News
Expected Isaias losses unlikely to tip the market
Preliminary projected insured loss estimates for Hurricane Isaias range in the mid-single-digit billions, as it moves toward the Eastern Gulf Coast on Friday, according to a reports by reinsurance brokers.
The storm developed on Wednesday and grew into a Category 3 hurricane by Friday, but the National Hurricane Center said it may weaken before landfall because of wind shear.
Losses from the storm are not expected to “meaningfully” influence Jan. 1 reinsurance renewals due to the abundance of available reinsurance capital, Gallagher Re, the reinsurance brokerage unit of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., said in a report.
‘Unusual’ Isaias Brings Winds, Downed Trees but Fewer Claims Than Expected
Lots of trees and fences were down with some roof damage to homes, businesses and vehicles, as well as flooding and tornadoes in parts of western North Carolina.
But overall, the insured losses from Hurricane Isaias, which made landfall in the Florida Panhandle Friday night, are shaping up to be less than feared—and about one-tenth as costly as 2018’s Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm that hit east of where Isaias came ashore.
Michael cost insurers about $9 billion in Florida claims in 2018, or about $12 billion in today’s dollars.
Why fewer than half of independent agents see carriers as true partners
Independent agents write most property and casualty insurance business in the United States, yet fewer than half view their carriers as true partners, according to a pair of new studies.
According to the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America's 2026 Market Share Report, the independent agency channel places 62% of all property and casualty insurance written in the United States and 87.7% of commercial-lines premium.
The 2026 U.S. Independent Agent Satisfaction Study from JD Power found that 48% of agent-carrier relationships met its criteria for partner status. The finding comes as other industry research examines what independent agents want from their carrier relationships.
Agents who viewed carriers as partners were 43% more likely to recommend those carriers and 37% more likely to report writing more policies with them than they were 12 months earlier.
Research
New Triple-I Index Tracks Insurance Affordability Trends by State - Triple-I®
published Sept. 2, 2026
Triple-I has launched an interactive Affordability Index to help consumers, policymakers, and other stakeholders understand the varied cost drivers of personal auto and homeowners’ insurance throughout the country.
Developed in collaboration with the Insurance Research Council (IRC) – an affiliate of The Institutes, like Triple-I – the index measures insurance costs relative to household income on national and state levels through 2025. Nationwide, auto insurance represented 1.7% of median household income, up 9% from 2020, while homeowners’ insurance accounted for 2.4%, up 24% over the same period.
Looked at more closely, however, affordability varies widely across states due to their distinct risk profiles and market conditions. The index scores each state’s auto and homeowners’ market from most to least affordable, accompanied by an analysis of the specific factors driving these results.
AI in Insurance
Benekiva Introduces Kiva, an AI-Enabled Claims Assistant Built to Support Claims Professionals
Benekiva, a provider of claims technology for insurance carriers, today announced the market introduction of Kiva, its AI Smart Claims Assistant. Embedded in the Benekiva Claims Workbench, Kiva helps claims professionals navigate requirements and next steps while keeping human judgment at the center of the process.
Kiva brings guidance directly into the claim workflow, surfacing relevant reminders, flagging incomplete information and helping examiners identify what needs attention before a claim moves forward.
"An examiner can know the work inside and out and still have an enormous amount to keep track of," said Krista Eger, Vice President of Product at Benekiva. "We built Kiva to provide another set of eyes within the workflow to help someone recognize a missing requirement or see what needs attention next. It is support for the person doing the work, not a substitute for their judgment."
Study: For insurers, AI value depends on trust, transparency
- Insurance leads other industries in strategic commitment to AI.
- Insurers gaining value from AI are prioritizing growth and improvement over cost reduction.
- Significant concerns over accuracy, fairness and safety lead users to override AI decisions.
For all the discourse about an AI hype bubble, many insurers are already seeing big returns from their investments. But to realize those gains, companies have to trust their AI to provide the right answers – and the AI must show that it warrants that trust.
Insurers are showing that Trustworthy AI is productive AI - even if they still override its decisions from time to time.
The insurers realizing value from AI are the ones prioritizing governance, data quality and auditability – and using the technology to grow the business rather than just to cut costs.
Those are some of the themes in the second annual Data and AI Impact Report: The New Economics of Trust, a new report from data and AI leader SAS with research insights from IDC. Another takeaway: AI creates more value when companies use it for more ambitious goals. In what the report calls one of its "most durable findings," deploying AI primarily to cut costs is among its least effective uses.
Announcements
LenderLogix Integrated Jerry Into Mortgage Platform | We are Savers
New dashboard features allow mortgage applicants to shop for homeowners insurance directly during the loan process.
LenderLogix has integrated the Jerry insurance marketplace into its LiteSpeed platform to streamline the mortgage closing process. Borrowers can now access quotes from over 100 insurers directly within their lender's digital dashboard. Why it matters
Lenders are implementing this tool to help borrowers secure coverage earlier, as rising insurance premiums and limited carrier availability frequently cause delays in mortgage closings. Addressing these coverage requirements early helps prevent bottlenecks when finalizing home loans.
The integration connects borrowers to a marketplace of over 100 insurers to simplify coverage procurement. Borrowers also have access to licensed agents for support seven days a week.
Commentary/Opinion
Why insurers need better decisions, not more technology
Despite increasing investment in cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation, insurers continue to struggle to turn technological advances into faster business decisions.
At a recent Insurtech Insights webinar on building the agile insurance enterprise, Earnix vice president of global solutions Drew Lawyer joined Bupa head of strategy Roddy Barnes and Prudential engineering leader Rohan Rayarikar to discuss why greater agility requires more than new technology.
For Earnix, the discussion reflects a fundamental challenge facing the insurance industry: connecting data, systems and workflows to improve decisions across pricing, underwriting and customer engagement. Although insurers are investing heavily in digital capabilities, the real value lies in translating those investments into better risk assessment, stronger margins and improved customer outcomes.
Sapiens Customers Put AI’s Practical Value to the Test
For insurers pursuing core modernization and AI adoption, the most consequential advances may be measured in the number of months removed from product configuration, friction removed from claims and greater confidence that a technology provider will deliver when an implementation becomes difficult.
Those priorities emerged from customer accounts at Sapiens (London) Ignite, held Oct. 5–7 in Nashville. Insurers described both early results and expectations for AI, including faster migration of legacy portfolios, more responsive claims operations and opportunities to rethink customer engagement. Their comments also underscored that automation does not eliminate the need for human judgment—or the complexity of replacing core systems.
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