Average premium renewal rates fell month over month across five of six major US commercial insurance lines in July, according to the latest Ivans Index data released by Ivans, a division of Applied Systems.
Workers' compensation was the exception, posting a slight increase for the month even as it remained the only line with a negative year-over-year renewal rate.
Commercial auto renewal rates averaged 4.03% in July, down from 4.58% in June. Business owner's policy renewals came in at 5.94%, a modest decline from 5.97%. General liability fell to 4.99% from 5.33%, and commercial property eased to 6.16% from 6.24%. Umbrella renewals slipped to 7.42% from 7.60%. Workers' compensation, still in negative territory at negative 1.26%, moved up slightly from negative 1.45% the month before.
The July figures extend a softening pattern that has shown up consistently across the Ivans Index's monthly and quarterly releases in 2026.
When Ivans released its second-quarter results in July, the report showed commercial auto averaging 4.93% for the quarter, down from 5.28% in the first quarter, with similar quarter-over-quarter declines across BOP, general liability, commercial property and umbrella.
At the time, Michael Streit, president of Applied Systems Carrier, said renewal rates across most commercial lines had continued to soften through the second quarter, extending a trend that had been building over the prior year.
That softening lines up with what other industry benchmarks have shown this year. The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers reported in May that average commercial premiums fell 1.2% in the first quarter of 2026, ending a 33-quarter streak of increases that had run for nearly nine years.
Marsh's Global Insurance Market Index has told a similar story internationally, with global commercial rates falling for eight consecutive quarters through the second quarter of 2026, though Marsh's data also showed the US market easing more slowly than the rest of the world, with rates down just 2% in the second quarter compared with a 6% global average decline.
Not every corner of the commercial market is moving in the same direction. The Ivans data showed general liability and umbrella still carrying meaningful year-over-year increases even as their month-over-month numbers ease, a pattern consistent with what surplus lines data has shown more broadly this year.
According to WSIA's 2026 midyear report, property and select professional lines have been softening while commercial auto, umbrella and general liability continue to harden in the excess and surplus market, a divergence the report described as a two-speed market.
That E&S-specific pattern is worth distinguishing from the admitted-market picture the Ivans Index tracks, where commercial auto has actually posted the smallest renewal increase of any line still in positive territory and has been easing steadily alongside property each month. Social inflation and elevated jury awards in casualty lines have been cited repeatedly this year as the main forces keeping general liability and umbrella firmer even as property capacity has loosened across both markets.
Workers' compensation remains the clearest outlier in the other direction. The line has posted negative renewal rates for multiple consecutive quarters, a trend tied to sustained underwriting profitability in that segment, though July's slight uptick from negative 1.45% to negative 1.26% is a small enough move that it is not yet clear whether it signals the start of a floor or simply normal monthly variation.
For agents and brokers managing renewal conversations this quarter, the data offers a mixed message depending on the client's line of business. Clients with property-heavy or auto-heavy books are likely to see the most negotiating room, since both lines are easing in the admitted market that the Ivans Index tracks.
Clients concentrated in general liability or umbrella are still working against the largest year-over-year increases even as the pace of those increases slows, meaning renewal conversations in those two lines specifically still call for more active shopping and earlier engagement with underwriters than the rest of the book currently requires.
