25th anniversary of 9/11 brings a focus on knowledge transfer to the new generation
Let’s start with a solemn anniversary. 2026 marks a quarter of a century since the 9/11 Twin Towers terrorist attack. Beyond the human acknowledgement of that awful event which included the loss of so many lives from the insurance community, 9/11 was a significant market-shaping event for the insurance market. Insurers were handling high volumes of interconnected complex claims that required specialist attention, pace and extreme sensitivity.
In 2026, the Lloyd’s Market Association’s (LMA) claims community will reflect on how the market responded to these losses and other significant events and will explore what there is to learn from those who handled the claims that arose – encouraging knowledge sharing across the generations.
Delegated authority claims transformation
The efficient and cost-effective management of delegated authority (DA) claims across the Lloyd’s market continues to be a focus area. The LMA, with support from recognised market leaders in DA claims management, will consult and commence work on strategic goals. Addressing common challenges, emerging opportunities and unlocking the potential of rich data from delegated claims will support the market to transform and evolve the traditional DA claims solution into an adaptable, cost-efficient claims and insight service model.
There is much to do to deliver the envisaged benefits of the strategic goals; this won’t be achieved in just one year. But with interest and ambitions high across the market, I am confident that we will make meaningful progress in delivering impactful changes.
Accelerate development of claims expertise
The picture on talent within claims is mixed. I am delighted that in the London market we are starting to see promising progress with our aim to build an entry-level talent pipeline. LMA initiatives, including claims job simulations developed in partnership with Forage, our Claims Capability Framework, along with the London Market Group’s London Insurance Life campaign, are successfully attracting new talent. But other parallel challenges in the talent landscape are emerging, driven partly by the introduction of technology-powered solutions.
For the last decade or so, many in the London market have favoured developing generalist claims teams to support flexible, multi-disciplined resource models. But with artificial intelligence (AI) predicted to do more of the foundational work, what will increasingly be needed is specialist knowledge and skills – highly skilled professionals who can step in to navigate complex, judgment-based decisions and tailor customer journeys where AI cannot. Targeted action is needed to develop the next generation of specialists to replenish the retiring professionals and bolster this essential differentiating role.
Claims uncertainties fuelled by triple headwinds
As a global specialist market, we vigilantly follow developments in the geopolitical landscape and the impact these have on the management and cost of claims and the inevitable knock-on effects to risk assessment and pricing. This includes the continued uptick in US nuclear verdict awards and the limited but promising regulatory reforms that have been introduced in some southern US states, designed to curb vexatious claims. We are also seeing efforts to limit the extreme outcomes of litigation funding.
The rise of super-complaints and significant legal test cases introduce additional uncertainty. In the US, for example, a bellwether test case scheduled for October 2026 will look for the first time to establish personal injury resulting from per- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), seeking to prove a correlation between drinking water contamination and kidney cancer. While evidencing harm from exposure to PFAS is more complex than demonstrating exposure to asbestos which generated thousands of claims, we should nonetheless be ready to respond to a wave of PFAS-related claims should the US test case prove a positive correlation.
Aspects of operational claims expense is another area of claims management that will come under closer scrutiny this year. Management information indicates a steady increase in the percentage of allocated loss adjusting expense. This is an area where there is the potential for both savings and service improvement to be realised in parallel. The availability of intelligent technology solutions promises the ability for carriers to streamline processes, free up scarce resource and deliver better, more cost-effective claims services. This, alongside other less investment heavy solutions, will need to be explored and exploited to tackle and stem the increase in allocated and unallocated operational claims expense.
Let’s open the data mine
I end this review of thoughts about the year ahead with a request to everyone. I believe there is enormous, untapped insight with huge potential locked up in the Lloyd’s market claims data. Senior figures across the Lloyd’s market have talked about the idea of ‘Lloyd’s Club Data’ where data-rich insights can be accessed by, sourced from millions of information points captured in the vast repository of Lloyd’s claims. Researching viability of achieving this in a safe and compliant way and establishing a shared vision are the first steps on this journey, but the potential for a “Claims GPT” data pool would be enormous