Casualty underwriting has undergone a profound transformation over the last several years. What was once a cyclical discipline, loosely guided by market hardening and softening, has become a precise, evidence-driven practice grounded in data, documentation and operational transparency.

The old world of broad-stroke pricing is gone. In its place is a market where every account must tell a story and that story must be proven with facts.

The 2026 casualty market reflects this shift. Underwriters no longer rely on generalizations about classes, cycles or market conditions. Instead, they evaluate each risk individually, replacing the old binary "hard vs. soft" mindset with individualized risk profiling and class-specific strategies. It's a more demanding market, but also a more rational one that rewards preparation, discipline and clarity.

One of the biggest dividing lines in the modern casualty landscape is the growing gulf between primary and excess underwriting. While primary business is priced for expected loss, excess business is priced for perfection. That captures the changed nature of the tower: the lower layers assume risk will happen, while the upper layers assume it absolutely cannot. This has made excess carriers far more selective, especially in sectors prone to severity such as construction, transportation, habitational and hospitality.

"Umbrella and excess coverage were never meant to have both frequency and severity," says Russ Stein, executive vice president at RPS. "It was meant for catastrophic loss. But in recent years, we've seen both."

That erosion of predictability has forced excess carriers to tighten their appetite dramatically, raising attachments, compressing limits and demanding cleaner, more thoroughly documented accounts.

Proof Over Promises

Documentation sits at the center of the new underwriting culture. Promises or verbal assurances no longer carry weight; underwriters want tangible evidence of effective controls. Carriers are demanding documentation of safety protocols, employee training, post-incident procedures and data analytics to ensure compliance.

"It's not enough to say you have a loss-prevention program," says Ania Caruso, national casualty president and leader at RPS. "You have to show that you act on it."

The proof now expected from insureds includes detailed training logs, incident reports, telematics outputs, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) histories, post-incident procedures, third-party vendor agreements and even year-over-year trend analyses showing measurable improvements.

This expectation reflects a deeper cultural change. Underwriting has evolved from a discipline of assumptions into one of verification. As a result, insureds must now behave more like data-driven organizations, capable of demonstrating not just what their safety and loss-control programs are, but how consistently and effectively they're implemented.

Telematics is one of the clearest examples of this evolution. What began a decade ago as an optional enhancement is now a threshold requirement in many classes.

As Michael Schafer, area senior vice president at RPS says: "Telematics used to be a suggestion. Ten years ago, fleet operators could view it as a competitive advantage. Today, it's a prerequisite. Underwriters expect to see hard evidence of tracking, monitoring and coaching programs and they're willing to decline risks that can't show it."

Those that cannot produce this kind of evidence are increasingly being declined before the conversation even begins.

Data to the Forefront

But telematics is only one part of a broader trend toward operational transparency. Data has moved from a compliance tool to a negotiation lever. Accounts that proactively share internal analytics, safety metrics or claims-management dashboards build a level of credibility that can directly influence underwriting outcomes.

In an environment where carriers are deeply focused on protecting their books, transparency has become a form of currency.

This structural complexity has redefined what it means to be a casualty broker. As Stein notes, "Today, you win because you're prepared. You know what your client's exposures are. You speak the carrier's language. You show them the data before they ask."

The broker's role has shifted from relationship manager to translator; someone who can interpret an insured's operations, package their documentation and articulate their risk controls in a way that resonates with underwriters.

Taken together, these trends paint a picture of a casualty market that is not only more demanding, but also more stable. Underwriters are using better data, more rigorous processes and clearer expectations to navigate an environment still defined by legal volatility and rising severity. Insureds are becoming more sophisticated participants in their own risk financing and brokers are functioning more like engineers and consultants than ever before.

The rules of underwriting have changed permanently. What matters most now is discipline — from carriers in how they deploy capital, from brokers in how they communicate and from insureds in how they manage and document their risks.

Learn more about what's next for the Casualty insurance market in the 2026 Casualty Market Outlook

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