Filing Watch: Midwest / Central — August 2026 (3-Page Tabloid)
Insurance Xdate
FILING WATCH
Midwest / Central Edition · August 2026
Page 1 — Workers Comp & Commercial Auto
Monthly Rate Briefing

Workers comp is quiet and the month's auto action was structural — but Acuity's revenue-neutral Kansas overhaul moves individual autos up to +92%.

This month's screen — approved rate increases touching 1,000+ policyholders at severity 4–5, in workers comp and commercial auto — surfaced a single qualifying filing. That's the story: bureau comp is flat-to-down, and the month's commercial-auto action was overwhelmingly structural — ISO-2022 class-plan rebuilds and vehicle-history scoring models that read 0% overall while quietly redistributing premium (those live on Page 3). Here's the one that cleared the bar — and its 0% average is the misdirection.

Also Approved This Cycle

Why only one filing on Page 1?

Workers comp is genuinely soft across the Central states — bureau loss costs are flat-to-down, and the qualifying comp filings this window were favorable or neutral (AF Group's Missouri realignment nets just +1.1%). Commercial auto was busier, but its biggest August moves don't belong here: they're structural. Acuity rebuilt its Indiana book to the same ISO-2022 plan (individual swings −30.2% to +77.2%) and layered a TransUnion vehicle-history score onto Colorado — both 0% overall. Those live on Page 3, where the auto pricing action actually moved this month.

Northeast
Southeast
Midwest / CentralThis week
West
Insurance Xdate
FILING WATCH
Midwest / Central Edition · August 2026
Page 2 — The Wider Market: All Other Lines
Beyond WC & Auto

The wider market's clearest hard-market signal is the liability and umbrella book — and carriers are still filing for more than they took.

Same screen, every other commercial line: general liability, package and excess/umbrella carriers are pushing double digits, and often taking far less than their own filings say they need. The Hanover takes 17.9% on Indiana GL and still leaves 8.5 points of indicated need on the table; State Farm reprices a Missouri commercial umbrella book it hadn't touched since 2012. Translation: these books reload for the next filing.

Industries in this issue's filings

Contractors & Trades
in Hanover, Nationwide & Central filings
Wholesale & Distribution
Hanover wholesalers +30.4%
Real Estate & Habitational
across the umbrella book
Outpatient Healthcare
Hanover medical +27%

Three Filings Worth a Closer Look

COGeneral LiabilitySev 4

Nationwide raises Colorado small-commercial GL 18.8% — contractors and apartment owners up to 40.8%

On the heels of a 25% 2025 hike, Nationwide takes another 18.8% on its Colorado small-commercial GL book and adopts ISO Rule 24 for owners, lessees and contractors. The average masks the exposure: contractors and apartment owners face increases up to 40.8%. Two years of compounding put many renewals well above 2024 pricing — model it now, not at renewal.

1,214 policyholders · $2.4M premium · effective Jul 1 (in market) · ~$1,967/policy
MOCommercial UmbrellaSev 5

State Farm reprices Missouri commercial umbrella 38.5% — its first change since 2012, high limits up to 131%

The region's only severity-5 rate increase this cycle, and a book that had sat untouched since 2012. State Farm takes 38.5% against a 44.1% indication and a 138% five-year combined ratio, raising the basic premium $220 for all risks, lifting higher-layer factors, and replacing discretionary rate ranges with fixed rates — high-limit accounts see up to 131%. A companion Indiana filing takes 25% (1,578 policyholders) against a 57.6% countrywide indication. When a dormant excess book moves this far at once, the tower keeps firming.

2,400 policyholders · $1.9M premium · effective Sep 1 · ~$774/policy
KYCommercial UmbrellaSev 4

Central overhauls Kentucky commercial umbrella 17.1% with seven vehicle-weight ILF tiers

Central Mutual rebuilds its Kentucky commercial umbrella rating around seven vehicle-weight-based increased-limit-factor tables plus updated GL ILFs, for a 17.1% overall increase concentrated on heavy fleets and reclassified classes. It also adds a mandatory $500 charge for the primary-and-noncontributory endorsement and raises minimum premiums $100 per layer. Accounts with mixed or heavy vehicle schedules carry the increase.

count/premium not reported · effective Dec 1 · approved Aug 3

The Rest of the Qualifying List

StateCarrierLine / Sub-typeSeverityPolicyholdersEffective
TNWestfield (Champion/Touchstone/Superior)CMP — SureStep Package4 / 51,049Sep 14, 2026
MOSpinnaker (Harborway)Other Liability — General Liability4 / 51,044Nov 1, 2026
SDAuto-Owners / OwnersOther Liability — Commercial Umbrella4 / 51,847Nov 14, 2026

Also on the radar

The single-digit and near-zero headlines hide the swings. Spinnaker's Harborway Missouri GL is +14.1% on average but a new per-officer payroll floor drives individual accounts as high as +327%, while adding total exclusions for roofing operations and open roofs. And the month's clearest hard-market tell is the excess tower: State Farm (MO +38.5%, IN +25%), Central (KY +17.1%) and Auto-Owners (SD +10.1%) all overhauled commercial umbrella programs in a single window — the layer above primary is firming even where primary stays flat.

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

Under the rate line, the Midwest is re-rating by algorithm — vehicle-history scores, ISO-2022 rebuilds and a governmental trust's 42.6% reset.

Same region, the filings whose headline rate hides the action: new scoring models, ISO class-plan rebuilds, coverage cuts and market exits approved in August. Acuity rebuilt commercial-auto pricing around vehicle-history data and the ISO 2022 plan across three states; Farmers' BOP360 quietly re-rated habitational and older buildings; and a Louisville governmental trust reset member rates 42.6%. And one carrier opened a door.

Industries in this page's filings

Real Estate & Habitational
Farmers BOP360 apartments +31–35%
Commercial Auto & Heavy Equipment
Worth, Acuity
Agriculture & Farms
American National NE +27.7%
Government & Public Entities
LAGIT KY +42.6%

New Scoring & Rebuilt Class Plans — The Trend Is Real

COCommercial AutoSev 3

Acuity adds a TransUnion vehicle-history score to Colorado commercial auto — swings −27.8% to +33.3%

Revenue-neutral at 0% overall, but the change is the model: Acuity adds a TransUnion Commercial Vehicle History Score built on TransUnion/CARFAX life-cycle data, redistributing premium per vehicle from −27.8% to +33.3%. Fleets running older or high-turnover vehicles now pay more even with clean driving records. The average tells you nothing; the vehicle roster tells you everything.

1,875 policyholders · $30.6M premium · approved Aug 25 · ~$16,330/policy
INCommercial AutoSev 3

Acuity's ISO-2022 rebuild reshapes Indiana commercial auto too — individual swings −30.2% to +77.2%

The same revenue-neutral ISO 2022 class-plan migration behind the Kansas filing on Page 1 (up to +92%) runs in Indiana, swinging individual policies −30.2% to +77.2% as private-passenger-type vehicles move into the commercial plan. It also raises loss-of-use and transportation limits, adds a drone exclusion, introduces full safety-glass coverage and an automatic waiver of subrogation. Same carrier, same mechanism, two states — the 0% average is the camouflage.

1,399 IN policyholders · $52.5M premium · approved Aug 5 (KS companion on Page 1)
MOCommercial PackageSev 4

Farmers' BOP360 is revenue-neutral on paper — but surgically re-rates habitational and older buildings

Missouri nets to 0% overall after Farmers recalibrated catastrophe factors, admitting prior models understated wind/hail losses and raising apartment and HOA factors 31–35%. The Wisconsin companion doubled the apartment sub-industry factor to 2.0 and nearly doubled the HOA/condo factor, nudging multi-building factors up for frame and down for masonry. The average hides a targeted hit on residential-lessor and association risks.

MO $10.4M premium · MO + WI companions · effective Nov 1

Underwriting Guideline Changes

Also Filed This Cycle

Also on the radar

The scoring wave has corroboration beyond Acuity: Donegal's Indiana commercial auto (+5% against a 13% indication) added prior-claim, driver-age and violation-frequency factors, and American National's Kentucky farm-package auto (+11.4%) adopted the ISO Risk Analyzer. On the property side, The Hartford took just 6.8% on its Wisconsin Spectrum package against a 27.9% indication while adding a Roof Value Scheduled Settlement and a metal-roof cosmetic-damage exclusion — the coverage cut, not the rate, is the filing. And Philadelphia Indemnity launched a new Colorado BOP built on LexisNexis risk scoring — third-party data keeps moving into Midwest small-commercial pricing.