Simon Wilson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Markel Insurance, said the company continues to see opportunities in the US casualty market, but with rates coming under pressure and competition increasing, he emphasised that Markel will not lose discipline or follow the market down.
During Markel Group’s first quarter 2026 earnings call, Wilson noted that there are still opportunities within the US casualty market, while cautioning on current claims trends.
He said, “I would signal one note of caution, in that clearly the claims trend in US casualty business continues to run in what we think are the low double digits at the moment, and while we did see very good rate increases over the past year or so, we’ve started to see those rate increases come under a bit of pressure over the last, I would say, two to three months.
“Perhaps one of the reasons for that is that the property market has become more competitive, with some of those underwriters now looking for alternative ways to deploy capital, and then moving into the casualty market.”
Wilson stressed that Markel will “not follow a casualty market down,” and will maintain underwriting discipline.
“It’s critical that we keep the casualty portfolio focused on areas where we are confident we can generate an underwriting profit over a long period of time.
“But casualty has been a huge lift credit to the people that have been involved. It hasn’t been easy at the front line in the market, because we’ve had to say no to a lot of brokers that we used to say yes to. But the heavy lifting, in many respects, has been done, and I feel very good about where the portfolio is at the moment,” said Wilson.
He added that one thing Markel will be watching is pricing dynamics, highlighting that if competition increases significantly in US casualty, that is where things go wrong in the industry.
“I am concerned about a number of new entrant MGAs in the space, backed by sidecars and private capital, which have been very competitive in some areas that we know have caused significant losses in the past, and that is where people might get hurt, certainly financially, over the next few years. We’re going to be staying out of those games, and continue focusing on the areas where we know we can perform and bring tremendous value.
“From a reserving perspective, everything we’ve done conservatively early has put us in a nice position to start producing the results that we’ve done in the last few quarters. That’s exactly what we’re focused on for the next few quarters as well,” Wilson said.
