For the global insurance industry, the early signals for 2026 are hard to miss: pricing continues to ease in many areas, competition is sharpening and buyers are pushing harder. Guy Carpenter’s January 1, 2026 renewal report described a “softening market” shaped by capital growth and abundant capacity, with double-digit rate-on-line declines reported in multiple regions. S&P Global Market Intelligence similarly reported that the January 1, 2026 renewals pointed to further softening through 2026, following the post-2023 reset that saw higher prices and more restrictive coverage.

In that environment, the temptation for brokers and clients is to focus on headline premium - yet claims leaders argue that soft cycles tend to expose two areas where a “cheaper” deal can quickly become an expensive one.

"A softening cycle - which is definitely present - does two things," said Chris O’Shea (main picture), Markel's managing director of international claims. "One is the importance of terms and conditions."

O’Shea said, from a claims perspective, terms and conditions become "extremely important". The need for service also intensifies.

“Service is always important, but when you’re in a softer cycle and there’s capacity in the market, it drives that elevated need for service," he said.

Soft markets changing policy wordings

Soft markets don’t just compress rates; they tend to widen the dispersion in policy wordings, endorsements and interpretive grey zones. Brokers know this pattern well in commercial and specialty placements, where rising capacity and sharper competition can encourage buyers to push for improved structures and broader protections - while insurers try to hold the “post-reset” discipline established during harder conditions.

O’Shea’s broader point is that claims is no longer merely the back-end function that “responds” after a loss; it increasingly sits alongside commercial negotiations precisely because wordings determine whether service can be delivered cleanly and quickly. “We’re very keen to push that claims service to be at the table when we’re talking placement of risk, and so claims is considered side by side with price and terms," he said. "That’s a challenge.”

And in this softer cycle, brokers are seeing more scrutiny on terms and conditions and claims service from sophisticated buyers - risk managers who want clarity on triggers, notification requirements, panel provisions, cyber or crisis response mechanics and how disputes get handled. It also means insurers that can explain their wordings, not just sell them, have an edge in a more price-competitive environment.

Claims service becomes a differentiator buyers can measure

If softening cycles heighten the importance of wordings, they also intensify the market’s focus on “what happens when something goes wrong.” That shift is visible both in interview commentary and in how major carriers present themselves to customers: the claims promise becomes more explicit, more operational and more accessible.

O’Shea’s view is that elevated claims service begins with non-negotiables. “That’s what I call the table stakes," he said.

"If you don’t do those, you don’t do those well, then you’re not going to be around for very long anyway.”

Many insurers now market concrete, always-on service elements - especially in lines where speed and coordination can materially reduce ultimate loss cost. For example, AIG promotes a “24/7 Incident Hotline” for CyberEdge claims, positioning it as a channel to use even for a “suspected” threat. Zurich likewise highlights its Customer Care Center as available “24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” and describes “after-hours emergency response service for catastrophic losses.” Chubb tells customers its Claims Contact Center is “here 24/7 to assist and support you with your claim.”

Those operational commitments map to what O’Shea said brokers and clients are increasingly looking for: “The brokers and clients are demanding, and rightly so, an elevated claims service," he said.

The implication for brokers is that “service” in a soft market is a set of deliverables that can be compared - hotlines, incident coaching, claims staffing depth, panel access, pre-loss briefings and response times. In other words, brokers should treat claims as part of placement due diligence: test the wording, test the escalation path, test response promises and get clarity on who actually holds authority.

O'Shea said for some broker clients, this is an evolving mindset. He described it candidly: “There are some clients who generally just aren’t interested," he said. "They’re buying products and they just want it to respond when something goes wrong."

However, O’Shea said, more and more, sophisticated risk managers and clients are driving a different bargain and want to leverage their insurance policy to get what they need from it and to know that, when things go wrong, there’s somebody who’s going to help them.

Markel’s head of claims in Australia, Lisa Mitchell linked the same shift to broker behaviour in the market: “Underwriters see the value in the claims service and brokers certainly see the value in the claims service," she said.

The bottom line could be that soft markets redistribute negotiating power and amplify the consequences of ambiguity. For brokers building global placements in 2026, terms and conditions and claims service are where the real differentiation - and real disappointment - often show up first.