By Jeff Cohen, Senior Vice President, Industry Relations, Zywave
Date: 30 March 2026
At the recent Zywave 2026 Casualty Insights Conference in New York City, one message was clear: today’s casualty market may appear calm on the surface, but no one should mistake it for a soft market. In fact, during his keynote titled “Beyond the Cycle: The Casualty Reset and the New Role of the Wholesale,” CRC Group CEO Dave Obenauer emphasized that the market is “recalibrating, not softening.” Zack Bucci, SVP of Casualty for Howden US, agreed. “It’s by no means a soft market or softening market, but the rate of increase is definitely tempering from where it was,” said Bucci during the State of the Market panel discussion.
Despite “cautious optimism” in the U.S. casualty insurance market, experts repeatedly warned the underwriters, brokers, and risk managers present that they must plan for an increasingly risky environment tomorrow.
In the Eye of the “Casualty Hurricane”
Casualty Insights Conference Board Chair Bill Chepulis, Head of Large Casualty for Zurich North America, called the market a “casualty hurricane of sorts. The eye of the hurricane is serene, it’s very quiet. The pricing environment, the capacity deployment, and general macro view is very stable. But those outer bands have a lot of unpredictability and volatility.”
Shannon Totten, EVP and Casualty Chief Underwriting Officer for North America at Sompo, counseled that all the inflationary pressures facing casualty insurance that led to the “pricing correction year of 2020” still exist. “This is a very unique marketplace in that past market cycles were driven very much by capital – big events taking that capital out and it was very much a supply and demand… now, it’s not that at all. Carriers have really woken up and are not chasing the market,” she said.
The day’s sessions zeroed in on that unpredictability, and the forces surrounding the market, which could upend the current stability. From some early signs of concern on U.S. workers compensation loss trends to the rise of AI as a potential liability exposure, several of the speakers voiced their thoughts on the latest forecast for this ‘casualty hurricane” amid an evolving world. With fewer disagreements over “What the market is,” the marketplace leaders are shifting towards “How do we navigate it, what are the solutions, how do we get through this, and also how do we think about maximizing and optimizing across the carrier–broker–customer triangle?,” said Chepulis.
Key Themes and Takeaways
Other key themes and takeaways from the 8 panels & presentations at the conference included:
Market Stakeholders Are More Aligned Than Ever
Carriers, brokers, and buyers now share a clearer understanding of what’s driving the market and are turning their focus toward solutions and outcomes rather than debating fundamentals. “We’re much more aligned,” commented Chepulis. “Now it’s about navigating the market together, figuring out the right solutions and how to maximize value across that triangle.”
The Pace of Change Is Redefining Industry Agility
“The speed of change today is unprecedented,” noted Jackie Bolig, Head of Placement and Broking Solutions for CRB North America at WTW. The challenge, she said, is helping clients adapt while accelerating the industry’s own ability to deliver advice, solutions, and strategies in real time. “That pace – that speed – is at the top of everybody’s mind.”
Partnerships Demand Insights, Not Just Transactions
Risk managers and insurance buyers increasingly expect brokers and insurers to deliver actionable insights and loss analysis rather than just advantageous quotes. They’re rewarding creativity that leads to real improvements in risk mitigation and insurance outcomes, and buyers are showing an increasing willingness to embrace alternative risk transfer solutions when the value is clear.
Innovation and Data Must Drive the Next Wave
Many of the 33 speakers called for the industry to move beyond “as-is” renewals and bring more creativity to program design. During The Risk Manager’s Perspective panel moderated by Tracey Estes, CUO at ICW Specialty, the risk managers emphasized the need for insurance providers to leverage data that showcases underlying trends and anticipate future exposures. As a side note, it was eye-opening to hear so many references to AI while knowing that this topic had never come up once during the previous 15 years in which we’ve hosted this annual conference.
Looking ahead
“Casualty remains the most challenged part of the marketplace,” Obenauer said. While pricing pressure has dropped off and insurer underwriting results have been solid, the industry’s headwinds loom. “The underlying loss cost pressures, whether it’s social inflation, driven sometimes by litigation funding, whether it’s the lack of meaningful tort reform and the general environment of the way claims have been evolving and settling is keeping a lot of pressure on the loss cost trends.”
The focus for brokers, Obenauer said, should be on client outcomes and matching coverage to insureds by exposure, geography, and industry. “The reality is, the best outcomes are often outcomes that are planned for, that are recurring relationships that we’re thinking about together with our clients. To be sure, we understand how those businesses are changing, how the marketplace is changing, and what coverages are evolving to help address those needs. To us, a more medium-term view of cycles and accounts and risk is a valuable thing to do as opposed to being just transactional.”
I agree wholeheartedly with Dave Obenauer’s point that, “In my view, it’s less about the premium. It’s more about the coverage.” As insurance buyers face increasing premiums, reduced limits, and more effort to set up higher towers, the escalating trajectory of risk demands a heightened vigilance be applied to coverage terms and conditions while all parties keep a close watch on the factors circling the eye of the casualty hurricane.
Zywave will host our next annual Casualty Insights Conference in NYC on Thurs March 4, 2027.
Jeff Cohen can be reached via [email protected]