| Coverage | Trend | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Terrorism & sabotage |
|
-10% to 0% |
| Political violence |
|
Flat to +5% |
| Active assailant (or “active shooter”) |
|
+2.5% to +10% |
| Kidnap & ransom |
|
Flat to +5% |
Key takeaways
- Organizations are increasingly focused on resilience, recognizing that crisis events can originate from geopolitical, criminal, technological or operational risks.
- Business interruption, infrastructure dependencies, and supply chain vulnerabilities are becoming key areas of underwriting focus.
- Standalone solutions can complement government-backed programs and address a broader range of perils.
- Advanced terrorism and political violence analytics are helping organizations better quantify risk, optimize limits and align coverage with actual exposure.
The marketplace remains broadly competitive, but the underwriting conversation has become more nuanced. Buyers are no longer evaluating terrorism, political violence and special crime exposure solely through the lens of headline geopolitical volatility. Instead, the market is focused on how disruption manifests across specific asset classes, geographies and operational dependencies.
A well-structured program can address the limitations of government-backed terrorism schemes while also responding to the broader set of perils now driving loss scenarios, including war, sabotage, civil unrest, kidnap, extortion, physical infrastructure attacks and digital infrastructure disruption.
Terrorism and political violence: TRIA renewal, volatility in the Middle East and data center insurability
- There is still meaningful support for the renewal of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (TRIP) without material change, with legislative momentum pointing towards reauthorization ahead of its December 2027 expiration.
- Nevertheless, softening in the specialty market has increased the premium arbitrage between standalone terrorism vs embedded coverage, particularly for liability exposures.
- Conflict in the Middle East has reinforced how quickly regional volatility can change underwriting conditions, with oil and gas, aviation, shipping and port operations under scrutiny.
- In addition to property values, operational or contingent business interruption exposures are driving underwriting decisions.
- Data centers test the limits of insurability in a market where maximum capacity remains in the low billions on a per risk basis.
- Captive wrap structures are proving a valuable tool to meet lender requirements.
New analytic innovations are changing how risk is measured, placed and explained
- Political violence analytics have moved from a helpful advisory tool to an increasingly important part of insurance program design as clients and insurers are using more granular analytics to understand how terrorism, war, and civil unrest could affect specific assets, portfolios and supply chains.
- For insurers, stronger analytics improve confidence in risk selection and capacity deployment. For clients, they provide clearer benchmarking, more defensible limit selection and better alignment between exposures and coverage structures.
- By combining geospatial intelligence, event data, portfolio accumulation, scenario modeling and threat monitoring, our analytics create a more credible basis for structuring coverage around actual exposure rather than generic assumptions.
Kidnap, ransom and extortion
- Kidnap and extortion risks continue to evolve, with virtual and express kidnapping techniques accelerating through AI-enabled deception and sophisticated social engineering. Bad actors increasingly use remote communication, anonymity and generative AI to create convincing threats targeting organizations and senior leaders.
- This makes access to specialist response capabilities increasingly important, particularly for incidents involving misinformation, reputational pressure, executive targeting, family intimidation or cyber-enabled extortion.
- Geopolitical fragmentation and transnational organized crime have also contributed to increased piracy activity in 2026, highlighting how special crime exposure can expand as maritime routing, law enforcement capacity and regional stability shift.
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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