As 2025 gets started, commercial property and casualty insurance lines seem to be mostly headed for stability, according to USI’s 2025 Commercial Property & Casualty Market Outlook.
On the property side, there’s lots of capacity available thanks to favorable underwriting results for both insurers and reinsurers in 2024. Rate relief is expected for insureds with favorable risk profiles, but insurers will likely remain cautious about natural disaster risks. Global natural catastrophe insured losses were about $135 billion globally in 2024, according to Swiss RE.
Some risks — including wildfire-exposed properties, senior housing and affordable and subsidized housing — are still difficult to insure, even with increased capacity. Most of these risks will be placed in the excess and surplus market, which saw property premiums increase 33% over the previous year in 2024.
On the casualty side, workers’ compensation rates and premiums continue to decline, but more slowly than in prior years. For commercial automobiles, smaller fleets (fewer than 200 vehicles) with good loss histories are seeing a stable market, with largely flat rates. But insurers are cautious about providing coverage for large fleets of 10,000 or more and companies with recent large losses. Insurance cost and availability has become the No. 4 concern for companies, according to the American Transportation Research Institute.
Cyber incidents remain a significant issue, especially as professionals and industries experiment more with AI. USI expects 2025 to experience as many or more cyber incidents than in 2024.
The slideshow above highlights six key trends from USI’s 2025 Commercial Property & Casualty Market Outlook.
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