-size multipliers and type-of-operation factors rebuilt so 2-to-4-unit fleets and dumping operations absorb the steepest moves. The structure, not the average, is what your small-fleet clients will feel.

1,206 policyholders · $33.6M premium · approved Jan 30

Underwriting & Tiering Changes

MOCommercial AutoSev 3

Nationwide Agribusiness ties farm property and auto to one deductible

Farm operations carrying both property and auto with the group now fall under a mandatory single-deductible endorsement — one event triggers the largest single deductible instead of two. Favorable for bundled farms, but it changes how a claim is settled, so confirm which clients are in scope before renewal.

765 policyholders · approved Jan 27 · effective Mar 1
KSOther LiabilitySev 4

Berkley reclasses high-hazard counseling exposure

A tiering revision moves Class 7 high-hazard counseling to 1.5x Class 6 rates and lifts base rates 23.1% — the abuse-claims environment, repriced. Social-service and counseling accounts should expect the reclass to outrun the headline number.

18 policyholders · $167K premium · approved Jan 7

Coverage Contraction

MOFarm AutoSev 3

Nationwide Agribusiness adds PFAS, cannabis and disease exclusions

Alongside the new scoring, the Missouri farm-auto filing adds a PFAS exclusion, a communicable-disease exclusion and cannabis exclusion endorsements. For ag operations handling chemicals and crop inputs, the 'forever chemicals' carve-out is the one to read closely.

765 policyholders · approved Jan 27
KSBusinessownersSev 4

American Family strips the $500 loss-assessment deductible

Behind the 24.7% rental-dwelling rate move (page 2), the $500 Loss Assessment deductible option is gone — replaced by mandatory $1,000 and $2,500 minimums. A coverage contraction stacked on a rate hike: the out-of-pocket exposure rises even where the premium looks contained.

3,216 policyholders · $10.2M premium · approved Jan 9

Also on the radar

A genuine bright spot: National General's new Iowa CRAD 3.0 program rewards clean trucking books with CAB-driven pricing — an appetite worth shopping for safe fleets. Meanwhile the scoring wave is regional, not isolated: LexisNexis and credit data now price farm auto in Missouri, fleets in Iowa, and small fleets in Kansas in the same month. When three carriers reach for third-party data at once, the floor moves for everyone adopting it.