The insurance industry is run on cycles of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ markets, both of which can impact your members’ businesses in different ways.
Currently, the insurance market is hardening, and this means that the demand for insurance exceeds the supply available by insurers. Characteristics of a hard market include low competition among insurers, increased premiums, reduced coverage, charges for cover extensions, harsher interpretation of claims and in some cases, there will be no cover available for clients. In short, a hard market can make it extremely difficult for your members to obtain commercial insurance cover at an affordable rate.
This is not the first time the UK has experienced a hard market however, this is the first hard market we have experienced since
the early 2000s, a significant period of time.
TAF Partner, the Specialist Risk Group, have put together a guidance note exploring the reasons why we are experiencing this, and to help you find out more about how this affects your members’ insurance.