During a panel interview with The Insurer TV, Will Garland, President, Centers of Excellence, North America, reflected on market conditions present during the midyear renewal period, as property lines faced challenges connected with increased demand and inflation amid a daunting capacity environment.
“The property side is well chronicled in terms of the lack of capacity to meet client demands,” he said. “We definitely saw a struggle in terms of lower cat layers, quota share, aggregate programs. A big function of that is historic losses that are coming through, as well as inflation and views on insured value and just the demand that’s needed to meet that matched with supply.”
He went on to describe the market as bifurcated between property and casualty.
“On the casualty side, we’re continuing to see rate coming into the market, and I think there is certainly ample capacity to meet the clients’ needs,” he said.
Will characterized the property market as being “very difficult” in general, spotlighting specific circumstances connected with Florida.
“Coupled with late legislative changes, the timing was very difficult,” he said. “For us, it was a challenge to get deals done in Florida, but I think the market did respond and we got deals done through a combination of different approaches, whether it’s traditional or alternative, to get capacity for Florida.”
Joining Will on the panel were David Marra, President, Renaissance Reinsurance US, and Chris Donelan, CEO of Global Reinsurance, Sompo International. The panelists also discussed the midyear renewal environment in specialty markets, and how midyear trends could affect the upcoming January 1 renewal season.
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