色多多视频

In a world of increasingly frequent and severe risks, the excess & surplus lines (E&S) insurance market continues to be the crucial avenue which helps to solve the needs of organizations facing these growing challenges. Today’s E&S market is ready. In 2024, some forecasts suggest the market could reach $130b in GWP, and the market continues to see outpaced growth relative to the broader P&C industry.

Recently we talked with AXA XL’s new head of Wholesale Solutions for the Americas, Tim Whisler, to discuss the state of the wholesale market and what organizations can expect in 2025.

How strong is the wholesale market coming into 2025?

TW: It is going to be another record year for the market in terms of top line premium. Early figures for 2024 some forecasts suggest the market could reach $130 billion in premium. Its growth and the significant role the E&S market plays in the overall insurance industry continues to be impressive. In 2018, the market reached $50 billion in premium for the first time ever. If it reaches $130 billion for 2024, the market will have grown over 2.5x in the 6 years since it first reached that $50 billion milestone. When you look back at the last 5 years, the compound annual growth rate of the E&S market has exceeded 20%. We expect the E&S market to continue grow at a rate that outpaces the overall market.

From a pricing and risk standpoint, overall, the market is very healthy. There will always be pricing cycles, and we’ll manage through them. We’re seeing softening in property rates, but most of the business is still priced at attractive levels. Other areas such as casualty are continuing to harden as the market responds to the very real challenges in the legal system and to inflation, which are driving increased loss costs. There is certainly more capital flowing into the E&S market, but it’s encouraging to see the market remain disciplined around capacity deployment, which is necessary for the long-term health of our market.

What factors have contributed to the market’s growth and sustainability?

TW: There are many factors that have contributed to the overall growth of the market. At its core, the E&S market will always be a home for harder to place risks, and the world is becoming a riskier place. Real inflation puts pressure on loss costs. The challenges in the legal system have led to a dynamic where excess casualty verdicts, including nuclear verdicts, are multiples of what they were years ago. In property, CAT losses have been larger and more frequent than other periods of history. These increasing and evolving risks are challenging to solve for in the admitted space. E&S is the solution for these challenges with the freedom of rate and form that we have. Some of the growth we’ve seen has been due to hardening rates, including the flow through of increased reinsurance costs, but it’s not just about rate and there has been a huge volume increase as well.

Some of the dynamics I just mentioned arguably could be viewed as cyclical in nature, but I think a lot of the business that we’ve seen flow into E&S is here to stay, and the changes are more structure in nature. The E&S market has and always will act as a crucial relief valve for insuring risks that can’t find coverage in the admitted market, but there’s more to the story. What can’t be overlooked is the value added by the wholesale brokers in the E&S market, and the expertise they bring to the table. Gone are the days of the E&S market being solely the market of last resort. Today’s wholesale brokers bring a level of product expertise and specialization, market access, and efficiency that adds significant value to insureds and retailers alike. This value creation has made them the preferred avenue for many retailers and insureds to place coverage.

Lastly, I would expect that with many admitted carriers having E&S divisions focused solely on the channel, we’ll see less of an outflow of business back into the admitted market than we have had in previous market cycles. I think that’s a good thing for the sustainability of the growth we’ve seen in this segment.

Today’s wholesale brokers bring a level of product expertise and specialization, market access, and efficiency that adds significant value to insureds and retailers alike. This value creation has made them the preferred avenue for many retailers and insureds to place coverage.

What are the biggest challenges facing the E&S market?

TW: The freedom of rate and form we have in E&S, and the distribution network we have through partnerships with wholesalers put us in a unique position to solve the challenges that face the industry as whole. E&S companies still face many challenges from an underwriting perspective, from increased frequency and severity of CAT events in property, to the legal system challenges that increase the size of casualty verdicts. Careful and thoughtful deployment of capacity are hedges against these challenges.

One of the challenges that’s probably most amplified in E&S is the ability to keep up with the ever increasing volume of business flowing into the channel. Building and developing an underwriting team with the experience and acumen to respond quickly on opportunities, and pairing them with systems and processes that allow for the speed and ease needed in our space is a challenge that every market is facing. Companies that invest in technology and have a clear vision and culture dedicated to the wholesale channel are best positioned to address this challenge head on.

As you take the helm, what are your hopes for AXA XL’s Wholesale division?

TW: I have a very clear vision for why we can be successful in this space. Core to that vision will be an unwavering dedication to the wholesale channel, with the requisite distribution strategy, structure, and underwriting appetite for success. Importantly, as we make a significant investment to grow in this channel, it’s also a vision that is shared by and supported by the broader 色多多视频organization. In joining 色多多视频 I’m joining a high-performing, meaningful player in the broader insurance market with excellent financial strength and highly rated, A+ paper. We are building on an incredibly strong foundation.

Going forward, we’re making a strong pivot on our historical strategy and how we manage our E&S business through the wholesale channel. Our future vision is to build and grow a distinct E&S offering within 色多多视频 with a distinct identity, a distinct appetite, and a distinct underwriting team with a distribution strategy that is 100% wholesale-only. Our team will bring the underwriting expertise that has become synonymous with the 色多多视频brand, supported by an industry leading claims team. We are working hard to develop channel clarity between retail and wholesale, which is something that the wholesale market has come to expect from top performing E&S companies.

Simultaneously, we are making significant investments in technology, people, and processes to ensure our team can respond quickly to the increasing volume of business that continues to flow into the channel.

We have a lot of work ahead of us to execute on this vision. The support from the wholesale community in the early stages has been very encouraging. I’m confident that we will build a high performing company that wholesalers will want to trade with and that will attract the best E&S underwriting talent in the industry. We are actively working to earn the trust and support of our wholesale partners!