What is your take on the current state of the specialty insurance market?

Dynamic! The global specialty insurance market is projected to reach over $270 billion by 2030. The E&S market continues to grow at a faster rate than the general P/C market. In 2023, the E&S market saw 14.5% growth. The E&S market now is in excess of $85 billion and very quickly approaching $100 billion. The market continues to be poised for growth. We do see continued business flowing into the E&S market and the specialty markets. The world certainly continues to be a riskier place. We see our businesses and industries becoming more specialized, even more interconnected. This also brings more complex risk.

What are some trends or challenges you anticipate in your business as we move into 2025?

Inflation tends to be the first thing that comes to mind. We certainly see continued rising claims and insurance costs that are tied to increased litigation as well as legal system abuse. Cyber is also top of mind as a product offering. There’s also a continued focus on climate change as a challenge and an emerging risk, and the repercussions of how the climate crisis  impacts our industry. We see the natural disasters — whether it’s floods, wildfires, or storms — continue to increase at alarming rates. I also see signs of the moderating market, and this is a call for action to keep a keen focus on risk selection.

How are your partners and customers benefiting from Munich Re Specialty’s new unified global approach? 

First and foremost, it’s ensuring that our partners have access to the full breadth of products and services across the Munich Re Specialty group. As with any large global organization, there is always an element of complexity, but we do not want to be complicated. We want to simplify access to the offerings that we have. We leverage tools and expertise and capabilities across the organization to expedite efficiency in the system and the ease of doing business, and bringing together a technical expertise to think about new product innovations. As an example, we recently launched a California FAIR Plan Commercial Wrap policy. After the successful launch of our surety practice in 2022, we’re now launching surety across Europe. This will be led by our Global Markets team out of Europe. We have also collaborated with our Global Markets and our HSB teams to develop cyber solutions.

What makes Munich Re a leader in the specialty market? 

Munich Re has made a significant commitment to the specialty insurance space by bringing all of our specialty insurance capabilities across the globe together as a single global specialty insurance organization. We have now branded ourselves as Munich Re Specialty. Our approach and value to the market rests on three pillars: expertise, partnership, and stability. We’ve built a dynamic team that has a great understanding of risk and risk assessment, and strives to achieve an understanding of our brokers and customers and the challenges that we all face. In today’s riskier world, selecting the right partner is more important than ever.

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