The insurance industry must reexamine how it underwrites wildfire risk, Burns & Wilcox’s Bill Gatewood has said, adding that the ongoing California wildfires are already driving a shift in market conditions and the fine arts loss component will be “huge”.

CRC Group is continuing its drive of hiring senior wholesale talent with the hire of Andrew Grim, one of Brown & Riding’s biggest producers and also its national casualty practice leader, E&S Insurer understands.

KBRA has assigned a preliminary rating of BBB with a stable outlook to surplus notes to be issued by Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company, with the fronting carrier set to raise more than $40mn of growth capital from the issue in a move first revealed by Program Manager.

Independent insurance underwriting and wholesale brokerage group XS Brokers (XSB) has created a new product division for cyber liability to be led by senior vice president Scott Burns.

Pricing trends in the private D&O segment remained slightly negative in Q4 with soft market conditions expected to continue through 2025, but in cyber the impact of rising claims frequency will likely trigger a shift in soft market dynamics in the second and third quarters of the year, according to CRC.

The property insurance market reached equilibrium in Q4 as pricing flattened out, but the ongoing California wildfires highlight an uncertain future according to CRC, which just released its latest REDY pricing index.

Clear Blue is close to securing an oversubscribed $40mn+ capital injection through a surplus note placed by investment bank Piper Sandler, a deal that carries a 20-year maturity and an 8.75 percent coupon, Program Manager can reveal.

CRC Group has added two new professionals, with Gino Franco joining from Corvus in Denver and Luke Redd joining from CAC Specialty in Chicago.

Dellwood Insurance Group is launching a new management liability offering led by Richard Noonan and a team that includes Everest’s John Humphreys, with Nationwide’s Piyush Patel joining to take over running programs, E&S Insurer can reveal.

The growing volume of $10mn+ homes, fine art collections and other valuable assets destroyed by wildfires raging in and around Los Angeles means the profile and distribution of a rapidly escalating industry loss is likely to be atypical compared to other recent catastrophic events.