Eames Insights: The impact of natural disasters and increasing loss types on the P&C actuarial market in the US

With the uncertain impacts of natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes, and increasing loss types, which lines of business will have the greatest opportunity for growth in the next three years?

Natural disasters like Hurricane Ian and the California wildfires do not only impact the property real estate market, but the catastrophes also impacted various States on different levels across property insurance.

I spoke with four senior P&C Actuarial leaders in the US who shared their insights on how it’s impacted their business and which lines of business they see as the key growth opportunities in their company.

• “With the high volatility and high loss cost in the property market, we do not necessarily see that market as the largest growth area. For example, some of the major insurance carriers exited the California Homeowners market because of the uncertainty of catastrophic events (i.e. wildfires). Some of the smaller insurance companies would see this as an opportunity to pick up some of the property businesses that the larger companies sold.” – Chief Actuary, Global P&C insurance

• “Reinsurance has a different strategy in that market as the Reinsurance costs increase on the property book and the property side of business picked up for Reinsurance. So did the Reinsurance Brokerage market on the Property side as they’re closely related to Reinsurance carriers; however, there might be a bit more demand on the property side.” - Senior Actuary, Top Tier Global Reinsurance Brokerage

• “Smaller commercial lines are one of the areas that companies can continue to grow steadily as they have a larger amount of data, and in most cases, insurance companies can cross-sell their coverage. For example, if an insurance carrier is insuring a business owner on Workers’ Comp, they could also cross-sell other policies covering General Liability, Professional Liability, etc.”– Head of Pricing, US leading P&C Insurance

• “The property side does incur higher loss cost and higher reinsurance costs. As a growing business, if the premium increases, it would still be a good business opportunity to take over some of the market shares while other businesses sell the book to avoid high volatility and risk.” – Head of Pricing, International P&C Insurance

If you are interested in speaking further on these topics or you would like to have a confidential chat about your next career move or business objectives, please do not hesitate to contact me at wise.stine@eamesconsulting.com

Explore other insights: David Miles covers conversations with senior market leaders surrounding what it takes to succeed in the actuarial market and Richard Lazaro who explores the market changes across cyber and E&S within the insurance space in the US