As 2023 began, property insurance markets were struggling with the fallout of significant losses from Hurricane Ian in fall 2022. Ian was accompanied worldwide by 17 other billion-dollar storms in 2022’s significant disaster season. And those came on top of $596 billion in costs from weather events over the past five years, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This string of catastrophe losses and a fresh look at insured values has constricted insurance capacity, a trend made worse by poor catastrophe model performance, supply chain issues, inflation and higher interest rates. Further crimping capacity is that some carriers are shying away from property lines in favor of liability business that seems less volatile.