Commercial insurance is designed to cover businesses in multiple areas from asset protection (covering theft or disaster), litigation defense (the company being sued) and employee care (healthcare, workers’ compensation). Insurance also provides legal compliance in industries where certain coverages are mandated, business continuity to cover lost income during downtimes, and now more than ever, cyber insurance, coverage for hacking events, malware and ransomware, phishing and social engineering.
“Most Nevada businesses are really living in almost a two-speed market,” said Matt Harris, CEO, Coreprime. “There are certain lines of coverage, like property and workers’ comp, those buyers are finally seeing rate relief. But anything touching one of the coverages like liability excess auto, like umbrella coverage in auto, those are lines of coverage that are still under real pressure, rising significantly, just due to claims severity and litigation costs, some of those usual suspects.”
Rate relief, where it exists, is from a long-running hard market over the past couple years. “A lot of it was driven by natural disasters that caused crisis in the insurance market; and took a couple years to play out. Now finally those lines of coverage are normalizing, or softening,” said Harris.
Commercial insurance is largely deregulated in Nevada. Carriers aren’t required to file rates or policy forms with Nevada Division of Insurance. “The idea behind the commercial market being deregulated is that most large companies are sophisticated enough to negotiate with the insurance companies directly, to come to terms on what type of coverage they’re looking for, also what kind of price they’re looking for,” said Ned Gaines, commissioner, Nevada Division of Insurance.
Insurance is a cost of doing business, but that cost has been rising over recent years. Significant commercial insurance market pressures impact small and mid-size businesses across different industries.
The transportation industry, for example, is feeling pressure in terms of affordability and availability, specifically in Clark County because of the tourism industry. “Over the last several years, [there have been] increases in the amounts of tourists filing claims against van services, limo services, some of the other transportation companies like Uber and Lyft,” said Gaines. Uber and Lyft are primarily self-insured, but other companies like those that rent dune buggies and recreational vehicles, are feeling pressure. The availability of companies even writing coverage has declined significantly—there are only a few writing policies in the area and those that are here have raised their rates. “There are requirements that transportation companies have at least a million dollars in liability coverage. That’s one of the reasons why costs have gone up, because it was $500,000.”
Nevada Division of Insurance doesn’t have direct oversight of rates but is monitoring situations like these looking for areas to work on and potentially help bring down costs.
“I would say the number one market pressure is commercial auto,” said Matt Zipprich, partner/vice president, USI Insurance Services. “It’s just an incredibly tough line of coverage for us here in Clark County specifically. Up north the rates are a third essentially of what they are in Clark County and that has been a tough line of business for six or seven years.” Zipprich lists the litigious nature of Nevada as a whole and Clark County in particular, third-party litigation funding, nuclear verdicts against carriers, and jury pools that aren’t business friendly as factors behind that market pressure. With higher claim settlements, the cost of medical going up and vehicle repair cost going up, the cost of liability risk is huge. Premiums continue to rise year over year.
Some of those costs are softening, but it still sounds like a lot, and everyone in business is facing the same risks. It’s not if an accident or claim happens, it’s when. Best practices include best in class risk profiles, and even that has changed—what was best in class risk profiles for auto coverage is now considered the bare minimum. That’s tailored to fleet safety policies, specifically outlining policies on distracted driving, cell phone usage, eating, drinking or smoking in the vehicle. It includes pre- and post-drive vehicle checks and maintenance schedules. If that sounds like a lot, even companies with relatively small fleet numbers are using inward facing cameras and out of cab cameras, matching data from both to help prevent losses.
“That’s super important in this day and age because you have negligent entrustment and negligent retention issues,” said Zipprich. An employee driving a company vehicle with a suspended license or a DUI record who has a family and can’t afford to lose their job is still uninsurable. “If they get into an accident, when you’re sitting in front of a jury or trying to mediate this case pretrial settlement, the question becomes why was the money to monitor your employee’s MVR (motor vehicle record) not worth this person’s safety?” said Zipprich.
Today, steps taken that underwriters used to view as “Oh, wow, I can’t believe the company is taking such precautions” are today considered “We really want you to be doing this.” Going the distance to provide protections before insurance even comes into the picture encourages underwriters to get more comfortable writing policies.
Underwriters insure uncertainty. The more vehicles in a company fleet, the more likelihood of an accident. But the more vehicles in a fleet, the better the rates because risk is spread out rather than concentrated.
And there’s always a chance something could go wrong.
Every business has its own inherent risks. The point of insurance is to help avoid injury to customers and employees. Carriers work to help businesses with policies and procedures to ensure safety.
Today, one unwelcome consideration is having an active shooter preparedness plan, something insurance coverage didn’t used to have to consider, and businesses didn’t have to have plans for. But there is coverage available.
There are niche insurance companies offering policies for everything from strip clubs to Vegas businesses that fly visitors in helicopters over private gun ranges and allow them to fire machine guns.
“You can insure anything,” said Zipprich. “Just sometimes the price isn’t going to be comfortable.”
Cybersecurity and cyber insurance are growing exponentially. For every innovation technology makes, bad actors seem to leap farther ahead. Every new tech creates new threat landscapes, from ransomware and malware to phishing and social engineering, putting companies, their data, their customers’ privacy and their reputations at stake.
“Cyber insurance prices have actually come down, but only for businesses that really can prove that they are protected and have strong data protection protocols in place like multifactor authentication and secure backups—really tight IT infrastructure,” said Harris. “Things that in the past earned you a discount? Now they’re what it takes to get you in the door to get a quote.”
One reason for the softening in the cyber insurance market is underwriters have mandated much more stringent controls be in place: multifactor authentication, end point detection and response monitoring threats in real time, constant software updates, patch management controls, data backups—cybersecurity is huge in preventing loss. Underwriters want to know businesses have protections in place.
Brokers and risk managers present clients as best in class risk profiles by ensuring those protections are in place. The main thing carriers want to know is that clients are proactive in risk management and have support if they are attacked, that they’ve cleaned up protocol if there was a past claim.
Because for underwriters, uncertainty leads to being uncomfortable and being uncomfortable leads to higher rates. Businesses want underwriters to be as certain and comfortable as possible.
Different industries have different risk profiles. With cybersecurity, the amount of customer data at risk is taken into account. A candy store may have client credit card numbers on file, but a healthcare organization will have a lot more sensitive data. The more sensitive the data, the more controls underwriters want in place. That’s why rates vary by industry rather than having a blanket cost across the board. “If you think about it from a criminal perspective, hacking somebody that has a $500,000 policy versus going after somebody with a $10 million policy, that’s how they’re viewing it: what’s more worth my time?” said Zipprich.
One of the biggest changes to insurance for business owners in Nevada to be aware of is SB 317, enacted in June 2025 and which took effect October 1, 2026. The Act replaces the old $36,000 payroll cap on workers’ comp with a cap tied to the state’s average wage. “So statewide that’s designed to be premium neutral but there are certain industries this could affect more than others,” said Harris. Construction, manufacturing, employees with higher wage workforces, those kinds of employers could see increases, but basically all businesses should be aware.
There’s been an increased number of claims filed by workers over the past few years, particularly since 2022, and especially in the leisure and hospitality sector. “It’s hard to say what the reason is for that, whether it’s because of actually dangerous situations or carelessness on the worker’s part,” said Gaines.
The increased claims have driven up the cost of workers’ comp, though it’s not a huge increase, and over the past year claims have started to decline again. Workers’ comp claims are unique. Unlike claims like a car accident where the claim might last a year, workers’ comp are called long-tail because they can last for decades depending on the severity of the injury. Costs rise when an insurance company could potentially be paying for 40 years.
Pressure on workers’ comp insurance in Nevada is unique, given the leisure and hospitality industry, and the amount of construction going on statewide.
“Effective March 2027 there’s going to be an overall increase in the workers’ comp market of 8.6 percent. Single digits which we like because it’s not as hard for insurers to take on,” said Gaines. “There was an overall increase that went into effect this year in March, that was 21.6 percent. That’s a pretty significant increase. But important to point out it was the first increase in a number of years.” Not every insured will see a 21.6 percent increase. Amounts vary based on industry, loss history, and type of work performed, but the average is 21.6 percent.
With workers’ comp, instead of each individual company submitting a rate filing, there’s an entity called National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), a third party that all carriers use. Rate filings originate through NCCI. Companies come together, agree on an overall increase and submit the filing for review and approval through the Division of Insurance.
Insurance may be mandatory or best practices, but it’s not cheap. Recent years have seen rates escalate by double digits. Except it’s not always double digits. And it’s not always escalating. Property insurance has seen a minus ten percent from a lot of carriers in Southern Nevada, Zipprich said, though Reno property rates continue to climb with this year’s wildfires.
Cyber and workers’ comp continue to stay soft from a rate perspective. Zipprich has seen renewals where carrier rates were down 10 percent overall on workers’ compensation insurance.
“Believe it or not, the overall market has really softened,” said Harris. “There are certain clients or certain industries that it is not softening. For example, if you’re a contractor or have a fleet of automobiles, if you own apartments or you’re looking for higher liability limits, you’re still experiencing a relatively hard market meaning double digit pressure, double digit rate increases. Because claim costs in those areas keep outrunning the premiums. That’s on the property casualty side of the fence.”
Employee benefits clients are still facing a hard market, with average double digit renewal increases this year, driven mainly by market trends like continuing hospital consolidations. In Nevada, association health plans completed a renewal cycle as a multi-year rate guarantee expired and necessary price increases, largely due to rising healthcare costs, were passed on to businesses.
In Clark County an increase in the number of uninsured drivers and uninsured motorist claims drives rates. Some people can’t afford insurance, others just don’t care, and some drivers need to hang on to a job that requires driving. “The law says if you don’t have insurance you’re not supposed to be on the road,” Gaines said. “But we all know there are some people who are going to drive anyway.”
Residential rather than commercial insurance is expected to jump in Northern Nevada due to the Stallion, Fred Mountain, Bug and Hawk fires. There’s no official number yet, but there were homes destroyed. But the Hawk fire, which burned more than 15,000 acres in late August, only destroyed one commercial property as it burned from Peavine Peak down to US395 in Reno’s North Valleys. That’s still going to make underwriters feel uncomfortable, because it proves risk, so the summer’s wildfires will undoubtedly affect rates in areas affected by those fires. It shouldn’t affect other statewide business.
Nevada Division of Insurance interacts with Nevada businesses primarily through a complaint process. The consumer services section has regulatory oversight on how carriers behave when paying claims, how they follow the laws required to be met in Nevada. Businesses encountering issues with a carrier can contact the division which can file a complaint on the business’s behalf, review procedures, and advocate for the business.
In the sometimes confusing world of insurance, Nevada Division of Insurance doesn’t regulate rates or policy. But they’re a resource for businesses, there to give advice, talk through situations and explain how coverage works, and what kind of coverage a business will probably need.
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