Insurance Prices Uptick as Cycle Swings, Experts Say

The insurance markets may be hardening, making it more difficult and expensive for buyers to obtain coverage.

It “seems like the cycles are all hitting across the board,” Stephanie Fisher, director of risk management and insurance at Quanta Services, told a panel last month at Advisen’s Casualty Insights Conference.

“Casualty, property…we have aviation exposure, marine exposure…it seems like I’m hearing the same message from everybody,” Fisher said during the conference. “That has not been the case in my past. We’ve had maybe one of the areas having a difficult year but everybody else is flat.”

All industries go through business cycles of expansion and contraction. Although no two are alike, insurance industry cycles often last two to ten years marked by expansion and a contraction of insurance availability.

Hard markets traditionally follow two to three years of negative results for insurance carriers.