Mid-Year Personal Lines Update: As Competition Rises, E&S Shifts Back to Its Core Strengths

For the past several years, the Excess & Surplus (E&S) market has served as a critical outlet for homeowners and dwelling-fire risks that admitted carriers either wouldn't write about or had significantly restricted. Tight underwriting guidelines, reduced capacity and widespread catastrophic weather losses pushed many otherwise standard risks into the wholesale channel.

Today, the personal property market has changed, becoming increasingly competitive nationwide, with some exceptions. Capacity has returned, underwriting guidelines are loosening and admitted carriers are once again competing aggressively for well-maintained, lower-risk properties.

For retail agents, that's creating more options. For wholesale brokers like RPS, the focus is to continue to provide what the E&S market has always done best: solving difficult placement challenges.

"Competition has increased in many personal property segments, with more capacity available than we've seen in recent years," says Adrianna Rivera, National Personal Lines Practice Leader at RPS. "Even in parts of the E&S market, many carriers are showing renewed appetite for select risks through expanded capacity, adjusted pricing and broader coverage options."

Admitted Markets Are Competing Again

"In a hard market, even E&S carriers could cherry-pick the best business because capacity was so limited everywhere," Rivera explains. "Now those clean risks are moving back to admitted carriers."

That includes many owner-occupied homes, well-maintained rental properties and even portions of the high-value homeowners market. Rivera notes that admitted carriers are once again pursuing business aggressively, while E&S carriers continue adjusting pricing and underwriting guidelines to remain competitive.

The increased competition is benefiting retail agents and insureds alike through improved pricing, expanded coverage options and greater market availability.

The E&S Market Is Returning to What It Does Best

While standard business is migrating back to admitted carriers, Rivera believes the E&S market is becoming more representative of its original focus.

"We're starting to see more business with older homes, properties with prior losses and risks that aren't as up to date as we'd like. That's really what E&S was built for," she says.

That trend extends beyond homeowners to dwelling fire business as well. Clean rental properties with stable occupancy may once again qualify for admitted coverage.

"However, vacant homes, builder's risk projects, short-term rentals, homes with prior losses and more complex properties continue to require specialized underwriting and flexible coverage solutions," says Rivera.

Rather than viewing this as a reduction in opportunity, Rivera sees it as a return to the wholesale broker's core value.

"The more difficult-to-place risks are what we're going to continue to see during these market conditions," she says. "That's where the creativity of our underwriters really comes into play."

California Remains an Exception

Although market conditions have improved across much of the country, California continues to present unique challenges. The wildfire activity in 2025 has kept underwriting guidelines tight, even as capacity has increased.

"California is still a tougher market because of the fires," Rivera says. "They're still very recent and in the forefront of everybody's mind. Carriers remain very strict when it comes to wildfire scoring."

Florida, on the other hand, is experiencing a different story. Despite several active storm seasons, the market has remained more stable than many expected.

"We anticipated some of the recent hurricanes would really impact the market, and they didn't," Rivera says. "We just haven't had that one event that shifted everything overnight."

Could the Insurance Market Change Again?

Personal lines have always been cyclical. A major hurricane, catastrophic wildfire season or widespread weather event could quickly reverse today's competitive conditions.

"I think it's carrier by carrier," Rivera says. "Some are prioritizing growth. Others are more focused on profitability because they've been through this before."

Rivera has already seen some carriers selectively adjusting pricing, deductibles, coverage sublimits and underwriting guidelines.

"For example, before, a 15-year-old roof was an automatic concern. Now, carriers are accepting accounts with older roofs."

The Need for a Strong Wholesale Partner

Even as admitted carriers become more competitive, Rivera believes wholesale expertise has never been more important.

Anyone can place a straightforward homeowner policy. The real value comes when an account doesn't fit neatly into standard underwriting guidelines.

"It's very easy to write a clean risk," Rivera says. "When risks become more difficult, whether it's a loss history, a vacant property, a short-term rental, or builder's risk, that's where the creativity of the underwriters at RPS is heavily relied upon."