What's happening beneath the surface of the Irish Equine Liability market?

The Irish Equine Liability market remains competitive, but beneath the surface, experienced underwriters are beginning to watch several longer-term trends more closely.

While capacity has increased across the sector over the last three years, particularly within certain areas of the equine market, there are signs that the pace of softening is beginning to slow. For brokers, the more interesting question is no longer simply where capacity exists, but how different markets are approaching the underlying risk.

According to Brendan Ryan, Equine Manager, some of the current market conditions feel familiar.

“The Equine Liability market has seen cycles like this before. When sectors appear attractive from a premium perspective, new capacity naturally follows. What matters is whether the underwriting approach behind that pricing is sustainable over time.”

Capacity has increased but so have the questions

A number of insurers have entered the market targeting specific sectors of equine business, often competing aggressively on price. While increased competition is nothing unusual in itself, Brendan believes the broader claims environment means underwriters need to remain disciplined in how they assess long-tail liability exposure.

“The effects of the long-tail Liability claims and late notifications must be considered. Underwriting decisions being made today may not fully play out for several years, particularly when you factor in inflationary pressures, legal costs, medical costs and the overall development of claims over time.”

Although reforms around personal injury claims and the Personal Injuries Resolution Board process have helped improve settlement environments in recent years, inflation continues to sustain pressure across the market along with medical expenses, litigation costs, specialist consultants and claims handling costs all continuing to rise, while proposed changes to court limits are also being monitored closely by Liability underwriters.

One of the challenges in a softening market, Brendan notes, is that not all insurers are necessarily seeing the same picture. Having underwritten Equine Liability in Ireland for over 20 years, he believes underwriting results can look very different depending on which parts of the market insurers are predominantly exposed to, particularly where more complex or higher-stress risks are concerned.

“The larger catastrophic losses are still there, even if they don’t happen every day. Equine carries an inherent level of risk and experienced underwriters have to price and plan with that reality in mind.”

If price comes first and risk management is secondary, you've lost before you've begun

For specialist sectors such as equine, Brendan believes underwriting discipline and risk management remain critical to maintaining long-term market stability.

This means, at TUE, underwriting conversations are centred as much around operational standards, procedures and risk management as they are around pricing.

“Once the risk is acceptable and well managed, we can look at the terms to apply. But if price comes first and risk management becomes secondary, you’ve lost before you’ve begun.”

That approach has remained consistent throughout changing market conditions and continues to shape how TUE works with brokers and insurers across the Irish equine sector.

What experienced brokers are watching next 

Looking ahead, Brendan expects the market to remain competitive over the next 12 months, although with increased scrutiny around sustainability, claims development and underwriting performance as the cycle matures further.

For brokers operating in specialist sectors like equine, understanding how markets are thinking beneath the headline pricing environment and what is driving their decision in the background may become increasingly important over the coming years.