WASHINGTON, D.C. | May 14, 2025
The U.S. Department of the Treasury hosted a roundtable on May 2, 2025, bringing together key stakeholders from the insurance sector, including insurers, reinsurers, brokers, state regulators, and consumer advocates, to discuss opportunities to lower costs and maintain the availability of homeowners insurance. Daniel Kaniewski, Managing Director for Public Sector at Marsh McLennan, represented the company and led a discussion on the current challenges and opportunities within the commercial and multifamily insurance market.
Mr. Kaniewski noted the devastating impact of disasters, inflation and rising social inflation costs, and that at the same time, US commercial property insurance prices fell by 9% in the first quarter of 2025, inclusive of the multifamily segment. He noted, “Broadly we are seeing insurance price reductions across our property portfolio, and that includes multifamily.”
But challenges remain. “While we are witnessing improvements in the property insurance market, it remains fragile and a significant loss event could reverse this trend," said Mr. Kaniewski. He underscored that the industry must remain vigilant about the ongoing challenges in casualty lines, pointing out that liability, especially excess, is getting more and more challenging on multifamily risks and that inflation, legal system abuse, and rising violent crime are all driving forces.
In disaster-prone areas, insurance markets have become stretched. The root cause is rising risk and a lack of resilience. "We don’t have an insurance crisis; we have a risk crisis,” he added. “Resilience should be our North Star."
For further details on the roundtable, please refer to the official readout from the event: U.S. Department of the Treasury Hosts Roundtable on Opportunities to Lower Costs and Maintain Availability of Homeowners Insurance.
