D&O market is ‘brutal’, say brokers

Directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance is heavily exposed to the current hard market, with insurance industry commentators describing conditions for this line of business as “absolutely brutal” and “in a world of pain” due to “capacity constriction”.

This topic was discussed at last week’s Insurance2025 virtual conference, hosted by sister publication Insurance Times.

In a panel discussion led by content director Saxon East, Simon Collings, managing director of national broking placement at Gallagher, said that market conditions surrounding D&O and professional indemnity (PI) insurance was “exceptionally hard”.

He continued: “Our head of D&O in our specialty team stated that he thought he had 5% of capacity available in 2020 than he had three years prior.

“Any market that has a capacity constriction of that amount is going to be in a world of pain and that was absolutely the case for the D&O market.”

Mike Keating, chief executive of the Managing General Agents’ Association (MGAA) agreed. He added that “most lines are carrying double digit rate increases”.

“The main product lines [affected by the hard market are] financial lines. Professional indemnity and D&O are absolutely brutal and it’s not just a case of rate increases – a hard market also brings restrictions in capacity and a reduction in cover,” he noted.