Casualty renewals for the January 1, 2021 period varied widely, depending on individual circumstances including loss experience, covered lines and industry classes written. Every placement experienced some degree of continued reinsurance underwriting rigor around stress factors broadly encompassed by social inflation, the low interest rate environment and communicable disease.
Global casualty renewal themes included:
· Pricing was heavily dependent on factors noted above.
· Generally, ample capacity was available across most casualty lines.
· For some programs with more challenging loss experience or industry classes, there was additional pressure on other treaty terms/conditions and pricing.
· Financial lines were an anomaly in the casualty market, with stable to improving terms due to the strong underlying rate environment as well as continued carrier underwriting discipline.
· Cyber aggregate capacity saw continued tightening, driving increased pricing.
· There was some new or expanded client interest in casualty clash coverage.
For casualty placements, contract language requirements around pandemic and communicable disease varied by line of business with workers compensation, long-term care, casualty clash and casualty programs with particular exposures requiring the most discussion.
