Q1 2026 Insurance Carrier Earnings Calls: A Risk Manager's Guide To What Just Changed

Key findings

• U.S. excess casualty rates rose 18 percent in Q1 2026, according to Marsh McLennan, the largest commercial insurance broker.
• Markel Insurance reduced its construction-related book from 40 to 45 percent of the specialty division down to approximately 20 percent (April 29, 2026 call).
• Selective Insurance, RLI Corp, and W.R. Berkley each reported reducing contractor or casualty exposure in Q1 2026.
• Across multiple specialty carriers, limit reduction is described as a primary tool for managing casualty severity, alongside rate increase.
• Top brokers (Marsh, Aon, Arthur J. Gallagher, WTW, Brown & Brown) reported continued construction and casualty placement growth alongside the carrier-side capacity contraction, indicating the buyer-side market remains active even as carrier capacity tightens.
• Aon publicly disclosed productivity metrics for handling certificates of insurance on the May 1, 2026 call, and WTW disclosed Partner Management as an AI-driven third-party insurance compliance tool on April 30, 2026. Two of the top three commercial brokers using Q1 earnings to discuss COI workflow and third-party compliance tooling indicates the category has cleared the bar for executive-level disclosure.
• The exposure is concentrated in construction trades, commercial auto fleet operators, and contractors with prior claims, not universal across all supplier categories.
• Supplier insurance requirement tiers built before 2026 may exceed the limits some suppliers can now obtain at renewal.

What did Q1 2026 insurance carrier earnings calls reveal about the U.S. casualty market?

Five themes appeared most frequently across the twelve calls. We grouped them as five signals because they showed up consistently in the carrier and broker commentary, not because they are a comprehensive picture of the U.S. casualty market. Each signal is grounded in a specific disclosure and is named with the carrier and call date.

1. Casualty rate hardening is broad-based. U.S. excess casualty up 18 percent at Marsh McLennan, North America casualty pricing up 9.6 percent at Chubb, primary casualty up 2 to 5 percent with excess “materially more” at Brown & Brown, casualty lines up 4 percent overall at Arthur J. Gallagher, mid-single-digit growth at Aon.

2. Limit contraction is a primary tool, not just rate. Brown & Brown's CEO confirmed carriers are “decreasing the limits they'll offer.” Markel's CEO said reducing limits is how the carrier and its peers are dealing with social inflation.

3. Specialty carriers are reducing contractor exposure while major brokers see contractor placements growing. Markel cut construction GL exposure roughly in half. Selective Insurance, RLI, and W.R. Berkley each reduced contractor or casualty exposure. At the same time, Aon reported construction grew at a double-digit rate, WTW reported construction wins on data center programs, and Arthur J. Gallagher reported steady demand in E&S casualty. The combined picture is a market where contractor placements remain active despite tightening carrier appetite. Higher limits are increasingly hard to fill with single carriers, which suggests programs may need additional carriers per layer to assemble the same coverage tower.

4. Social inflation severity is running in low double digits. Markel's CEO disclosed claim severity continues to run “in the low double digits” in U.S. casualty. AJG's CEO described reinsurers as “cautious around U.S.-focused casualty risks given loss cost trends and prior year loss development.”

5. Underwriting scrutiny is shifting toward risk transfer chains. Selective CEO John Marchioni framed construction underwriting on the April 23, 2026 call as: “…when you have contractors who are involved on either a subcontracting or a general contracting basis, you've got really good information around the contracts that are in place to understand whether or not you're assuming risk from another party to the contract that you didn't anticipate…” That same logic applies in reverse to the buyer side.

How much did U.S. casualty insurance rates rise in Q1 2026?

Each of the twelve companies disclosed casualty pricing or capacity commentary on its Q1 2026 earnings call. The table summarizes what each said.

Why are carriers reducing limits instead of just raising rates?

Three CEO disclosures answer this directly.

Markel CEO Simon Wilson, April 29, 2026 call: “what we're seeing in the U.S. is that when we see cases going to court or being settled, those numbers are often a lot bigger now than they were maybe 8, 9, 10 years ago. People call that social inflation. Well, the way that we and several of our peers have dealt with that is by reducing limits.”

Brown & Brown CEO Powell Brown, April 28, 2026 call: “On the casualty front, not much has changed versus prior quarters, the ability to get higher limits is extremely challenging. Pricing continue to increase, primary layers are becoming more expensive and carriers are decreasing the limits they'll offer.”

W.R. Berkley CEO Rob Berkley, April 21, 2026 call: “our casualty portfolio within reinsurance was down considerably in the quarter. And that is not because we are charging less for the same exposure. It is because that book of business is shrinking.”

Arthur J. Gallagher CFO Douglas Howell summarized the buyer-side view on the April 30, 2026 call: “Casualty is still tough… It is highly sensitive also to exposures, which are growing right now.”

Across these four carriers and brokers, limit reduction is described as a portfolio-level decision rather than a single-carrier move. The implication for suppliers in high-severity casualty segments is a market where higher limits are increasingly hard to obtain at the limits the original contract specified.

Which supplier categories are actually exposed in 2026?

From what we saw across the twelve calls, the casualty hardening and limit reduction trends concentrate in specific supplier categories rather than spreading uniformly across the supplier base. Three categories appeared most frequently in carrier commentary.

Construction trades

Suppliers in commercial construction, residential construction, specialty trade contracting, and on-site contractor categories face the highest probability of non-renewal or capacity reduction in 2026.

Markel CEO Simon Wilson on the April 29, 2026 call: “the second thing we've done in that book of business, which is material, is reduce the proportion of construction-related business that we're writing from around about, I think it was 40% to 45% of that book of business down to around 20% and maybe slightly below 20% now.”

Markel CFO Brian Costanzo confirmed the financial impact on the same call: “Within our Wholesale and Specialty division, gross written premium of $673 million declined 9% versus Q1 2025, driven by a softer property and marine premium rate environment and decreases in binding contractors and casualty.”

Selective Insurance CEO John Marchioni on the April 23, 2026 call: “Our relative exposure to contractors has declined within our new business mix, reflecting our efforts to diversify and improve margin durability.”

On the broker side, Aon CFO Edmund Reese on the May 1, 2026 call: “…construction grew at a double-digit rate and remains a contributor to growth as our data center revenue pipeline is on pace to be 3x higher than last year, reinforcing our confidence in sustained mid-single-digit or greater growth in 2026.” WTW also reported construction stability driven by data center programs on its April 30, 2026 call. Read together, the carrier-side and broker-side disclosures suggest contractor placements are still happening in volume even as specialty carrier capacity tightens. Suppliers in these categories are likely producing renewal COIs at lower limits and higher rates than they would have in 2024.

Commercial auto fleet operators

RLI COO Jennifer Klobnak on the April 23, 2026 call: “Recognizing ongoing severity in the commercial auto liability coverage, our appetite is more limited for auto on excess liability business…”

Suppliers with significant fleet exposure including trucking, last-mile delivery, mobile services, equipment hauling, and field service operations face capacity pressure when a carrier reduces auto coverage. Procurement teams reviewing supplier MSAs should confirm that the COI language and limits required for auto coverage match current market availability, including any hired and non-owned auto endorsement requirements.

Contractors with prior claims history

Carriers are using prior loss experience more aggressively to decline or limit coverage in 2026. A supplier with a single significant claim in the prior three years may face renewal challenges that would not have occurred in 2023. This pattern is implied across the carrier disclosures rather than quoted directly, so it should be treated as a directional read on underwriting behavior. Pressure-test against the renewal experience of any supplier in your program with a recent claim.

The Q1 2026 carrier and broker calls did not specifically discuss professional services, technology, or consumer goods supplier categories in the same depth as construction and commercial auto. As a general industry pattern, casualty exposure profiles vary by category: professional services and technology vendors carry less GL severity exposure than construction trades, with most of their risk profile sitting in cyber, E&O, or product liability. For a procurement leader running a tier audit, the audit should weight scrutiny toward the categories the carrier and broker disclosures named directly. A supplier base concentrated in technology and professional services may see less impact than a supplier base concentrated in construction trades or fleet operators.

What is social inflation and how is it affecting casualty pricing in 2026?

Social inflation is the industry term for rising insurance claim costs driven by societal trends and litigation behavior. The Insurance Information Institute attributes the trend to factors including third-party litigation funding, plaintiff attorney advertising, rising contingency fees, and eroding caps on damages. The IRMI definition emphasizes the unexpected severity of insurance claims beyond economic drivers. Three Q1 2026 CEO disclosures describe its effect on their casualty books.

Travelers CEO Alan Schnitzer, April 16, 2026 call: “Our early identification of the acceleration in social inflation is a good example. We adjusted before the market did, and since then, we have grown the business and significantly improved our margins.”

W.R. Berkley CEO Rob Berkley, April 21, 2026 call: “On reserve duration, I think that we all know that the industry got caught a bit flat footed with inflation, particularly social inflation. And it has been a bit of a process of catch up.”

Markel CEO Simon Wilson, April 29, 2026 call: “…the trend, the claims trend in U.S. casualty business continues to run in probably, we think, the low double digits at the moment…”

Tort reform progress is uneven and worth tracking by state

Travelers CEO Alan Schnitzer pointed to specific state-level progress on the April 16, 2026 call: “…we have been very encouraged by what we saw in Florida, and we have seen other encouraging actions in some other states, as you have mentioned, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, and so forth…”

For supplier risk and operations leaders, the practical implication is to track tort reform progress alongside other state-level operational variables when making siting decisions for highest-risk activities. A simple state-by-state column in the existing supplier review template is sufficient. Florida, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, and South Carolina are the current near-term watch list. Reform is directional rather than a national reset, and the 18 percent excess casualty number reflects the gap between current rates and where carriers think they need to be.

How should COI tracking processes adapt to 2026 market conditions?

Static COI collection at onboarding generates more false positives in 2026 than in prior years. The certificate sitting in the file may have been valid the day it was issued and invalid six months later, with no signal in either direction. Three operational adjustments emerge from the carrier disclosures.

Mid-policy change detection has to be live. A supplier compliant at onboarding may not be compliant at month 6. Detection cannot rely on the supplier or the broker remembering to send updates. The detection has to come from the source. Smart COI is the category name for live policy-connected insurance verification, an approach that replaces static PDF certificates with a direct data feed from the supplier's carrier or broker. The COI tracking category includes several platforms with different approaches to automation. The Smart COI difference is the direct data feed from the carrier or broker of record, which surfaces policy changes when they happen rather than at the next certificate refresh. When a policy is cancelled, when a limit is reduced, when a vehicle is removed from an auto schedule, the change appears in the buyer's dashboard automatically. Certificial built the Smart COI category and integrates with procurement and TPRM platforms most enterprises already use (Graphite Connect, Apexanalytix, Achilles, Aravo), keeping the work inside existing systems rather than as a separate compliance project.

Carrier substitution should be flagged for review. W.R. Berkley CEO Rob Berkley flagged carrier substitution behavior on the April 21, 2026 call, noting some standard carriers entering specialty markets “…at times, it would appear as though they are misclassifying risks…” Build a reference list of the carriers writing your top suppliers, and flag any sudden carrier changes for review. A supplier moving from a top-10 contractor casualty carrier to an unfamiliar carrier mid-year is a signal worth investigating. When a supplier's renewed COI shows a different carrier than prior year, the operational response should be to document the change and assess whether the new carrier has appropriate experience in the supplier's category.

Limit reductions on renewal COIs need explicit handling. The compliance team will see more cases where the new COI is a renewal but the limits have been reduced. The handling should match the exception process documented in the Tier Audit Framework. If the reduced limit still meets the contractual minimum, the renewal proceeds. If not, the gap triggers the exception process with the cross-functional owners identified earlier in this guide.

Two top brokers disclosed COI workflow and compliance tooling investments in Q1 2026

Two of the three top commercial brokers used Q1 2026 earnings calls to disclose investments in COI workflow and third-party insurance compliance tooling. Aon CEO Gregory Case on the May 1, 2026 call: “…substantial productivity gains across invoicing, certificates of insurance and policy administration… a 95% reduction in handle time and certificates of insurance from hours to less than 5 minutes…” Aon's metric is broker-side workflow productivity rather than buyer-side third-party tracking, but the disclosure indicates COI handling is now a measurable operational metric named on quarterly earnings calls. WTW Chief AI Officer Eugene Lipkin on the April 30, 2026 call: “We are also quickly rolling out Navigator, which centralizes clients' insurance programs in one platform, and Partner Management, our AI-driven third-party insurance compliance tool.” WTW is positioning a third-party insurance compliance product as part of its broker-side technology stack. Read together, the broker disclosures suggest that procurement and risk leaders evaluating supplier compliance technology in 2026 are buying into a category their own brokers are also investing in.

Appendix: Call-by-call summary

Three to five sourced findings per call, in chronological order. Each finding is verbatim, near-verbatim with ellipsis, or a numeric disclosure with the source attribution. Use this section as a reference when forwarding specific carrier or broker commentary to internal stakeholders.

Marsh McLennan (MMC)

April 16, 2026 (transcript)

• U.S. excess casualty rates rose 18 percent in the quarter; global casualty rates +3%, global property -9%, workers' comp -1% (John Doyle, CEO, prepared remarks).
• “…the cost of risk is clearly increasing. And I would think at a magnitude probably 2x GDP with liability inflation, medical cost inflation, cyber risk…” (John Doyle, Q&A).
• “…transaction risk and construction, both growing strongly…” double-digit new business in U.S. and Canada (Nicholas Studer, CEO of Marsh, Q&A).
• “We've seen some $2 billion of new third-party capital flow into the market, just chasing casualty side cars, whole account quota shares…” (Dean Klisura, CEO of Guy Carpenter, Q&A).

Travelers (TRV)

April 16, 2026 (transcript)

• “In terms of the product lines, RPC in auto, CMP, and umbrella remained in the double digits. RPC in GL and workers' comp was stable…” (Dan Frey, CFO, prepared remarks).
• “Our early identification of the acceleration in social inflation is a good example. We adjusted before the market did…” (Alan Schnitzer, CEO, prepared remarks).
• Tort reform progress cited in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina (Schnitzer, Q&A).
• “Our portfolio of premier contractors is well positioned to continue to benefit from higher and broad-based infrastructure spending.” (Jeffrey Klenk, President, Bond and Specialty Insurance, prepared remarks).

W.R. Berkley (WRB)

April 21, 2026 (transcript)

• “…our casualty portfolio within reinsurance was down considerably in the quarter. And that is not because we are charging less for the same exposure. It is because that book of business is shrinking.” (Rob Berkley, CEO, Q&A).
• “…we all know that the industry got caught a bit flat footed with inflation, particularly social inflation. And it has been a bit of a process of catch up.” (Rob Berkley, Q&A).
• “On standard carriers… at times, it would appear as though they are misclassifying risks.” (Rob Berkley, Q&A).
• “…even long-tail business, you write it cheap enough, becomes short-tail business.” (Rob Berkley, Q&A).

Chubb (CB)

April 22, 2026 (transcript)

• “Casualty pricing in North America was up 9.6% with rates up 8.4% and exposure of 1.1%. Work comp pricing was up 4.3%…” (Evan Greenberg, CEO, prepared remarks).
• “In the cohorts that need price, you're getting price in excess of loss cost. And where the pricing is adequate, it is generally flat to or in some instances, below loss cost increases.” (Greenberg, Q&A).
• Total North America commercial premiums +7.7% with growth driven by casualty, marine, surety, and risk management businesses (Greenberg, prepared remarks).

Selective Insurance (SIGI)

April 23, 2026 (transcript)

• “Our relative exposure to contractors has declined within our new business mix, reflecting our efforts to diversify and improve margin durability.” (John Marchioni, CEO, prepared remarks).
• Subcontractor risk transfer framing: “…you've got really good information around the contracts that are in place to understand whether or not you're assuming risk from another party to the contract that you didn't anticipate…” (Marchioni, Q&A).
• “We had no prior year casualty reserve development at the segment or line of business level.” (Patrick Brennan, CFO, prepared remarks).

RLI Corp (RLI)

April 23, 2026 (transcript)

• “Recognizing ongoing severity in the commercial auto liability coverage, our appetite is more limited for auto on excess liability business…” (Jennifer Klobnak, COO, prepared remarks).
• Construction “a bit paused in the Northeast where we have a fairly sizable book.” (Klobnak, Q&A).
• Casualty segment growth and E&S casualty binding slowdown discussed in prepared remarks; specific premium and rate percentages reported in earnings coverage but not used here verbatim.

The Hartford (HIG)

April 24, 2026 (transcript)

• “We have a lot of lines within that global specialty book, but I think the standout in the quarter was the rate coming back up in wholesale casualty lines.” (Adin Tooker, President, Commercial Lines, Q&A).
• Wholesale primary liability rate discipline emphasized (Christopher Swift, CEO, Q&A).
• “…we feel very good about our loss picks in the GL book, both from the standpoint of prior year reserves and the loss trend that we've embedded in our 2026 picks.” (Beth Bombara, CFO, Q&A).

Brown & Brown (BRO)

April 28, 2026 (transcript)

• “For casualty lines, rates increased 2 to 5% for primary layers with excess layers increasing materially more.” (Powell Brown, CEO, prepared remarks).
• “On the casualty front, not much has changed versus prior quarters, the ability to get higher limits is extremely challenging. Pricing continue to increase, primary layers are becoming more expensive and carriers are decreasing the limits they'll offer.” (Powell Brown, prepared remarks).
• Admitted P&C markets flat to +5%, workers comp flat to -3% (Powell Brown, prepared remarks).
• “EMS rates will remain bifurcated with casualty increasing and CAT property decreasing at levels similar to the first quarter.” (Powell Brown, prepared remarks).

Markel Group (MKL)

April 29, 2026 (transcript)

• “…reduce the proportion of construction-related business that we're writing from around about, I think it was 40% to 45% of that book of business down to around 20% and maybe slightly below 20% now.” (Simon Wilson, CEO Markel Insurance, Q&A).
• “…the way that we and several of our peers have dealt with that is by reducing limits.” (Wilson, Q&A).
• U.S. casualty claim trend running “in the low double digits at the moment.” (Wilson, Q&A).
• “Within our Wholesale and Specialty division, gross written premium of $673 million declined 9% versus Q1 2025, driven by a softer property and marine premium rate environment and decreases in binding contractors and casualty.” (Brian Costanzo, CFO, prepared remarks).

Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG)

April 30, 2026 (transcript)

• “Insurance renewal premium change… continued to increase in the low single digits in the first quarter, with property decreases more than offset by increases across most casualty classes… casualty lines, which includes general liability, commercial auto, and umbrella, up 4% overall.” (J. Gallagher, Chairman and CEO, prepared remarks).
• “Within the U.S. excess and surplus market, we continue to see a bifurcated market… E&S casualty remains firm. Renewal premiums are up mid-single digits. Capacity is disciplined and demand is steady across general and excess liability as well as umbrella.” (J. Gallagher, prepared remarks).
• “Within casualty, pricing was broadly stable as most reinsurers remain cautious around U.S.-focused casualty risks given loss cost trends and prior year loss development.” (J. Gallagher, prepared remarks, reinsurance section).
• “Casualty is still tough… It is highly sensitive also to exposures, which are growing right now.” (Douglas Howell, CFO, Q&A).

WTW

April 30, 2026 (transcript)

• Construction segment “delivered a solid quarter, supported by continued momentum in data center programs.” (Andrew Krasner, CFO, prepared remarks).
• “We are also quickly rolling out Navigator, which centralizes clients' insurance programs in one platform, and Partner Management, our AI-driven third-party insurance compliance tool.” (Eugene Lipkin, Chief AI Officer, prepared remarks).
• “We secured a significant win in the rapidly growing AI and digital infrastructure industry with one of the leading companies in the construction and operation of advanced data centers… Our team won the entire program from a broker relationship that spanned over 15 years…” (Carl Hess, CEO, prepared remarks).
• CRB organic growth outlook for 2026 narrowed to mid-single digits, reflecting the slower start to the year (Krasner, prepared remarks).

Aon (AON)

May 1, 2026 (transcript)

• “…construction grew at a double-digit rate and remains a contributor to growth as our data center revenue pipeline is on pace to be 3x higher than last year, reinforcing our confidence in sustained mid-single-digit or greater growth in 2026.” (Edmund Reese, CFO, prepared remarks).
• “These assets introduce complex construction, operational, catastrophe and cyber risk that exceed traditional insurance solutions. Our data center life cycle insurance program, which we recently increased capacity by another $1 billion to $3.5 billion…” (Gregory Case, CEO, prepared remarks).
• “…substantial productivity gains across invoicing, certificates of insurance and policy administration… a 95% reduction in handle time and certificates of insurance from hours to less than 5 minutes…” (Gregory Case, CEO, prepared remarks, AI productivity section).
• “Property was down 15% in this quarter. Casualty, like mid-single-digit growth. D&O, a little bit of an uptick in price there. Cyber at low single-digit rates.” (Edmund Reese, CFO, Q&A).

About this analysis

This guide is drawn from a review of twelve Q1 2026 insurance carrier and broker earnings calls held between April 16 and May 1, 2026: Marsh McLennan, Travelers, W.R. Berkley, Chubb, Selective Insurance, RLI Corp, The Hartford, Brown & Brown, Markel Group, Arthur J. Gallagher, WTW, and Aon. Quotes were extracted from published transcripts on Motley Fool, Benzinga, and Seeking Alpha, and verified against secondary sources including Business Insurance trade press and company press releases.

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