News
Tribute to Stephen Applebaum
Since sharing the sad news of the passing of Stephen Applebaum, phone calls, texts and social media posts have come pouring in. Here are just a few that touch upon the remarkable person he was and the lasting impressions which remain.
'Connected' will continue to be curated and shared within the P&C ecosystem, now in honor and memory of Stephen Applebaum.
Here are just some of the heartfelt messages:
A true professional and a great human being.
I was lucky to meet Stephen so many years ago. He invited me to my first conference in Chicago. His advice still resonates with me today. The industry lost a great one.
Simply put, Stephen was a good dude! Thoughts and prayers to your loss of a friend and to also his family.
One of my favorite people from my Insurtech days. I was lucky to meet him and benefited from two qualities Alan points out. "Stephen was a master at bringing people together." "helping and lifting up others was just his way of being." Thank you for a beautiful reflection. May he rest in peace
My deepest sympathies and condolences to you, Alan, and to Stephen’s family. Stephen was brilliantly unique, curious, humble and helpful.
May his memory be a blessing
What a beautiful tribute to a special person who touched so many lives, Alan. My deepest sympathy to you, his family and many friends. His legacy will live on in so many ways.
Rest in peace! A really great guy and a friend who would help anyone.
Rest in peace! Friend and Mentor.
So sorry to hear this……such a loss to so many. Like
So sorry to hear of Stephen’s passing, sending condolences to his family. He was a great cheerleader for the insurance telematics industry and his erudite commentary will be missed by many.
Stephen was such a great guy. I didn’t know him well as he left CCC shortly after I arrived but he was always so kind, welcoming and supportive of me. He will be missed. Alan, such a great tribute and I’m sure his legacy will live on through your work.
RIP Stephen.
Oh no. What a fine person he was. He was one of the first people I met in insurtech and always so helpful and thoughtful. He will be missed. And your thoughts are spot on, thank you for sharing.
Condolences to the family. I appreciated what he did, and shared with us.
Oh my - very sad. What a great guy… I always enjoyed working with Stephen and respected the work he did in the industry
Thank you for sharing this and giving everyone who worked with Stephen the space to say goodbye. Stephen was instrumental in shaping Connected Claims. It was his vision and guidance that made this event what it became. I remember 2019 vividly... I was leading the agenda the year we grew from 500 to 1,000 attendees, and no one felt the weight of that milestone more than Stephen did. His investment in every detail, his nerves before each event. It all came from how deeply he cared. That event was truly his. He will be deeply missed.
Very sorry to read this news. Always appreciated our exchanges, Stephen’s generosity and expertise.
I’m so saddened to see this. Stephen was such a dear friend and a kind person.
RIP Stephen I enjoyed the conversations we had and the insights you provided. My deepest condolences to the family
RIP Steve- I will miss our conversations- such a gem you were 🙏🏻
Rest in peace my friend. Thanks for many years of friendship. You will be missed.
Such a great tribute, Alan. Stephen will be sorely missed. I first met Stephen many years ago when we were with Solera and remained friends connecting a few times a year. He was such a great person to share ideas with and always willing to help make a connection. I last spoke with him in February as I sought his insight on making a career decision. As always, he was more than willing to chat for a while to discuss pros and cons and listen. I’m better having known him.
May he merit a speedy entry into the heavens and may his family find comfort at this difficult time. He was a leader, mentor, and kind hearted. You will be missed.
Stephen was an incredible person! Prayers for family and friends as we all grieve his passing.
Stephen was one of those rare people who made you feel truly heard — in the industry and beyond. He had a gift for people that was just as sharp as his industry knowledge. I'll treasure our conversations. He is already greatly missed.
So sorry to hear this. Stephen was a true force in the P&C industry with his insights and his amazing ability to connect the dots. Sincere condolences to his family and loved ones. RIP Stephen. 🙏
He held my hand as I tackled my first Connected Claims talk. What a great guy, sending thoughts and prayers to his family
Financial Results
US P&C insurance industry faces weaker growth in 2026 despite improved underwriting results
The US property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry is projected to see underlying growth fall to -3.7% in the first half of 2026, down from 1.6% in 2025, as insurers continue to contend with catastrophe exposure, inflationary pressures and rising claims costs, according to new forecasts from the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) and actuarial and consulting firm Milliman.
In their latest briefing, P&C Economics and Underwriting Projections: A Forward View, Triple-I and Milliman said recovery is expected in 2027 and 2028, although insurers are likely to remain under pressure from economic uncertainty and elevated loss trends over the coming years.
The organisations also forecast replacement cost growth of 2.1% during the first half of 2026, unchanged from 2025 levels. While replacement-cost inflation has moderated from peaks seen in 2022, Triple-I and Milliman expect costs to accelerate again through 2028 and eventually rise faster than overall US inflation.
Property, casualty combined ratio hits decade low as 2025 closes strong
Behind the headline numbers, replacement costs and casualty losses are quietly setting the stage for 2026's next test
The US property and casualty (P/C) insurance industry closed 2025 with its strongest underwriting performance in more than a decade, as the net combined ratio fell to its lowest level in over 10 years following a stretch of heavy catastrophe losses, inflation-driven claims costs and post-pandemic volatility.
Triple-I chief economist and data scientist Michel Léonard (pictured) said the 2025 results should be read against the financial strain of recent years, noting that "insurers continue to operate in an environment marked by elevated catastrophe risk, higher claims severity and ongoing economic uncertainty."
Léonard added that real GDP growth slowed to 2.0% in the first quarter, while CPI inflation stayed at 3.3% in March, above the Federal Reserve's long-term target. Insurance employment fell 1.8% year-over-year in March, lagging the wider labor market.
Personal auto kept improving in 2025, with a net combined ratio of 91.8, 3.5 points better than 2024, while net written premium growth eased to 4.0%, the lowest since 2021. Homeowners posted an NCR of 88.1, the lowest in more than a decade, even with first-quarter catastrophe activity that included the Los Angeles wildfires.
Best’s Special Report: Personal Auto and Homeowners Markets’ Stabilization Evident Despite a Decline in Approved Rate Changes
Average annual rate increases for U.S. private passenger auto and homeowners’ policies shifted back to pre-pandemic levels in 2025, following years of large increases amid elevated losses in each line of business, according to a new AM Best report.
The average approved rate increase for homeowners’ policies dropped off 5.2 percentage points to 8.3% in 2025, compared with a year earlier. For private passenger auto (PPA), the average approved rate increase was 3.7% in 2025, significantly less than the 9.7% level registered in 2024.
“The improvement experienced by U.S. homeowners’ insurers has been driven by both aggressive rate increases and enhanced pricing sophistication in states that had been generating the most adverse results,” said David Blades, associate director, AM Best. “PPA and homeowners underwriting results have made progress, partly because of a concerted push for premium adequacy.”
The report’s underlying analysis is based on a review of Best’s State Rate Filings data, which shows that increased loss frequency and severity across the United States led to spikes in filed rate increases in the personal lines industry in 2023 and 2024. In 2025, there was a significant shift in the magnitude of rate increases following a trend of improving loss ratios for insurers in the prior year, which may signal stabilization after a period of higher rate changes. The improved industry performance was evident from a 9.2 percentage point decrease in the total U.S. homeowners’ industry loss ratio from 74.8 in 2023 to 65.6 in 2025.
AI in Insurance
AI Cements Its Grip on Insurtech as Liability Questions Mount
Q1 2026 InsurTech funding by AI-focused companies signals a market at an inflection point — where investment momentum and emerging liability risks are converging: Gallagher Re.
Artificial intelligence has all but consumed the global insurtech investment landscape — while simultaneously generating a new wave of liability exposures that existing insurance policies are ill-equipped to handle, according to Gallagher Re’s Q1 2026 Global InsurTech Report, as reported by Risk & Insurance.
The big picture: AI-focused companies captured 95.2% of the $1.63 billion in global insurtech funding in Q1 2026, marking one of the strongest investment periods since late 2022.
The surge in capital, however, is running directly into mounting evidence that AI systems are producing real, often uninsured losses.
Industry experts are drawing parallels to the early days of cyber insurance — a market that spent years wrestling with silent exposures before developing affirmative, standalone coverage.
InsureMatch.ai Launches with Bold Mission to Help Americans Save $1 Billion on Auto and Home Insurance
InsureMatch.ai, a new consumer-first insurtech platform, has launched with the ambitious goal of helping American households save a collective $1 billion on auto and home insurance premiums. The entirely free-to-use website simplifies the insurance shopping process by using smart matching technology to connect consumers with top-rated insurance carriers and expert local brokers nationwide.
Aimed at tackling rising insurance rates, the platform eliminates the tedious nature of shopping around and features a live 'Savings Tracker' to monitor community progress toward the $1 billion goal.
With insurance rates rising across the country, InsureMatch.ai aims to put the power back into the hands of the consumer. The platform offers a streamlined, user-friendly experience where individuals can easily find and compare tailored coverage options without paying any hidden fees or subscription costs.
To ensure accountability and celebrate its users' financial milestones, InsureMatch.ai features a live, interactive "Savings Tracker" directly on its homepage. As consumers use the platform to match with providers and secure better rates, the tracker will update, continuously monitoring the community's progress toward the $1 billion savings goal.
Insurers urged to temper expectations with AI pilots
Most artificial intelligence pilots undertaken by companies fail, but one insurance industry expert said failure is relative.
While an increasingly popular narrative suggests most artificial intelligence pilots undertaken by companies fail, one insurance industry expert said failure is relative and insurers should temper their expectations accordingly.
A 2025 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that around 95% of AI pilots fail to demonstrate measurable return on investment. That study exploded in public discourse, making the rounds on business sites and circles and driving further debate about the adoption of AI, which has already been notably lagging in the insurance space.
But Craig Weber, head of insurance strategy at Cognizant, suggests the situation is more nuanced than that, and failure is more a matter of perspective than an outright figure.
“I’ve seen those studies, too. My comment is if you expect more than one in 10 of your AI pilots to go forward, you’re probably aiming at the wrong thing or not driving an aggressive innovation agenda,” Weber said.
“AI is probably aimed at something more aggressive; it will be more fundamental eventually, and so that means that if one in 10 of those pilots succeeds, to me, that’s a really good success.”
Why insurance AI pilots fail
Weber noted that the insurance industry deals with some specific challenges that can prevent AI pilots from taking off. Most notably, challenges with legacy data infrastructure and a general distaste for going outside of a well-established comfort zone.
Millennial Shift Technologies Defines the Next Era of Insurance as InsurAI
Millennial Shift Technologies (mShift), an intelligent insurance services and solutions company, today announced its position as the first InsurAI company, introducing a new category for the next evolution of insurance technology.
For decades, the insurance industry has evolved through major phases. Traditional insurance services helped organizations manage complexity through people, process, and expertise. The rise of InsurTech brought digital platforms, portals, integrations, and automation into the market. Now, mShift believes the industry is entering its next phase: InsurAI.
"Insurance has always been a relationship-driven business, but the operating model behind it is ready for a major shift," said Mark Meury, Founder and CEO of Millennial Shift Technologies. "The first wave was insurance services. The second wave was InsurTech. We believe the next wave is InsurAI, where artificial intelligence, structured data, automation, and real insurance expertise come together to help the industry move faster without losing the relationships, judgment, and trust that make insurance work."
Commentary/Opinion
Why and How Homeowners Underwriting Must Change
Excellence in homeowners insurance requires sophisticated risk management, but today's industry environment is testing the limits of traditional underwriting approaches.
Executive Summary: Underwriting today is about much more than determining whether to accept a risk and at what price. It involves understanding the full exposure of a property and often creating a customized policy structure that accurately reflects the risk," writes Chris DiMartino, Chief Underwriting Officer at Orion180.
Here, he discusses how the changing nature of risk is forcing a new approach to underwriting—one that requires underwriters to obtain a more holistic, end-to-end view of the insurance life cycle and to discover more effective uses of existing data.
Research
These insurance companies control the biggest chunks of the market
Top insurers thrive not by securing a monopoly but by finding the lowest-risk customers, according to rankings from the insurance shopping website Insurify.
No single company holds more than 10% of the property and casualty insurance market in the U.S.
Insurify examined data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to rank the top 11 U.S. insurance companies by their share of the market, in terms of their share of the $870 billion in direct premiums written in 2022.
State Farm, with its likable "Jake from State Farm" character, is at the top of the list with a 9% company market share. Berkshire Hathaway, which owns Geico, and Progressive are next with 6.5% and 6%, respectively. Allstate and Liberty Mutual, tied with 5.2% of the market share, round out the top five insurance companies by market share.
Fraud
NICB Warns Americans Contractor Fraud Continues to Rise Nationwide
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), the leading, established non-profit dedicated to identifying insurance fraud, is recognizing the sixth annual Contractor Fraud Awareness Week from May 18-22 by warning home and business owners about the growing threat of contractor fraud following natural disasters and severe weather events across the United States.
As communities continue recovering from costly tornadoes, wildfires, floods and other disasters, NICB is urging consumers to remain vigilant against fraudulent contractors who seek to exploit homeowners during their most vulnerable moments.
"Severe weather events often leave communities shaken and trying to rebuild their lives as quickly as possible," said David J. Glawe, President and CEO of NICB. "Unfortunately, criminals recognize those moments of vulnerability as opportunities for financial exploitation. As disaster damage continues to rise across the country, Americans must remain alert to the warning signs of contractor fraud."
After six years of Contractor Fraud Awareness Week, a total of 36 states now officially support the effort to educate hard-hit communities on the financial harm that unscrupulous storm-chasers commit in areas hit by natural disasters.
Podcast Sponsor
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