XL Catlin was 2016’s highest-performing large commercial insurer in terms of customer satisfaction, according to the latest J.D. Power study.

CNA, Chubb, Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies and a pre-merger ACE (which acquired Chubb) rounded out the top 5.

Those designations as contained in J.D. Power’s 2016 Large Commercial Insurance Study are based on commercial insurer customer satisfaction. Five factors are considered in the ranking and rating: service interaction, program offerings, price, billing process and claims. Brokers are also ranked based on attributes including quality of advice, reasonable fees and variety of program offerings.

A perfect score is 1,000, and top-ranked XL Catlin scored a 773. CNA (767), Chubb (765), Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies (763) and ACE (761) are not far behind. (ACE and Chubb are measured separately due to the timing of the survey fielding, J.D. Power said.)

What J.D. Power found most noteworthy in terms of insurer rankings: There was a significant correlation (.67 percent) between customer satisfaction and insurer profitability, as measured by total commercial combined financial ratios. J.D. Power noted that XL Catlin, CNA and Chubb all had “among the industry’s strongest combined ratios,” suggesting that the most profitable insurers are able to support more flexible underwriting standards to meet customer needs more effectively.”

Another standout item: J.D. Power said that a flexible program design appeared to impact satisfaction in a positive way.

“Providing flexible program design and implementation is the most impactful single key performance indicator for commercial insurers,” J.D. Power noted. “However, the study finds that is not a standard practice – the rate at which insurers deliver on this [key performance indicator] is only 47 percent.”

J.D. Power ranked Lockton as its highest-performing broker.

The study, conducted with RIMS (the risk management society), is based on responses from more than 1,400 risk professionals or employees who handle oversight or are part of their companies’ risk management team. It is the third annual study.

Source: J.D. Power