Declarations

“Climate change may have been announcing its arrival. However, no ‘monster’ event occurred during 2024. Someday, any day, a truly staggering insurance loss will occur–and there is no guarantee that there will be only one per annum.”

— Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway’s 2024 annual report to shareholders.

“The concerns that I have tie into that birth rate discussion, but more broadly around companies as they think about succession planning and building a talent pool for the future… This perhaps paints a bit of a bleak story for the ability for the industry to create those roles going into the future.”

— Jeff Rieder, partner and head of Strategy and Technology Group Performance Benchmarking at Aon, during a jobs outlook webinar. This year saw a significant drop in the percentage of expected entry-level hires for underwriting activities–14% in January 2025, down from 21% in January 2024 and 38% in January 2023. This year, carriers say only 15% of the actuarial roles filled in the next 12 months will go to job seekers new to the actuarial profession.

“Unfortunately, it’s not if but when another powerful storm will take aim at Florida. This legislation is a proactive step toward safeguarding our communities from hurricanes and keeping insurance costs in check.”

— Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis said in a statement about the state’s new My Safe Florida Home Trust Fund, which he said would “funnel necessary funds into our local economies but also incentivize homeowners to fortify their residences.”

“Ultimately, local governments will need to reduce risk through appropriate land use, zoning, and building controls. Without this, parametric insurance might not even be available in the future.”

— Jesse Keenan, a professor at Tulane University who studies cities and climate risk, responding to the idea of high-risk California communities obtaining parametric insurance. Without proactive planning, he said, cities would basically be kicking the can down the road.

“One of the key governance controls and duties with AI technology is that it does require human oversight, so while AI could perform some underwriting stages, you would hope that there is still a human reviewing its output and sense-checking that.”

— Claire Davey, head of product innovation at Relm Insurance, headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, on the evolution of AI in insurance underwriting. However, she said, major AI shifts are already happening in other areas of insurance that involve more administrative tasks.

“Whoa, is this coming? Oh, it’s here. It’s here–Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn–”

— Tad Peters, in a video, as a tornado bore down on him and his father, Richard Peters. The two had pulled over to fuel up their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, on March 14 when they heard tornado sirens and saw other motorists fleeing the interstate to park. They were headed to Indiana for a weightlifting competition but decided to head back home to Norman, Oklahoma, about six hours away, where they encountered wildfires.