Harder-to-place risks do not disappear when capacity returns to the market. As conditions soften, they attract new entrants, but the underlying complexity remains unchanged.
For Gary Uren managing director of Sutton Specialist Risks (part of Acrisure UK Retail), that distinction is becoming more visible as conditions soften. While the availability of capacity has increased, he said the challenges around complex risks have not disappeared, only shifted.
“I would say that was probably more of an issue last year,” he said, referring to harder-to-place risks. “But it is becoming less of an issue because of the amount of capacity currently available in the market.”
This is changing how these risks are priced, and who is willing to write them.
As capacity returns, more markets look to write complex risks that would previously have been avoided. That can create short-term competition, but also introduce volatility into pricing.
“The pricing of those more specialist and more difficult-to-place risks can then become a little bit of a lottery,” Uren said.
The issue is not just increased appetite, but inconsistency. New entrants may lack the depth of experience required to assess exposures accurately, particularly in sectors where claims patterns are less predictable or require specialist handling.
That can lead to cycles of entry and withdrawal. Markets expand into niche areas during softer conditions, only to retreat when loss experience does not align with expectations.
Specialist brokers tend to take a different approach. Rather than responding to short-term pricing opportunities, they operate with a longer-term view of risk.
“We have been writing the business that we write for well over 35 years now,” Uren said. “We understand the cover requirements, and we have also dealt with the claims.”
That experience shapes both pricing and placement. Familiarity with claims trends and exposure types allows specialists to assess risks more consistently, even as market conditions fluctuate.
Technical knowledge, insurer relationships and access to capacity all play a role, but Uren said their value is cumulative rather than interchangeable. Established relationships with insurers, in particular, can support placements that require flexibility or more nuanced underwriting.
“Having a good relationship with that insurer is also so important to enable you to deal with some of those complex, more difficult requests,” he said.
The challenge in placing specialist risks is not always the nature of the exposure itself, but how cover is constructed.
Higher limits of indemnity, for example, often require multiple layers of capacity across different insurers. Building those towers can be complex, particularly where individual markets are only willing to take smaller lines.
“We can probably find solutions to towers that are going to £20m and above,” Uren said, describing the need to assemble capacity across multiple participants.
Certain operating environments add further complexity. Work in hazardous locations, such as petrochemical plants, offshore sites or airside operations, can fall outside the scope of standard policies, requiring more tailored cover and a clearer understanding of exclusions.
“If you are looking for a market that is used to dealing with that, you need to come to a specialist market,” he said.
“I think there is a level of an expertise gap now that has shifted away from some of these general insurers,” Uren said, pointing to the movement of experienced practitioners into specialist broking and managing general agent environments.
This is influencing how brokers place complex risks. Rather than relying on broad market offerings, there is increasing reliance on specialist intermediaries with established track records in niche areas.
Those expectations shape how broker partners engage with specialist firms, and form part of the proposition. “They come to us and expect us to have the answers,” Uren said.
While insurer appetite has broadened in the current environment, Uren said consistency remains a key differentiator.
Markets that maintain stable underwriting approaches and avoid volatility at renewal are more likely to support long-term client relationships, particularly in specialist areas where continuity matters.
“If you have a market that does not give nasty surprises with renewals, those are the markets you should be talking to,” he said.
For specialist brokers, the challenge is less about access to capacity and more about how that capacity is deployed.
As softer conditions attract new entrants, the risk is not a shortage of options, but a dilution of pricing discipline. As more entrants compete for complex risks, the ability to apply consistent underwriting judgement, rather than simply access capacity, becomes the defining advantage.
