Specialty Insurance Rate Softening Accelerates in 2026
Specialty insurance rates continued to fall during the first half of 2026, with new research from WTW showing that softening accelerated at the 1 July renewals.
According to WTW’s Specialty Insurance Marketplace Survey (SIMS), insurance and reinsurance rates declined by 4% gross of trend and 6% net of trend during the first six months of 2026. Insurance softened at approximately twice the pace seen in 2025, while reinsurance softened three to four times faster.
The shift becomes particularly clear when viewed against the previous hard market. Between 2017 and the market peak in 2023, specialty rates increased by approximately 50% cumulatively, net of claims and exposure trend. By July 2026, around 65% of those rate-strengthening gains had been eroded.
The picture varies significantly by class. Property recorded the sharpest decline, with rates down 17% net of trend at the 1 July renewals. Energy and Financial and Professional Liability recorded high-single-digit reductions, while Marine declined by mid-single digits. Aviation and Accident & Health experienced low-single-digit reductions.
Casualty presents a different challenge. Although rates increased by 6% at the 1 July renewals, WTW estimates claims trend at 8% in excess of exposure trend, resulting in an effective 2% rate reduction.
Across the first half of 2026, all 15 material insurance and reinsurance classes included in the survey recorded rate decreases when adjusted for claims trend. The survey covers specialty insurers operating across the London, Bermuda and US excess and surplus markets.
The findings point to increasingly competitive conditions across specialty insurance, with the pace and scale of rate reductions putting renewed focus on pricing discipline and rate adequacy as the market moves through the cycle.
