Commercial auto is doing all the work in the Southeast this month — and Georgia is where it's concentrated.
This month's screen — approved rate increases touching 1,000+ policyholders at severity 4–5 in workers comp and commercial auto — surfaced a cluster of Georgia commercial-auto hikes led by State Farm's 13%, and not one qualifying workers-comp increase. Every story on this page is auto, and nearly all of it is Georgia. Here's what your clients are about to feel.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
State Farm takes 13% on Georgia commercial auto — its second straight hike, with hired, non-owned and UM rising far more
Approved July 24, effective October 12. State Farm's Georgia commercial auto book — 26,135 policyholders and $61.1M in premium, the region's largest qualifying filing this cycle — takes an average 13%, on top of an 8.2% increase last year. The average understates the pain: hired- and non-owned-auto and uninsured-motorist coverages rise well above the book average, so accounts that lean on borrowed vehicles or run thin on UM limits feel it most. Underneath the rate, State Farm feeds more claims and driver data into its Customer Rating Index, adds equipment MSRP as a rating variable, and removes a vehicle-use exception under Rule 314 — the scoring detail is on Page 3. Two 13%-and-8% years compound to roughly 22% above 2024, so model the stacked effect at renewal, not the headline.
Also Approved This Cycle
Church Mutual raises Georgia commercial auto 24.9% — school buses up ~55%, against an 82.9% indicated need
Church Mutual won 24.9% on its Georgia commercial auto book — capped down from a requested 32% — with school buses rising roughly 55%. The carrier's actuarial indication was 82.9%, so this filing closes barely a quarter of the gap; the rest reloads for the next one. Church Mutual is a monoline specialist in religious congregations and schools, and Rules 209/210 now spell out that it will not waive additional or return premiums. Church, school and camp fleets should budget for a second wave.
Canal's second Georgia hike of 2026: +10.1% on truck fleets, a 37.6% indication still unfilled
Canal takes another 10.1% on its Georgia commercial auto book — its second 2026 increase after a 21.5% move in January — while its own indicated need sits at 37.6%. A new 25% cap on individual policy increases softens year one, but the gap between 10.1% taken and 37.6% needed tells you the book isn't done. Canal also realigns ZIP codes to ISO territories and rebuilds its experience-rating algorithm to strip default minimum credits, so clean-loss haulers can lose credit they used to get automatically.
Acuity resets Kentucky commercial auto UM/UIM base rates — a correction, not a headline percentage
Acuity filed no book-wide rate number, but the substance is severe: uninsured/underinsured-motorist base rates are raised dramatically as a correction, the carrier adopts revised ISO increased-limit factors, and it cuts physical-damage experience-rating credibility to 75%. Accounts carrying high UM/UIM limits or relying on clean-loss physical-damage credit are where the real movement lands — the flat headline hides it.
Why no workers comp on Page 1?
WC is quiet-to-favorable across the Southeast this cycle — no workers-comp rate increase met our impact bar. The qualifying comp filings this window went the policyholder's way: Auto-Owners cut North Carolina comp 7.6% (its own indication supported a 31% reduction), and EMC launched a new Alabama small-business comp program as a 30-tier model rather than a rate hike. Both live on Page 3, where the structure — not the rate — is the story. That's why every Page 1 headline here is commercial auto.
An abuse and sexual-misconduct liability wave is repricing the Southeast's churches, camps and youth programs.
Same screen, every other commercial line: the standout this cycle is a cluster of abuse-and-molestation repricings hitting religious, youth and social-service accounts. Southern Mutual Church's 62.2% Georgia move — its first major revision since 2008 — leads it, with Philadelphia Indemnity taking 24.9% on Alabama abuse-and-molestation coverage right behind. Alongside the wave, a multi-state construction-liability tightening and a Georgia package increase round out the qualifying list.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Southern Mutual Church takes 62.2% on Georgia sexual-misconduct liability — its first major revision since 2008
Approved July 21, effective November 1. Southern Mutual Church Insurance repriced its Georgia sexual-misconduct liability book — 1,947 policyholders — 62.2% higher, its first major revision to these rates since 2008 and an explicit move to catch up to competitor pricing from Church Mutual, Arch, Central Mutual, AIG and the Hartford. At roughly $82 of premium per policyholder, these are small congregational accounts, so the dollar increase per church is modest — but a 62.2% step after eighteen years flat signals how sharply the market has re-rated abuse and misconduct exposure. Religious congregations carrying this coverage should expect the whole segment to keep moving; this is the first of the catch-up filings, not the last.
Three Filings Worth a Closer Look
Philadelphia Indemnity raises Alabama abuse-and-molestation coverage 24.9%
The second front of the abuse wave: Philadelphia Indemnity secured 24.9% on Alabama sexual-abuse-and-molestation coverage against a 31.9% indicated need — so more is loading. The exposed classes read like a map of the risk: schools, healthcare and residential care, social services, camps, recreation, lodging and religious organizations. Any nonprofit or youth-serving account that bolted this coverage on cheaply is the one to review before the March 2027 effective date.
Spinnaker's Harborway hits North Carolina GL 14% — and it's a four-state program tightening at once
Spinnaker's Harborway general-liability book takes 14% in North Carolina against a 31.9% indicated need, but the coverage cut is the real filing: total roofing-operations, open-roof and spontaneous-combustion exclusions, a new batch clause, and contractors E&O rates up 32%. This isn't a one-state move — companion Harborway filings cleared in Tennessee (+9.1%), Kentucky and Louisiana this same cycle, all adding the same sweeping construction exclusions. Contractors and building trades placed through Harborway anywhere in the Southeast should audit the new exclusions now.
Nationwide takes 7.7% on Georgia businessowners — but food service jumps 17%
Nationwide's Georgia BOP book takes 7.7% overall against an 11.4% indicated need, with food-service classes absorbing roughly 17% amid habitational-liability losses. The filing also adds optional single-limit business-income/extra-expense coverage, drone coverage, and townhouse unit-owner additional-insured rules. Restaurants, retail, wholesale and real-estate accounts are squarely in scope — and the food-service class is where the average breaks down first.
The Rest of the Qualifying List — Harborway's Multi-State Program
| State | Carrier | Line / Sub-type | Severity | Policyholders | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TN | Spinnaker (Harborway) | Other Liability — GL | 4 / 5 | 1,000 | Nov 1, 2026 |
| KY | Spinnaker (Harborway) | Other Liability — GL | 4 / 5 | — | Nov 1, 2026 |
| LA | Spinnaker (Harborway) | Other Liability — GL | 4 / 5 | — | Nov 1, 2026 |
Also on the radar
The abuse-liability repricing isn't confined to package and specialty forms — it's rewriting auto and GL contracts too. Navigators (The Hartford) added assault-and-sexual-abuse exclusions to its Arkansas commercial-auto forms, and Cincinnati broadened assault/battery and weapons exclusions across a 7,831-policy Virginia GL book — both carried on Page 3. And the cycle's biggest structural repricing, Great American's sports & wellness GL (+52.3%) — a competitor book assumed from Vantapro with its medical-expense limit halved — leads Page 3.
Under the rate line: a competitor book changes hands, mileage-based auto rating arrives, and abuse exclusions spread.
Same region, the filings whose headline rate hides the action: new scoring algorithms, underwriting-guideline changes, coverage contraction and market exits approved in July. Great American assumed an entire sports-and-wellness book from Vantapro and repriced it 52.3% while halving the medical limit; two carriers rebuilt commercial-auto pricing around mileage and index scores; and a run of abuse, assault and weapons exclusions kept spreading across auto and GL forms.
Industries in this page's filings
Lead Filing · Book Assumption + Rate
Great American assumes the Vantapro sports & wellness book and reprices it 52.3% — while halving the medical-expense limit
Approved July 13, effective December 1. Great American's SHS Sports & Wellness program is taking over the Vantapro general-liability book across the Southeast, and in Tennessee it reprices that assumed book 52.3% against a 127.8% indicated need — while cutting the medical-expense limit from $25,000 to $10,000, so insureds pay materially more for materially less. Read the companion Georgia and North Carolina filings alongside it: those show 0% because Great American is assuming the same program onto its own brand-new (empty) book, with the same halved medical limit and the same amenity terms — the 52.3% is what the in-force Vantapro policyholders actually feel. New optional classifications and buy-backs appear for coaches, saunas, cryotherapy, cold plunge and other amenities, plus a $750,000 damage-to-premises option. Gyms, studios, leagues and wellness centers renewing here should treat the medical-limit cut as the headline: the rate is barely 40% of the carrier's indicated need, so the next filing is already loading.
New Scoring Models — The Trend Is Real
Canal brings mileage-based rating to North Carolina — and it runs on your ELD data
Canal's North Carolina commercial auto filing is 0% overall — a revenue-neutral switch to a fixed-per-unit-plus-per-mile rating basis — but the mechanism is the change. A new telematics-based Travel Tier requires mandatory ELD data sharing, so how far and how a fleet actually runs now drives its premium directly. Low-mileage, well-documented operators can win; high-mileage haulers without clean telematics can pay more even at a flat book average.
Chubb launches Advanced Auto in two states with GLM-based multivariate tiering
Chubb rolled out its Advanced Auto commercial program in Virginia and Mississippi at 0% — new business on an empty book — but the model is the story: granular GLM-based multivariate tiering, plus dedicated high-value-vehicle and entertainment-industry plans and a broad-form endorsement (gap, vinyl-wrap, personal property, roadside). It's a pricing framework, not a rate action; accounts get sorted into tiers from day one, and the entertainment and specialty-vehicle appetite is the tell.
EMC launches a 30-tier predictive model for Alabama small business — in comp and auto at once
EMC introduced new Alabama small-business programs in both workers comp and commercial auto built on a 30-tier predictive-model rating structure. The comp program adopts current NCCI loss costs at a 1.35 multiplier with a $1,500 maximum minimum premium; the auto program adds a mileage factor and an unreported-driver endorsement carrying a $5,000 deductible. Both are 0% on paper — the tiering is what determines where each small account lands.
Underwriting Guideline Changes & Market Exits
T.H.E. Insurance exits its South Carolina amusement & entertainment auto program
AXA XL's T.H.E. Insurance fully withdrew all rates, rules and forms for its amusement-and-entertainment commercial auto program in South Carolina — a cleanup filing after the policies were transferred elsewhere. Amusement, carnival and entertainment auto is a hard class to place, so any operator whose renewal traces back to this program should confirm where its coverage actually landed rather than assume continuity.
Cincinnati adds assault/battery and weapons exclusions to a 7,831-policy Virginia GL book
Behind a modest 4.8% Virginia general-liability increase, Cincinnati adds an assault-or-battery exclusion and broadens its firearm/weapons exclusions — the same risk the abuse-liability filings on Page 2 are repricing, now written directly into GL contracts. A new broad-form named-insured option is added for real-estate operations. Habitational, hospitality and social-service accounts should read the exclusion language, not the rate line, before the April 2027 effective date.
Navigators adds assault/sexual-abuse exclusions to Arkansas auto — and quietly exits logging
Navigators (The Hartford) added assault-and-sexual-abuse exclusions to its Arkansas auto-dealer, business-auto and fleet forms, broadened the loading/unloading-of-persons exclusion, and withdrew its logging-industry and minimum-earned-premium endorsements — a niche exit signaled through the forms. Passenger-movement and abuse exposure is being carved out of auto policies here, and logging accounts placed through Navigators need a new home.
Coverage Contraction
Philadelphia's 3.9% Georgia GL hides a new swimming-pool surcharge and 20% for affordable housing
Philadelphia Indemnity's Georgia general-liability filing shows just 3.9% overall against a 17.9% indicated need — but the average buries where it lands. New swimming-pool surcharge factors (1.08–1.15) attach to HOAs, apartments and condos, and affordable-housing and rehabilitation-facility classes face increases up to 20%. Apartment, HOA and social-service accounts with pools should expect well more than the headline.
Central cuts North Carolina auto 5.9% overall — but auto dealers rise up to 28.7%
Central Insurance adopts ISO 06/2026 loss costs and trims its North Carolina commercial auto book 5.9% overall, revising increased-limit factors and territory multipliers. But the average is a decrease only in aggregate: auto dealers face increases up to 28.7%. It's a reminder that a favorable book headline can still hide a punishing move for one class — dealers here are the class to check.
Also on the radar
The counter-notes matter too. Auto-Owners cut North Carolina workers' comp 7.6% — though its own indication supported a 31% reduction, so the give-back is smaller than the math allows. In auto, BITCO trimmed Georgia commercial auto 3.5% while rolling out a LexisNexis driver-tier model that can still swing an individual account 15%, and Grange took 10.7% in Georgia against a 20% indication while adding telematics and ADAS discounts. Meanwhile Great West Casualty raised Tennessee commercial-auto fleets 10.7% (some accounts up 38.8%), and Travelers pushed Mississippi package just 4.8% — but wind base rates rose 66% and hail 43%, a reminder that catastrophe-exposed property keeps repricing underneath flat headlines.
