News
US P&C Fronting Market Estimated at $30 Billion as MGA Growth Fuels Expansion
The U.S. property & casualty fronting market experienced healthy growth driven by sustained managing general agent-originated business, even as higher retentions, broader reinsurance use and reserve pressures reshape the risk profile of fronting carriers, according to a report from rating agency AM Best.
Market estimates indicate $30 billion of U.S. P&C insurance industry premium was fronted as of year-end 2025, according to AM Best. The rating agency’s review of 16 AM Best-rated specialized fronting organizations found their aggregate direct premiums written reached $19.2 billion in 2025, up 17.1% from $16.4 billion in 2024, extending a decade-long run of double-digit annual growth.
Geopolitical risks and AI-driven cyberattacks key risk factors for European re/insurers in 2027: S&P
Geopolitical risks and AI-driven cyberattacks are set to remain key risk factors for European re/insurers in 2027, according to new commentary from S&P Global Ratings.
S&P’s new report has suggested that geopolitical risks affect the European insurance sector mainly indirectly, because policies typically exclude acts of war, including those covering business interruption and transport.
As a result, an event such as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz would pose a threat mainly through capital market volatility rather than a rise in claims.
War risks are instead typically covered by specialty insurers, which recently faced accumulated losses of $2.5 billion.
Although this exceeded their annual budget of $2 billion, S&P said a significant rise in premium rates for war cover allowed them to protect their margins.
Financial Results
Zurich Insurance reports 7% rise in P&C premiums, beats solvency expectations
Swiss insurer Zurich Insurance on Thursday reported a 7% rise in nine-month property and casualty gross written premiums, helped by higher rates in the firm's retail business.
- Gross written premiums at the property and casualty business rose 7% to $42.1 billion in the first nine months of the year
- Zurich Insurance completed the acquisition of UK-based specialty insurer Beazley on Oct. 1
- "Our diversified business model and disciplined approach allow us to ... confirm our confidence that we will exceed all our targets," Chief Financial Officer Claudia Cordioli said in a statement
- Zurich Insurance targets a compound annual growth rate of more than 9% and a core return on equity above 23% between 2025 and 2027
- The firm's Swiss solvency test reached 271%, two percentage points higher than analysts' expectations according to a company-provided poll
Allianz’s record profit hides a rough quarter for P&C |
Cat costs jumped from 0.3 to 5.1 points of the Q3 loss ratio even as nine-month group profit hit a record
Allianz SE reported a ecord nine-month operating profit of €14.1 billion, up 7.8% year on year, as the group released its third-quarter results. The more instructive figure, however, sits inside the property-casualty segment, where natural catastrophe costs shifted dramatically.
Cat losses consumed 5.1 percentage points of the Q3 loss ratio, up from just 0.3 percentage points in Q3 2025. The result: the quarterly combined ratio deteriorated from 91.9% to 93.8%, P&C operating profit dropped 7.9% to €2.2 billion, and a segment that had been tracking ahead of its full-year targets found itself absorbing a material hit in a single quarter.
CCC Revenue Rises 10% in Third Quarter Ahead of Sale to GTCR-Led Group
CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings Inc. reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $294.1 million, up 10.1% from $267.1 million a year earlier, according to the company’s Oct. 29 earnings release. Citing its pending acquisition, CCC said it has suspended its guidance and is not holding a call or webcast on the results.
“CCC delivered strong third quarter results, with revenue growth of 10% and adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 44%,” said Githesh Ramamurthy, chairman and CEO of CCC. “Our performance reflects the durability of our business, the trust customers place in us, and the increasing role our platform plays in helping participants across the insurance economy operate more efficiently and achieve better outcomes.”
State News
How home insurance could change in California under Jane Kim
[Ed. Note: "Disaster Insurance for all" via a non-profit sounds enticing yet adverse selection, coverage limitations necessary to attempt financial viability have proven insurmountable obstacles. The National Flood Insurance Program has carried tremendous debt for 21 continuous years with no end in sight and illustrates the challenges ahead. The unpopular CA FAIR Plan provides another example and the untested CA Earthquake Authority should not be compared given persistent wildfire patterns. To this end, best regards to all those endeavoring to make insurance "affordable" by shifting risk]
California’s next insurance commissioner is proposing a major overhaul on how wildfire coverage works in the state. It’s one of several plans Jane Kim has for an office she has described as “under the radar” and “underleveraged.”
Here’s a glimpse:
Natural Disaster Insurance for All: An overhaul on wildfire coverage
Kim is proposing a nonprofit, publicly run program that covers wildfire risk for every existing home in the state, consequently shifting it out of a homeowner’s policy. So, private insurers would still be on the hook to cover risks like water damage or a house fire, while her proposed program takes on wildfires.
Insurers would still sell and bill wildfire coverage. However, the estimated billions of dollars Californians already pay for wildfire coverage would instead go into this program. Part of a homeowner’s wildfire premium would include a “small, capped share” that all California homeowners pay into to cover the “bad wildfire seasons” — one where “no single home, company, or neighborhood could absorb alone.”
Fired judge’s lawsuit alleges California was illegally approving insurance rate hikes - The Business Journal Ricardo Lara sued over alleged illegal insurance rate approvals
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
An administrative judge in California’s Insurance Department who was fired last year is suing Commissioner Ricardo Lara and his former special counsel, accusing them of illegally approving insurance rate increases and undermining the judicial branch of the department.
Kristin Rosi, former chief administrative law judge for the department, filed the lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court in late September. She alleges that Lucy Wang — the former special counsel who was also a deputy insurance commissioner — and other top officials at the department retaliated against her for calling out their practices and refusing to comply with orders to revoke or change her rulings.
AI in Insurance
OutSystems Introduces Agentic Claims Solution to Modernize Policyholder Experiences
OutSystems, the Agentic Systems Platform helping regulated enterprises safely modernize legacy tech and run agentic systems, today announced the expansion of its Agentic Industry Solutions portfolio into insurance with Agentic First Notice of Loss. The pre-built solution enables auto insurers to modernize claims reporting and intake while safely deploying agentic workflows.
By combining customer-facing applications, AI agents, and governed workflows, the solution connects user experiences across existing policy and claims systems and external partners, while maintaining the oversight and control required in a highly regulated industry. While insurers are investing heavily in AI, many are struggling to move beyond experimentation and deliver meaningful improvements to the policyholder experience.
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
Erie Strategic Ventures invests in Blitzy and HiddenLayer to advance innovation in AI infrastructure
Erie Strategic Ventures, the venture capital arm of Erie Insurance (ERIE), today announced investments in two new portfolio companies: Blitzy and HiddenLayer.
"We are continuously exploring high-value ways to safely apply AI," said Keith Kennedy, senior vice president for Next Level Innovation at Erie Insurance. "Partnering with Blitzy and HiddenLayer enables our efforts in these areas."
Blitzy is an autonomous software development platform for enterprise-scale codebases. Blitzy leverages a proprietary ontology and graph to understand codebases of any size. Grounded in this context, Blitzy orchestrates thousands of AI agents in parallel to rapidly modernize legacy systems and accelerate new product development. MORE
Announcements
GEICO donates $100,000 to expand collision repair tech pipeline
GEICO Philanthropic Foundation donates $100,000 to expand collision repair technician pipeline
Funding will power student recruitment and employer engagement to help address the U.S. technician shortage
The Collision Engineering Career Alliance (Collision Engineering) announced a $100,000 grant from the GEICO Philanthropic Foundation (GPF), GEICO’s charitable arm. The funding will give partner colleges standardized tools to attract students, engage employers and strengthen the pipeline of skilled collision repair technicians nationwide.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 14,600 annual openings for collision repair technicians through 2034, yet training programs supply only 42% of that demand, according to the TechForce Foundation 2026 Technician Supply, Demand & Opportunity Report. Through a two-year associate degree and paid, hands-on apprenticeships, Collision Engineering helps students turn an interest in vehicle repair into a career.
“This donation gives Collision Engineering the national backbone every partner college needs to recruit more effectively, engage more employers and grow with confidence,” said Mary Mahoney, president of the Collision Engineering Career Alliance. “When industry, education and employers come together like this, we can offer more students in more communities hands-on training, paid apprenticeships and meaningful careers.”
Fraud
The A.I. Arms Race Against Insurance Fraud
Insurance fraud is on the rise.
In the U.S. alone, The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud estimates that annual insurance fraud activity is running at more than $306 billion, driven predominantly by technology.
That includes hard fraud, which is a deliberate fraudulent act, and soft fraud, which is more opportunistic.
But help is at hand in the form of artificial intelligence, which special investigation units and claims departments can use as a tool to detect, prevent and tackle fraud.
The two key causes of the marked increase in fraud in recent years, said Ron Schraml, director of SIU at CorVel, are economic pressures and technology. Added to that, he said insurers have become better at identifying fraud, bringing more of it to light.
“Economic uncertainty can increase the incentive for opportunistic fraud, while advances in A.I. and digital tools have made it easier to create convincing fraudulent documentation, manipulate images, and orchestrate increasingly sophisticated schemes,” said Schraml. “At the same time, technology has made fraud more scalable, allowing bad actors to operate with greater speed and efficiency than ever before.