Ways for specialty insurance clients to navigate U.S. tariffs

Insurers’ clients and brokers are considering alternative insurance policies to help mitigate potential impacts of U.S. tariffs, Markel Canada president David Crozier tells Canadian Underwriter in an interview.

For example, a couple of markets are looking at claims-made policies as a short-term mitigation measure for an uncertain economic environment and then multi-year policies as “peace of mind” mitigation. With the multi-year policy, clients get stability and comfort of knowing what their insurance program looks like over the next few years.

“‘Now I can turn my attention fully to dealing with whatever ramifications there are from tariffs being added, tariffs being taken away, economic conditions,’ and anything else that could befall them,” Crozier says.

“I certainly hear clients and brokers wanting to discuss alternatives more often,” he says, which can include multi-year, parametric or captive insurance policies. “What are the different ways we can handle risk? How does the specialty insurance industry facilitate that or fit into that?”

It’s important to listen to customers, who best know their businesses and exposures. “Listen to what they’re going through, and through that, how do we creatively and proactively as possible respond to their concerns and how their concerns are changing?” Crozier says.

“What are the terms and conditions that best match that client’s changing perception of and reality of risk?” he asks. “Are deductibles appropriate? How about limits and tower management benchmarking, particularly as you potentially look at selling your products, or sourcing your products from and to different places around the world? Does that present a different liability profile that all of a sudden you’ve got to consider your limits?”

Stability and volatility control

Insurance at its very core brings stability and volatility control, so there are no dramatic changes afoot to change insurance programs, coverages or limits, Crozier says. “People are looking to tweak and adapt, but not to introduce wholesale change.”

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Some specialty product lines such as environmental and cyber are seeing opportunity. “People are taking a different look at the risk of environmental and more companies are realizing, ‘Hey, we may have it.’ Because as economic conditions change, that might mean people are looking for indemnification from different sources, or not being able to rely on whoever occupied the building before you did.”

There’s also talk about what tariffs might mean for the employment environment. That could lead to greater exposure to employment suits under private or even not-for-profit D&O policies.

“Cyber is an omnipresent risk and opportunity, as some of our clients talk about going into new territories or forging new trade relationships around the world,” Crozier adds. “Does that change either your direct trading risk or your cyber risk, particularly if you’re selling more online, which we saw at the beginning of the pandemic?”

How is the Canadian specialty lines market faring in this tariff environment?

Initially, tariffs were somewhat of a boost to the economy in the first quarter of 2025, as the economy performed slightly better than expected, Crozier says. Because the talk of tariffs started early, the immediate reaction of many businesses was to stockpile.

After the first quarter, it’s too early to tell the impact of tariffs.

“Did firms end up using up a lot of their cash, and will that impact their maintenance schedules?” Crozier asks. “Is there going to be any impact on employment, and could that change risk profiles…[or] the business reality some of our customers are facing?”

The overall reaction from all industry participants (including insureds, brokers and the industry) has been prudence, Crozier says. “There are few industries that you can count on in times of uncertainty…and I think insurance needs to reassert that.”

Editor’s Clarification: This article has been updated to separate claims-made policies from multi-year policies. As previously written, it appeared as though the two policies were tied together.

Jason Contant

Jason has been an award-winning journalist with Canadian Underwriter for more than a decade, including the past three years as associate editor and, before that, as digital editor for seven years.