In September, the Western National Surety Department announced the expansion of our ContractXpress program, a streamlined one-page application for bid, performance, and payment bonds up to $750,000 single and bonded aggregate. Our updated ContractXpress application now allows us to offer higher limits. This program has been very successful for us, especially since our rates are no greater than 2.5% while many carriers charge 3%.

The other exciting change is that the limits for our ContractXpress Xtra program have doubled from $1,500,000 to $3,000,000 single and aggregate. This program relies on information from internal financial statements and common-sense underwriting, not financial statements prepared by a CPA. The rating plans for our ContractXpress Xtra program are 2.5% or less, which helps contractors control their bonding costs while developing a long-term surety relationship.

We recently completed a review of Western National’s Homeowner insurance program. Widely reported economic and environmental factors have had an impact on insurance costs across the country, including inflation, supply chain issues, and the average frequency and severity of storms. These factors have resulted in a significant increase in the average cost of claims for our policyholders, and as such, effective October 1, 2022, we adjusted rates to address the impact of increased costs.

Similarly, the supply chain issues and the increase in prices for new vehicles, used vehicles, labor to repair vehicles, and rental vehicles have been driving up loss costs industrywide. These market issues have resulted in a 20% increase in the average severity of personal auto claims for Western National customers and adjustment to our rates was a necessary part of addressing the impact of the increased costs. For both our existing Penalty Free Auto Product as well as our new Signature Auto and Select Auto products, we have adjusted our rates to address the impact of these increased costs.

To learn more about the rate increases in both our Auto and Homeowner programs, please visit the “Bulletins” section of AgentsOnline.

Over the past few months, our recruiting team has been busy attending various university career fairs throughout Iowa, Minnesota, and Washington. The team has thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of the emerging talent, and we hope to see many of them apply for our internship and entry-level opportunities. As we look towards the spring semester, we are eager to increase our presence at these career fairs, and we are looking forward to meeting many more skilled candidates at upcoming career fairs in 2023!