Favorable risk rate predictions
| Trend | Range | |
|---|---|---|
| Professional liability |  | 0% to +5% |
| General liability | | 0% to +5% |
| Auto |  | +5% to +15% |
| Workers’ compensation | | 0% to +5% |
| Umbrella liability | | +5% to +15% |
| Management liability | | 0% to +5% |
| Cyber | | 0% to +5% |
Challenging risk rate predictions
| Trend | Range | |
|---|---|---|
| Professional liability | | +5% to +15% |
| General liability | | +5% to +10% |
| Auto | | +15% to +30% |
| Workers’ compensation | | +5% to +10% |
| Umbrella liability | | +15% to +30% |
| Management liability | | +5% to +10% |
| Cyber | | +5% to +15% |
Key takeaway
The Architects & Engineers (A&E) professional liability (PL) marketplace in 2026 is broadly described as stable, driven by continued competition as a result of ample capacity, despite carrier consolidation. While pricing has remained relatively flat overall, many carriers believe current rates may be below long term sustainable levels given loss trends. As a result, it continues to operate within a distinct two-tier structure entering 2026:
Favorable risks — firms with no material change in business, strong risk management practices and stable loss histories — continue to benefit from competitive market conditions and stable pricing.
Challenging risks — firms with higher-exposure project types, complex services, or adverse loss experience — face increased underwriting scrutiny, premium pressure and higher deductible requirements.
Based on the 2026 Willis A&E Emerging Risks and Claim Trends Survey, adverse claim severity trends remain the dominant concern across the PL marketplace. Approximately 85% of professional liability carriers report increasing claims severity, with social inflation cited as the primary driver across casualty lines. Insurers are also increasingly focused on emerging risks, including economic uncertainty, artificial intelligence and climate change. Claims are also taking longer to resolve and are becoming more expensive to settle. Depending on classification as a favorable or challenging risk, firms should anticipate renewal rate changes ranging anywhere from flat to 15%, along with continued pressure toward higher deductibles or self-insured retentions.
Within property & casualty programs, firms operating large vehicle fleets, maintaining adverse loss histories, or presenting difficult geographical property exposures (CA and FL among others) are increasingly categorized as challenging risks.
- Market consolidation continues following recent acquisitions involving Beazley and Everest; however, overall marketplace capacity remains strong.
- Pricing remains largely stable for favorable risks despite ongoing underwriting caution. Underwriters continue to apply heightened scrutiny to challenging accounts, with deductible increases becoming more common.
- Project specific professional liability (PSPL) has seen a slight increase in deployment on large projects — over $100 million in construction value. Overall, pricing remains stable, but highly dependent on the complexity of the project.
- The London professional indemnity insurance (PII) landscape has continued to ease through 2024 and 2025, with insurers expanding capacity and demonstrating an increased appetite for well‑managed construction risks. The market may be softening in 2026, but insurers’ scrutiny of risk quality and documentation remains unchanged. Increased insurer appetite and competitive pricing have reshaped conditions for A&E firms. So far in 2026, we are forecasting renewal rates to be between –5% and — 10%.
- The key claim trends include:
- Rising claim costs: Average claims ~$130,000, with severity claims exceeding $250,000.
- Longer resolution timelines: Most claims take 3 to 5 years, with some extending beyond a decade
- High defense costs: ~30 to 35% of claim spend is allocated to legal and expert expenses
- Client-driven litigation: Over 80% of claims originate from clients[1]
- The drivers of claim severity include social inflation leading to larger jury verdicts and aggressive plaintiff strategies; increased litigation financing enabling more and longer disputes; construction cost inflation driving higher repair and delay damages and growing exposure from complex project types such as infrastructure, residential (particularly condos) and data centers.
- Insurance carriers are monitoring evolving exposures driven by artificial intelligence, changing the standard of care, climate-related design risks, economic uncertainty impacting costs and supply chains, workforce experience gaps increasing execution risk and cyber threats creating potential project disruption and data exposure.
- More information on emerging risks and claim trends can be found in the 2026 Willis A&E Emerging Risks and Claim Trends Survey.
- Auto remains the most challenging casualty line. Increased accident severity, repair costs and nuclear verdicts continue to drive rate increases. Firms with large fleets or an unfavorable loss history should expect continued premium increases.
- Umbrella liability pricing continues to rise, largely due to deterioration in underlying auto-performance. Carriers are reviewing fleet safety programs closely and may require structural program adjustments.
- Workers’ compensation rates remain stable in the A&E space due to professional office exposure. Larger firms with employees offsite should review their class codes to ensure stability of their experience modification rates.
- Cyber market conditions have stabilized following prior years of volatility. Insurers report an increase in social engineering and funds transfer fraud claims. Firms should work closely with their broker to coordinate social engineering coverage limits.
- Executive risk market conditions remain stable. EPLI claims frequency continues its upward trend. Geographic exposures — particularly California — continue to generate increased underwriting scrutiny and higher deductible expectations.
Overall, the A&E insurance marketplace remains stable in 2026 with competitive conditions for favorable risks, particularly across professional liability, cyber, executive risk lines. Conversely, casualty lines — most notably auto and umbrella — continue to experience upward pricing pressure driven by adverse auto-claim trends.
Looking ahead, we expect the market to remain bifurcated:
Firms demonstrating strong risk controls, disciplined project selection and favorable loss histories should maintain access to stable pricing and adequate capacity.
Firms presenting higher-risk exposures or adverse loss experience may encounter tightening terms, increased retentions and elevated renewal pricing as insurers remain focused on loss performance.
Design firms should prepare for a complex and evolving insurance landscape and work closely with their brokers to position their risk profiles effectively and navigate market conditions successfully.
Footnote
Disclaimer
WTW hopes you found the general information provided here informative and helpful. The information contained herein is not intended to constitute legal or other professional advice and should not be relied upon in lieu of consultation with your own legal advisors. In the event you would like more information regarding your insurance coverage, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. In North America, WTW offers insurance products through licensed entities, including Willis Towers Watson Northeast, Inc. (in the United States) and Willis Canada Inc. (in Canada).
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