Welcome to another Friday edition of The Max Revenue Letter, recapping the news, trends, and top producer insights you need, without the boring.

Today: 5 briefs, 2 podcasts, 1 blog, and 1 poll… let’s roll!

Carriers finally get to stop crying into their loss runs. The industry's combined ratio hit 93 in 2025, a 3.6-point improvement, on $61.2 billion in underwriting income, the best showing in a decade. Personal auto and homeowners carried the party, thanks to tech and data analytics supercharging underwriting, claims handling, and ratemaking.

Don't pop champagne on every line, though. Commercial auto stayed $1.9 billion in the red despite improving from 2024's loss, and general liability losses hit a five-year high near $50 billion as social inflation, litigation funding, and rising jury awards keep piling on.

Producer takeaway: The industry's balance sheet is healthy, but that health is unevenly distributed. Casualty lines are still absorbing real pain even as the headline number looks great, so don't let a “better” 2025 talk clients out of adequate limits on the lines still bleeding.

Zooming in on the numbers: the Ivans Index shows five of six major commercial lines pulled back further in Q2, with umbrella posting the sharpest drop, from 9.36% in Q1 to 7.96%. Commercial auto, BOP, and property are all running well below last year's levels, confirming the broad softening CIAB flagged back in Q1.

Two lines are swimming upstream, though. General liability dipped quarter-over-quarter but is still up year-over-year at 5.44%, a sign severity pressure hasn't actually let up. And workers' comp, negative for several quarters running, inched from -1.73% to -1.37%, a small signal the floor may be near.

Producer takeaway: Sell the soft market on property, but don't let GL and comp go on autopilot. The rate data says those two are still worth watching closely.

NOAA says there's an 81% chance this El Niño becomes one of the strongest in 75 years, with sea surface temps already running up to 2.7°C above normal. That's good news for wind: El Niño juices up Atlantic wind shear, which is why AccuWeather just trimmed its 2026 storm count to 8-14 named storms, down from its March call of 11-16.

Don't get complacent, though. 3-5 direct US impacts are still expected, and El Niño typically means a wetter, cooler winter across the South, so freeze and water-damage claims could tick up even as wind exposure eases.

Producer takeaway: Coastal property renewals may finally catch a break on cat load, but don't let clients skip the winter-weather conversation.

McLarens' annual Claims Cost Index shows aviation claims costs climbed 6% to 10.8% across every single tracked category in the last year, with major repairs and OEM costs leading the pack. One popular engine type has seen costs jump 135% over seven years. Oliver Wyman confirms it's structural, not a post-pandemic blip: labor rates are growing at 5.5-6% annually, roughly double the pre-pandemic norm, thanks to skills shortages and OEM pricing power that aren't going away soon.

Producer takeaway: If you write aviation, hull and liability limits set even a year or two ago may already be light. This is a good renewal to revisit valuations before the carrier does it for you.

Quick refresher for anyone catching up: North Carolina became the first state in the nation to ban third-party litigation investment (TPLI) when Gov. Josh Stein signed House Bill 315 into law on June 22. The Prohibit Litigation Investments Act shuts down the practice of outside investors funding lawsuits for a cut of the payout, a $15B+ global industry thats been quietly driving up litigation costs and insurance premiums. The bill passed nearly unanimously, and other states are reportedly already watching NC's playbook.

Now for the invite: After we covered this, one of our posts caught the eye of the NC Chamber, and they've invited Max Revenue readers to join their live session breaking down what this law actually means for businesses and the future of insurance premiums.

"2026 NC's New Third-Party Litigation Investment Law: What Businesses Need to Know"

📅 August 5, 3:00
🔗 Register here

In this episode Clayton Wood, CEO of Pinnacle Benefit Partners, breaks down his simple yet powerful cold-calling strategy that helped him scale his book from zero to seven figures. If you’ve ever thought cold outreach is dead or felt too intimidated to pick up the phone, this episode is your game-changer. He shares his proven scripts, tactics for overcoming gatekeepers, and the mindset shifts that transform beginners into confident pros.

In this episode Trey sits down with Luke Berry, Max Revenue's resident Employee Benefits expert, to break down how he's on pace for his best year ever, $800K in revenue through seven months, projected to hit $1.2M by year end, thanks to AI.

Most producers do not fail because they are lazy. They fail because they fall headfirst into one or more of these traps.