Many risks shaping the re/insurance market today are emerging in places where traditional frameworks struggle to capture them. Climate signals are appearing in new datasets, geopolitical tensions are escalating interconnected forms of disruption, and advances in artificial intelligence are raising entirely new liability questions. For insurers and reinsurers, the challenge is not simply identifying these risks, but understanding how they evolve and interact across different parts of the risk landscape.
In this edition, we bring together insights from across the Willis Research Network, Willis and Willis Re colleagues that speak directly to these challenges. You will find analysis of recent catastrophe activity, emerging climate signals in UK rainfall and flood risk, and new thinking on difficult modelling problems such as severe convective storm losses and hurricane behaviour in the North Atlantic. We also explore risks sitting beyond traditional catastrophe frameworks, including gray-zone geopolitical disruption, the evolving landscape of AI liability, and the growing strategic role of scenario analysis.
Across these articles, a consistent theme emerges: many of the risks now shaping underwriting, capital and resilience strategies are evolving faster than traditional frameworks can adapt. Through the Willis Research Network, we work with leading academic partners to identify these signals early, test new approaches to understanding them and translate that research into insights the insurance industry can act on. The pieces in this edition reflect that effort and offer practical perspectives on some of the most complex and rapidly evolving risks facing the market today
01
Amid a surge in gray-zone aggression acts, WRN partner Elisabeth Braw shares key insights and three scenarios to help risk leaders take action in 2026.
02
The Crisis Management Annual Review 2026 provides insights from regional specialists and highlights the critical trends observed by Willis in‑house risk advisory and crisis support service, Alert:24
03
The latest edition of our Natural Catastrophe Review provides insights and expert views on key catastrophe events that shaped 2025.
04
The 2025 North Atlantic hurricane season was dominated by a combination of unnamed tropical storms and ‘major’ hurricanes. What caused the absence of ‘moderate’ (Category 1 to 3) hurricanes this year?
05
Flood risks are not restricted to those places labelled as flood zones. We discuss two reasons why flooding can occur well beyond mapped flood areas and how risk managers can avoid being taken unaware.
06
Discover four ways U.K. winter storms are changing, what’s driving the shift, and how re/insurers can respond.
07
A conversation with Professor Anat Lior, facilitated by the Willis Research Network, providing risk managers with a timely and pragmatic lens on the evolving landscape of AI liability and insurance.
08
Moving beyond box-ticking, scenario analysis empowers organizations to anticipate disruption, allocate resources smartly and build lasting resilience.
09
A winter of extremes has gripped the U.S., with deep freezes in the East and unusual warmth in the West. This Willis Re analysis explores what growing temperature volatility means for insurers and reinsurers.
10
What’s more likely: a Severe Convective Storm insured-loss year for the U.S. below $10 billion, or one that costs over $100 billion?
