Specialty insurance rates declined through 2025 and during January 1, 2026 renewals, with the pace of softening moving faster than expected, according to WTW’s Specialty Insurance Marketplace Survey.
WTW said its insurance rate index fell by 10 points during the latest renewal period, returning to levels last seen in 2020.
The move marks a sharp reversal from the hard-market cycle that built between 2017 and 2023. Specialty insurers achieved roughly 45% cumulative rate increases during that period, but about half of those gains have already eroded over the past two years.
According to Beinsure analysts, the speed of rate softening matters more than the decline itself. Specialty carriers priced for years around elevated catastrophe uncertainty, inflation pressure, and tighter capacity, but benign loss experience in some classes has pulled competition back into the market faster than many underwriters expected.
WTW said expected performance in 2025, measured net of exposure trends, has unwound much of the rate strengthening seen in recent years and moved back toward 2021 levels.
The survey also found that 2025 marked the first year since 2018 when rate adequacy for new business fell below renewal business.
Property and energy recorded the steepest rate reductions, followed by marine, financial institutions, and professional liability.
WTW attributed the declines partly to mild catastrophe experience and distorted frequency and severity trends, though geopolitical tensions continue to complicate underwriting assumptions in several specialty segments.
General liability and medical malpractice moved differently from the broader market.
WTW said these classes remain under pressure from social inflation, large jury awards, and expanding litigation funding.
The firm said the current trend does not appear sustainable, though the short-term path remains difficult to forecast.
During January renewals, 75% of 42 material specialty classes recorded rate decreases on a gross-of-claims-trend basis. In 2024, only 30% of classes showed declines.
WTW said its inclusion of claims trend data gives a clearer view of expected profitability. Across the survey, aggregated insurance rates decreased 5% gross of claims trend and 8% net of claims trend, after adjusting for actuarial estimates of claims cost inflation beyond headline rate changes.
That gap matters for underwriting teams because nominal rate movement often understates profitability pressure when claims inflation continues rising underneath the pricing cycle.
The SIMS survey reflects around $250 bn of gross written premium across a 10-year cycle, including $45 bn in 2025. It covers specialty insurers operating across London, Bermuda, and the US excess and surplus markets.
Unlike broker-derived market surveys, SIMS uses data contributed directly by clients of WTW’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business that participate in the survey.
Richard Clarkson, global market leader for Global Specialty at WTW, said the survey aims to provide a consistent view of risk-adjusted rate change across multiple classes and geographies. He said insurers use the data to validate business plans, compare rating trends, assess new and renewal rate adequacy, and support reserving processes.
Our intention is to provide insights on specialty market dynamics that hasn’t been possible before – using market derived data to deliver a consistent view of risk adjusted rate change over a large number of classes and key geographies, aligned to how underwriting teams are organized.
Richard Clarkson, global market leader, Global Specialty, WTW
“Our clients already use this to validate business plans, compare current year rating trends, assess impact of new and renewal rate adequacy and support reserving processes,” commented Richard Clarkson.
The latest results point to a specialty market moving through a faster pricing reset than many carriers planned for. Underwriters still face litigation inflation, geopolitical volatility, and claims cost uncertainty, but competition has returned strongly across several major classes.
