The Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) and Munich Re US today announced the release of RiskScan 2026, a comprehensive cross-market research study that examines evolving risk perceptions and interconnected exposures in the United States and United Kingdom insurance markets.
Featuring detailed research findings and key insights from Triple-I and various senior executives within the Munich Re Group of companies, RiskScan 2026 provides two in-depth reports:
- RiskScan 2026 (Re)insurance highlights the growing alignment around related risks that are reshaping economies and societies and cites persistent insurance protection gaps that threaten long-term resilience. It builds on the inaugural RiskScan 2024 study and demonstrates that today’s risk landscape is increasingly defined not by isolated threats but by overlapping pressures spanning cyber incidents, natural catastrophes, economic volatility, artificial intelligence (AI), business interruption, and emerging liability exposures.
- RiskScan 2026: Specialty Insurance incorporates global specialty market perspectives and insights on cyber incidents, business interruption, new technologies, and natural catastrophes – revealed as tightly interconnected concerns that reinforce how operational disruption, supply chain volatility, liability exposure, and technology dependencies can quickly cascade across organizations and industries. The specialty findings also underscore growing attention to long-tail emerging exposures, including evolving AI-related risks.
More than 1,700 participants were surveyed in the U.S. and U.K, across five key insurance market segments: consumers, small business owners, middle-market decision-makers, property/casualty (P/C) insurance agents and brokers, and P/C insurance carriers.
Key Findings
- Cyber incidents, economic pressures and AI emerged as top concerns across all market segments, reflecting the increasingly interconnected nature of modern risk.
- Non-peak (secondary) catastrophe perils, including floods, severe storms, winter weather and wildfires, are now viewed as frequent, high-impact risks, challenging traditional assumptions about catastrophe exposure and diversification.
- AI ranked as the most impactful emerging technology, highlighting both its rapid adoption and growing concerns around operational, regulatory, liability and systemic risks.
- Persistent protection gaps remain for flood and cyber insurance, despite heightened awareness of these exposures among businesses and insurance professionals.
- Growing recognition of legal system abuse as a driver of rising P/C insurance costs signals broader awareness of the factors influencing affordability and long-term market stability.
“As insurance professionals, we are committed to driving positive change by helping clients better understand, mitigate and manage today’s increasingly complex risks, from cyber incidents and business interruption to natural catastrophes and emerging AI exposures,” said Marcus Winter, president and CEO, North America (P&C Re), Munich Reinsurance America, Inc. (“Munich Re US”). “The findings also reinforce the critical role insurance plays in helping communities recover after loss, promoting long-term financial stability and strengthening resilience.”
Highlights and Perspective
“Today’s risk environment is being shaped not only by catastrophe and cyber exposures, but also by the interaction between economic inflation, geopolitical uncertainty, supply chain pressures and rising legal costs,” said Michel Léonard, Ph.D., CBE, chief economist and data scientist, Triple-I. “The data shows economic conditions are increasingly acting as a multiplier of insurance risk, affecting affordability, claims severity, capital allocation and long-term market stability across the insurance value chain.”
The study found economic inflation, economic decline and rising property insurance costs remain among the top market concerns across all audiences surveyed. Respondents increasingly recognized macroeconomic pressures, including inflation, supply chain disruption, geopolitical uncertainty and legal system abuse, are intensifying the impact of catastrophe losses, cyber incidents and overall insurance affordability challenges.
“The survey findings make clear that recognizing risk is only the first step,” said Sean Kevelighan, CEO, Triple-I. “As flood, cyber and other interconnected exposures continue to evolve, the industry has an important opportunity to strengthen public understanding, close protection gaps, and work collaboratively with consumers, policymakers, businesses, and communities to better predict, prepare and prevent ever-increasing risks.”
Additionally, the survey found “broad recognition of insurance’s societal value and underscores the importance of collaboration among insurers, reinsurers, industry organizations, policymakers and risk management leaders to address emerging exposures, improve public understanding of risk and advance solutions for resilience and economic stability,” continued Kevelighan.
Methodology
Munich Re US and the Triple-I engaged independent market research firm RTi Research in 2026 to conduct an online survey among 1700+ respondents; methodology details can be found in the report online.
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