A Positive Outlook for Mutual Insurers
By Megan Brown ARM, MIP, CWCP, CAWC
President
Last month, I attended the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) annual convention in San Diego, California. NAMIC, a 125-year-old organization that supports mutual insurance companies through advocacy, compliance, industry benchmarking, education, and networking. Recent research, presented at NAMIC reveals a notable shift in buyer sentiment and behavior within the commercial insurance market, with mutual insurance companies gaining favor and outperforming their stock counterparts across critical performance metrics.
Some of the key findings relating to mutual insurance companies include:
- Industry favorability has increased by 11 points since 2019 in the commercial insurance sector.
- Growing familiarity and awareness of mutual insurance companies increased by 13% between 2019 – 2025
- Mutual insurance companies have 53% of the Michigan market share.
- Mutuals are strongly associated with financial strength, excellent customer service and fair claims handling.
- Mutuals outperform stock insurers in all key brand attributes.
Importantly, 93% of the buyers surveyed indicated they are likely to consider a mutual insurer for their next policy, which outpaced stock insurers (84%). This preference is largely driven by factors such as fair claims settlement practices, service quality, price stability, affordability and financial strength.
Given the positive trends, mutual insurers are well-positioned to capitalize on shifting market preferences, with a clear lead in trust-driven attributes. Prioritizing service, transparency, and affordability can further strengthen competitive positioning and long-term retention.
The report lists the following headwinds for mutual insurance companies: adverse development, increased competition for the same business, economic and inflation uncertainty as well as legal system abuse. Conversely, tailwinds such as positive results for the first 2-3 quarters that carryover through the rest of the year, strong industry capital as well as stability in the reinsurance market were mentioned.
While reviewing the research, it is clear that MTM already embodies many of the strengths attributed to successful mutual insurers. MTM’s financial strength is noted by our AM Best A- (Excellent) Stable rating, excellent customer service and fair claims settlements are depicted in our 97% retention rate and combined loss ratio of 86.3%.
As MTM moves into 2026, we will be celebrating 50 years of service to Michigan employers and pride ourselves on maintaining these core attributes.
Our vision is:
“To be Michigan’s most trusted partner for workers’ compensation insurance by delivering innovative, responsive and cost-effective solutions that support Michigan businesses focusing on employee safety and productivity.”
Thank you for being an MTM policyholder and allowing us to be your responsive and cost-effective workers’ compensation insurance partner.
