As reported in Insurance Journal, direct premiums written grew 5% in 2025 to approximately $1.11 trillion. Following underwriting losses that lasted years, P/C insurers saw underwriting income of about $23 billion in 2024 and $61.2 billion last year. Overall, commercial insurers in the U.S. have doubled underwriting income to $19.2 billion last year.

When it comes to liability, the results weren’t so positive. Claims, legal costs and new litigation resulted in a loss of approximately $11 billion, though that number was more favorable than the one seen in 2024. Social inflation continues to be a drag in general liability, the report stated, and new exposures could be coming quickly as a result of AI and new class-action suits in various industries.

As reported in Insurance Journal, net income doubled over the same period, jumping from $20.1 billion in the first quarter of 2025 to $41.8 billion in Q1 2026. And catastrophe losses for the first quarter of this year were $10 billion, compared to $33.3 billion over the first three months of 2025.

Additionally, net premiums written saw a hike of 2.9% to almost $251 billion.

The meeting began with Dr. Jennifer Avery, NYSIR President, offering opening remarks acknowledging that, while challenges such as New York’s Child Victims Act and increased costs due to property losses have made an impact over the last few years, the reciprocal continues to fulfill its core promise to New York public school districts and BOCES in a sustainable way.

Board Secretary Doug Scofield took the podium next, offering candidates for election or re-election to the board. John Abbott, East Irondequoit CSD; Sharon Cihocki, Adirondack CSD; Dr. Christopher Dillon, Plainview-Old Bethpage CSD; Kleo Girandola, North Rockland CSD; Victor Manual, Jericho UFSD; Thomas McDaid, North Merrick UFSD; Stacy O’Connor, Brentwood UFSD; Kevin Sheldon, Arlington CSD and Timothy Whipple, Harrison CSD were elected to three-year terms.

NYSIR Executive Director Robert Lulley, Jr. talked about NYSIR’s 2025 results. He said the reciprocal made significant progress regarding key challenges facing the insurance industry, including fiscal and social inflation, but added those hurdles likely will continue throughout 2026. He also highlighted positive numbers including an increase in NYSIR’s net earned premium of 24% from the prior year and a combined ratio that was 41 points better than 2024’s number. He attributed the positive results to rate increases, a strong subscriber retention rate of 97% and reinsurance cost savings, among other factors.

After noting that 2026 is the 20th anniversary of the scholarship program’s establishment, NYSIR Foundation President Joseph Goncalves said that the foundation has been able to award over $800,000 in scholarships to over 250 students across the state over the past 19 years. The first 2026 award presented was the Paul Jensen Memorial Scholarship, which was created in memory of a NYSIR marketing representative known for his craftsmanship. It is given each year to a student who has demonstrated remarkable design and building skills and has plans to refine them in college. The 2026 grand prize award was presented to Shane Agosto, a senior at Otsego Northern Catskills BOCES in the Southern Tier region.

The Goncalves Student Humanitarian Scholarship, named for the current foundation president, is given each year to a New York-college-bound high school senior involved in an organization or cause promoting social justice, equal opportunity, relief of human suffering or another humanitarian issue. This year’s grand prize award went to Rifa Alif, a senior at Arlington High School in the Mid-Hudson region.

The Cristin Ann Bambino Memorial Scholarship, given annually to a special education student in honor of his or her determination to successfully overcome challenges, complete high school and move on to college, was presented last. The grand prize was awarded to Lilly Kime, a senior at Weedsport Jr.-Sr. High School in the Southern Tier region, by Robert Bambino, treasurer of the foundation and Cristin’s father.

Ten more 2026 scholarships have been awarded to regional or runner-up honorees.

Click here to view PDF.

Another social media company, Meta Platforms Inc., which owns Facebook, also was sued by the school district, and is scheduled to appear in court at a trial beginning June 12.

As reported in Insurance Journal, there are more than 1,200 similar lawsuits that have been filed in the U.S. by school districts accusing social media companies of harming students and undermining their education. According to an estimate from Bloomberg Intelligence, the suits could represent a collective theoretical liability of almost $400 billion for tech companies.

While settlement terms were not disclosed in initial filings, previous suits over social media addiction have resulted in verdicts for the plaintiffs and monetary damages. Earlier this year, jurors awarded a 20-year-old woman $6 million following a suit filed against Meta and Google, while the former also lost a case alleging it failed to protect children from online predators. That decision resulted in a penalty of $375 million.

As reported by Business Insurance, David Wald, president and cofounder of risk management firm Aclaimant, said claims are becoming more complex and longer-tailed with more nuclear verdicts and unpredictable liability outcomes. He added that new technologies are creating uncertainty over how to classify certain claims while questions about how companies should deploy artificial intelligence also are complicating matters.

Wald also cited the looming “silver tsunami” of retirements facing the risk management sector, which could negatively impact companies’ institutional knowledge.

Solutions to some of the problems, according to Wald, include building more agile claims operations that can focus on asking the right questions, aligning internal and external partners, and connecting data, analytics and decision-making.

“The single best thing you can do is put yourself in a position to move fast … and make better decisions every day,” he said.

As reported in Insurance Business, AI made the largest year-over-year jump, moving from 10th place last year. Surveyed respondents came from regions including the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"Given the continuing rise of AI across society and industry, it is unsurprising that it is the big mover in the Allianz Risk Barometer," said Allianz Commercial CEO Thomas Lillelund. "As well as bringing huge opportunities, its transformative potential and rapid evolution and adoption are also reshaping the risk landscape, making it a standout concern for firms of all sizes worldwide, alongside other more established threats."

In the United States, the top five risks were cyber, business interruption, regulatory and legislative changes, artificial intelligence and natural catastrophes.

According to Insurance Journal, a key driver was the fact that losses brought on early in 2025 by wildfires in Los Angeles were partially offset by no landfalling hurricanes and fewer losses from severe convection storms. Overall catastrophe losses for the rated companies dropped 9% in 2025 to $19 billion.

The results, according to Moody’s, came from strong underwriting performance and higher net investment income, which was $39.6 billion last year compared to $34.9 billion in 2024.

Commercial property rates were driven down in the second two quarters last year by increased competition, with drops of 9% and 8%, respectively. And commercial P/C insurers increased prices on casualty lines, which Moody’s stated will continue underwriting profitability this year.

As reported in Business Insurance, many cybercriminals have moved from ransomware based on data encryption to extortion via data theft. Data-theft-only attacks climbed to 65% of all extortion claims in the last two quarters of 2025 from 49% in the first six months of the year. Looking at all of 2025, data theft that didn’t include encryption represented 57.6% of extortion claims, while encryption without data theft accounted for just 13%.

Additionally, the report noted that an uptick in phishing attacks last year following a downturn in 2024 “suggests AI is making a significant impact on the threat landscape.” The report also cited a Harvard study that suggested phishing attacks generated by AI are four times as effective as those created directly by humans.

A big source of cyber exposure is vendor relationships. The average loss in a vendor-related cyber incident was $1.36 million last year, with only phishing coming in higher with a $1.6 million average loss.

As reported in Insurance Journal, that increase was less than the 3.28% rise for the third and second quarters of 2025 and a more noticeable change from the 6% increases from the second half of 2023 through the first quarter of last year.

“Commercial insurance pricing continued to moderate in the fourth quarter, reflecting a more stable market,” stated Yi Jing, senior director, Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT) at WTW. “While some lines continue to see increases, others are flattening or declining, highlighting a more measured approach across the market.”

The survey stated that most commercial lines experienced moderation in Q4 of last year. Commercial property saw notable price increases in 2023 before they fell in the second and fourth quarters of 2025.

As reported in Insurance Business, insured losses of more than $45 billion were produced by severe convective storms last year, with rising repair and reconstruction costs, urban sprawl and social inflation all playing roles in augmenting those losses. Taking that new information into account, the analysis goes on to state that severe convective storms should be viewed not as a secondary peril, but a primary one in the portfolios of insurers.

Last year’s numbers mapped well onto broader research indicating non-peak perils, such as wildfires, flooding and severe thunderstorms, propel a large portion of catastrophe losses each year. According to a 2026 Risk Barometer by Allianz, 2025 global economic losses from secondary perils reached $106 billion, $77 billion of it insured.

As reported in Insurance Journal, new premiums written as of the end of September 2025 were $740.7 billion, an increase of 5.1% over the same period the year prior. The analysis cites more adequate prices and stable demand across most commercial and personal business lines as the main drivers for the hike.

On the other hand, the U.S. P/C industry experienced a drop in net income of 23.7% at the nine-month mark compared to 2024, with incurred losses and loss adjustments expenses rising slightly year-over-year during the same period.

As reported in Business Insurance, the report forecasts the 2026 cyber insurance market to be $19.6 billion, with North America expected to maintain its dominant share of the market in the coming years with a 60% to 70% premium share. Growth in the market has been driven, in part, by reinsurance support that included increased capacity including parametric reinsurance, insurance-linked securities and proportional reinsurance transactions.

According to the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, the average data breach cost in the U.S. in 2025 was $10 million. While ransomware continues to cause problems, fewer businesses paid ransoms last year and the average payment dropped 10% to $1.2 million between 2024 and 2025.

As reported by Insurance Journal, hackers could use AI to extract data at an unprecedented rate.

“At a minimum, this disruption could impact an organization’s operations or siphon money, goods or information,” according to the forecast report. “AI agents are the next frontier for fraud and cybercrime, and we predict this may overtake human error as the leading cause of data breaches.”

AI also could be used alongside quantum computing, a cybersecurity threat many companies view as one of the largest that could manifest itself over the next few years.

The number is, however, a drop from last year’s number of $141 billion. The reduction was partly due to fewer losses from Atlantic hurricanes.

As reported by the news and analysis site Artemis, approximately 83% of 2025’s insured natural catastrophe losses came from the U.S., driven largely by the Los Angeles wildfires at the beginning of the year. Severe convective storms also played a large role, with Swiss Re estimating those storms to have accounted for approximately $50 billion of global insured losses for the year. That’s the third highest figure on record, following 2023 and 2024.

“We are observing a steady rise in losses from severe convective storms,” stated Balz Grollimund, catastrophe perils head at Swiss Re. “Urbanization in hazard-prone areas, rising asset values, higher construction costs and factors such as aging roofs have made these storms a key peril for insurers.”

As reported in Insurance Journal, Verisk’s Q4 2025 Quarterly Property Report states third-quarter claims in North America dropped 30% compared to the same period last year, driven mostly by decreased catastrophe activity.

“2025 is on track to be the lowest volume year in recent history, yet cost management remains critical as severity trends continue upward,” the report stated.

After maturation adjustments, the average claim severity is expected to be between $17,260 and $18,430 in Q3 2025. Those figures have been influenced by the cost of labor and materials in the U.S., which jumped 3.8% between October 2024 and October 2025.

As reported in Insurance Journal, some lines saw decreased premiums, including cyber and commercial property. The cost of cyber insurance dipped the most out of all lines in the third quarter, posting an average 2.6% decrease, while premiums for commercial property went down for the first time in eight years, dropping an average of 0.2%. Additional capacity outweighing demand was cited by most survey respondents as the biggest reason for the dip in commercial property rates.

Also cited in the survey were premium increases for umbrella coverage, which dropped from an average 11.5% rise in the second quarter to 5.5% in the third.

"Q3 2025 showed clear soft market conditions across the board," the CIAB report stated.

As reported in Insurance Journal, the potential for AI to become a new weapon cybercriminals can use to create and accelerate new threats could outpace many organizations’ defensive capabilities. And that could lead to increased premiums.

“If you’ve got a bigger house, you’re going to need more insurance,” said Rohit Makhijani, principal analyst at Forrester. “There’s more to lose.”

The report suggested that cyber insurers should be proactive partners to their clients by offering services in cyber defense and risk mitigation as well as being innovative in underwriting new risks brought on by AI.

As reported in Business Insurance, the average premium renewal rate change for business policies was 7.55% in the third quarter compared to 7.87% in the second. For commercial property policies, the change was 7.64% from 7.89% over the same timeframe.

General liability lines saw quarter-to-quarter renewal rate increases, however. The average third-quarter renewal rate change was 5.89% compared to 4.66% for the second quarter of this year.

The Ivans Index includes almost 40,000 agencies and 600 insurers and MGAs and analyzes over 120 million transactions.

According to Reuters, the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court accuses the platforms’ parent companies of gross negligence and causing a public nuisance. New York City’s school and healthcare systems also are plaintiffs in the suit.

The complaint alleges that the platforms were designed to “exploit the psychology and neurophysiology of youth” to profit from children’s obsessive use. The suit states that 77.3% of New York City high school students said they regularly spend three hours daily or more in front of TVs, computers and smartphones, which play a role in lost sleep and absences from school.

Last year, social media was declared a public health hazard by New York City’s health commissioner; the suit claims that the city and its schools have had to spend more money to combat the resulting mental health crisis among youth.

According to Business Insurance, the remarks came during last week’s Chicagoland Risk Forum, held by the Chicago chapter of the Risk & Insurance Management Society. As more employees use AI, insurance coverage gaps and exclusions could open companies up to more risk.

“Your employees are using it, you just may not know how they’re using it,” said Donna Haddad, associate general counsel and global technology legal leader at IBM in Chicago.

Policies also can address related issues such as data ownership, AI use transparency and use of unwanted AI-generated results, she added.

Additional risks of shadow AI use include intellectual property infringements and AI hallucination, which involves an AI tool creating fictional documents or other materials.

As reported in Insurance Journal, 70% of insurance professionals surveyed expect the number of cyber claims to go up, driven mostly by increasing threat activity. The report also stated that while brokers estimate that 47% of organizations have adequate cyber coverage, 65% of the organizations said they have the coverage they need. The report hypothesizes that the 20% gap is an indicator that businesses may be unaware of the extent of their protection.

Additionally, the report states that despite North America leading the globe in the cyber insurance market, only 45% of organizations in that region have the necessary cyber coverage compared to a higher number in some European countries. One driver of that disparity likely is the regulatory environment, with requirements in the U.K. and Ireland incentivizing organizations to mitigate their cyber risk.

The New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal (NYSIR) announced today that McNeil & Co. has been selected as the organization’s new program manager following a nationwide competitive procurement process. The transition will take effect February 1, 2026.

NYSIR, a subscriber-led reciprocal serving 328 New York State public school districts and BOCES, undertook the search to identify a strategic partner who could support its long-term mission of delivering stable, cost-effective coverage with a strong focus on risk management, claims service and member support.

“From the beginning, our goal was to find a partner—not just a vendor—who shares NYSIR’s commitment to service, innovation and long-term stability,” said Robert W. Lulley, Jr., Executive Director of NYSIR. “McNeil & Co. brings not only deep expertise and a strong reputation in New York, but a collaborative approach that aligns closely with our values and the evolving needs of our members. We’re excited to welcome them to the NYSIR community.”

Founded in Cortland, N.Y., McNeil & Co. has served high-accountability sectors for more than 35 years, including emergency services, public-facing organizations, and nonprofits. Now a national firm with more than 200 employees, the company is known for its integrated model that connects underwriting, claims and risk management to deliver proactive service and smarter coverage.

“We are honored to partner with an organization as trusted and respected as NYSIR,” said Daniel F. McNeil, Chairman & CEO of McNeil & Co. “Our team has long admired the work NYSIR does for New York’s schools, and we are grateful for the opportunity to build on that legacy. We look forward to working closely with NYSIR’s staff, brokers and members to ensure a smooth transition and continued excellence in service.”

NYSIR will provide subscribers and brokers with regular updates throughout the transition, including introductions to the McNeil & Co. team. All core services—claims, underwriting, risk management and member support—will continue uninterrupted.
For more information, visit www.nysir.org. 

As reported in Business Insurance, the claims stem from a post-pandemic spike in aggression against teachers. According to a study released last year by the American Psychological Association, reported incidents rebounded sharply after 2022, with 56% of teachers making a report of physical violence from a student, up from 42% prior to the pandemic.

In the same study, 80% of teachers said they experienced verbal or threatening aggression by a student, up from 65% pre-pandemic, and 26% stated they experienced physical violence from parents.

While the number of workers’ compensation claims doesn’t come close to the number of reports of violence, last year there were over 1,000 workers’ compensation claims made by teachers in K-12 schools in the U.S., costing employers $7.4 million.

As reported in Insurance Journal, Q2 of this year was the thirty-first straight quarter of increases across accounts of all sizes, though all lines except umbrella saw lower hikes or flat premiums compared to the first three months of 2025. Cyber was one of the few lines that recorded decreased premiums.

The CIAB survey noted that large accounts had the most moderated premium increases for the second quarter, while medium and small accounts saw somewhat higher premium hikes in Q2.

According to the Ivan Index for July, renewal rate changes were down for some lines including commercial property but up for others including general liability.