Simon Wilson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Markel Insurance, said competition in the insurance/" style="color:#c0392b;font-weight:700;text-decoration:underline;" class="hta-topic-link">property insurance market is continuing to intensify, with margins narrowing as softer reinsurance conditions put further pressure on pricing, although he believes the market is not yet “underwater”, with profit still to be made.
During Markel Group’s Q3 2026 Earnings Call, Wilson highlighted that this year’s storm season, which has seen low catastrophe activity and very few hurricane landfalls, will drive softer reinsurance conditions, leading to softer conditions in the primary market.
He said, “We’re not done with the storm season yet. We remember Sandy from 2011. So, it’s not over till it’s over, but it’s trending in a way where it’s been very low catastrophe this year, so I would expect we go into a reinsurance renewal season with some very competitive terms being offered there, and that will lead to more competition as we go into next year.
“It’s been very, very significant in structured and layered large property placements, and the competition now I think is trending towards smaller and medium-sized property business as well.”
According to Marsh’s latest Global Insurance Market Index, global commercial insurance premiums continued to fall in the third quarter of 2026, with property insurance experiencing some of the most significant price reductions, as competition among insurers and abundant market capacity continued to influence pricing.
Wilson noted that property insurance does not have the margin that it did a few years ago.
“I don’t think we’re quite at the point where it’s underwater yet,” he said. “I still think there’s profit to be made in that particular area, but we’re getting pretty close.”
He continued, “One would hope and expect as we go through the course of 2027 for that market to flatten out a little bit and then discipline to come back through.”
However, Wilson stressed that a fairly major loss event would be needed to move the property market substantively and push re/insurance rates higher.
He reiterated, “But I do think it’s beginning to flatten out because of the acceleration and the softening that we saw in the first half of the year, so it’s a little bit less.
“But the storm season this year, with with the very few landfalls that we’ve seen in terms of hurricane activity, I can only imagine that we’re going to have softer reinsurance, which will lead to softer conditions in the primary market.”
As a reminder, in August 2025, Markel exited the reinsurance market following Nationwide’s acquisition of the renewal rights to Markel Insurance’s Global Reinsurance business.
