AM Best: Big Four keep property cat, but at higher attachment points

AM Best says Swiss Re, Munich Re, Hannover Re and SCOR came through the 2026 property catastrophe renewals still willing to write the line. Prices softened again, but according to the ratings agency's market segment report, covered by Reinsurance News, the slide stayed broadly inside the four firms' risk appetites.

That tolerance traces to a period of right-sizing rather than a bet on lower risk. The four have raised attachment points, moved away from aggregate covers, and pulled back from working layers. Property cat remains on the books, but it sits higher than it used to.

AM Best points to the hard market as the source of the current strength. Business written at strong pricing and favorable terms continues to support robust results across the property and casualty reinsurance segments. Underwriting discipline held in 2025, and life portfolios also performed well as the drag from excess mortality in the US diminished compared with previous years.

The reserve build tells the same story. Concerns about adverse development in US casualty books persisted into 2025, and all four reinsurers used another year of strong operating performance to strengthen non-life reserves. Approaches varied: some firms targeted specific books or cedants, while others went broader. AM Best says the charges were absorbed comfortably by profit margins in other non-life lines.

Growth plans sit outside property cat. AM Best flags longevity products and financial solutions as attractive opportunities in life, and cyber, marine and engineering as specialty lines drawing interest for both insurance and reinsurance. The stated purpose is diversification and steadier earnings.

The 2026 profit targets are ambitious, AM Best says, with softer rates and geopolitical uncertainty in the background. The first half of 2026 was strong, helped by benign catastrophe experience.

The disparities the agency notes between the four matter. The same renewal price can settle above one firm's attachment-adjusted floor and below another's, which is how four competitors can all stay in property cat without agreeing on what the risk is worth. The common thread is that their books no longer depend on the low layers that used to define the segment.

For buyers and intermediaries, the appetite is real but narrower: capacity has moved up the risk stack. The unstated test is a loss that reaches those raised attachment points. Until then, renewal pricing will describe the market's temperature, but it will not reveal whether the new floor holds.