High-hazard contractor risks are not becoming fundamentally harder to underwrite. The challenge, according to Andy Hurrell (pictured), is that they have never been simple.
As underwriting lead at Corin Underwriting, he describes a class defined by severe injury exposure and long-tail claims, where profitability depends on getting pricing and risk selection right from the outset and maintaining that discipline over time.
“The challenge is always there,” he said. “You need to get your pricing right, your profile right and then it’s about the claims story after that.”
The core characteristic of high-hazard contracting remains unchanged: low frequency, high severity injury claims that take time to develop and even longer to settle.
“It’s a long-tail business. It’s the injury losses over the property damage,” Hurrell said.
Those claims often move through extended legal processes before resolution. “Most of our nasty losses are going to end up in a court process. That could still be two to three years,” he said.
That delay requires underwriters to take a forward view on outcomes, holding reserves against uncertain liabilities while navigating claims inflation and changes in the legal environment.
While the underlying risk has remained consistent, the market around it has shifted. The current soft market has brought increased capacity and competition, particularly for larger premium risks.
“In a soft market, there’s lots of capacity all fighting for the same risks,” Hurrell said.
That competition is being driven in part by consolidation and investment across the market, with some insurers entering higher-hazard liability classes to support growth objectives.
“It might mean that an insurer will move into some higher hazardous liability for a couple of years and then decide to withdraw,” he said.
At the same time, long-tail liability competes internally with shorter-tail classes that offer faster claims resolution and less pressure on reserves, influencing how insurers allocate capital.
The immediate effect of softer conditions is a more accessible placement environment. However, Hurrell argues that this does not reduce the importance of understanding the underlying trade and exposure. Where that understanding is limited, risks can be mis-profiled from the outset.
“It’s quite easy to get it placed in a soft market,” Hurrell said. “I think they become difficult to place when there’s a lack of understanding of the trade.”
High-hazard contracting, he added, does not lend itself easily to automated underwriting. Each risk is shaped by specific working environments and project conditions, requiring detailed assessment.
“They’re going to be working on unique properties. You can’t get that pool of information,” he said.
That places continued emphasis on case-by-case underwriting and direct engagement between brokers and underwriters. High-hazard contractor risks remain insurable, in Hurrell’s view, but consistency in approach remains critical.
In a market where conditions can shift quickly, maintaining underwriting discipline through the cycle remains central to delivering consistent underwriting performance.
