Based on the following insights, current property and casualty insurance market conditions continue to create new opportunities for YMCA associations while presenting ongoing challenges across select lines of coverage.

Property

• Property insurance is the softest it has been in 11 years, which is great for shared and layered monoline property programs outside of packaged policies commonly used by the YMCA.

• Property insurance is divided between four categories: challenged exposures, non-challenged exposures, standalone earthquake and builder’s risk.

• Challenged exposures are properties with higher insurance risk because of factors such as limited fire protection, aging buildings, roof condition or catastrophe exposure.

• Non-challenged exposures are well-maintained properties with lower catastrophe and operational risk.

• Capacity is up across the board, but retention and coverage terms remain reasonably low or neutral.

• Even in catastrophe-prone areas, including earthquake and named windstorm regions, pricing has declined while available capacity continues to grow.

Casualty

• Casualty Insurance is divided between five categories: general liability, automobile liability, workers’ compensation, umbrella liability and excess liability.

• General, automobile, umbrella and excess liability continue to experience upward pricing pressure, but the rate of change is different compared with the broader insurance market and YMCA-specific trends.

• General liability capacity remains stable, while automobile liability capacity remains adequate for nearly all YMCA associations considering these capacity challenges primarily affect larger commercial fleets and not long-haul trucks operated by YMCAs.

• Workers’ compensation market conditions continue to remain favorable or neutral across the board.

• Umbrella liability coverage remain challenging as in some cases carriers are seeking to reduce available primary umbrella limits from $5 million to $3 million. Associations with good controls and narratives may find competitive opportunities available in the YMCA markets as well.

• Excess liability remains one of the most challenging casualty lines facing sustained market pressure during the past five years. The greatest pressure areas are between $5 million and $15 million, where SAM (sexual abuse and molestation) coverage continues to be a primary driver of pricing.

Rate trends continue to differ across coverage lines as carriers balance increased competition with ongoing loss pressures. The following highlights outline the key pricing and coverage developments affecting YMCA insurance programs.

Casualty

• Casualty lines continue to experience upward pricing pressure, but competitive marketing continues to create opportunities for favorable renewal outcomes. Some YMCA associations secured overall premium reductions during the first half of the year through effective marketing and competition among carriers.

• Automobile liability remains one of the most challenging casualty lines due to rising repair costs, vehicle technology and larger liability verdicts that continue to drive pricing increases even for standard passenger vehicles and service vans.

• Workers’ compensation remains one of the most stable insurance markets where pricing has remained relatively consistent providing greater predictability for organizations.

• Umbrella and excess liability continue to experience significant pricing pressure, particularly for associations seeking higher liability limits.

• PFOS and PFAS (forever chemicals) exclusions are nearly universal and generally non-negotiable. Carriers are also increasing underwriting scrutiny and exclusions related to biometric data collection for both employees and members because of evolving legal exposures.

• Abuse and molestation, assault and battery, wildfire and traumatic brain injury exclusions continue to receive increased attention from carriers and should be carefully reviewed to understand how these exclusions may affect coverage.

• Abuse and molestation exclusions are not acceptable to YMCA associations and are avoided whenever possible. Some carriers are restructuring assault and battery coverage by moving it from abuse forms to general liability policies.

• Wildfire and traumatic brain injury exclusions remain difficult to negotiate and require careful review, particularly for associations with outdoor or aquatic programs.

The casualty market continues to face several factors that are driving claim costs, underwriting decisions and overall pricing across multiple coverage lines.

Primary casualty market drivers include general liability and excess, automobile liability and workers’ compensation.

• Key market drivers under general liability and excess include an increase in catastrophic losses, organized plaintiff bar, inflationary pressures, aging infrastructure and lack of market participation.

• Abuse and molestation claims continue to drive stricter underwriting and broader policy language, while litigation financing, social inflation pressures, aging infrastructure and lack of market participation increase settlement pressure and claim costs.

• Key market drivers under automobile liability include costs of vehicles (inflation), costs to repair (technology), fatality trends, distractive driving (cell phones), robotaxis, rising medical costs, rapid rise of litigation costs, use of autonomous driving and increased fleet use of electric vehicles.

• The rising repair costs, increasingly complex vehicle technology compared to previous years, and higher accident severity continue to place upward pressure on automobile liability costs.

• Key market drivers under workers’ compensation include aging workforce, medical cost inflation, cancer and PTSD presumptions, workplace violence, medical service delays, out of state exposure, accident survivability and mental health.

• Workers' compensation remains a competitive market with predictable pricing, but medical cost inflation and delays in medical treatment continue to increase claim costs by extending employee recovery and return-to-work timelines.

The YMCA marketplace continues to become more competitive, but carriers remain focused on underwriting quality accounts and managing exposure in high risk areas.

• Major YMCA marketplace carriers have become more competitive and are targeting renewal rate increases of 5% to 10% for quality accounts across all lines of coverage.

• Carrier commentary continues to focus primarily on automobile and excess liability.

• Programming concerns continue to include aquatics, municipal pool operations and expanded child care exposure.

• Underwriting remains highly focused on exposure controls, processes and data. For larger vehicle fleets, telematics and driver monitoring continue to help demonstrate strong risk controls during underwriting.

• Some carriers continue to re-rate abuse coverage separately from overall renewal increases. Review abuse coverage forms, rating worksheets and premium allocations as part of the renewal process.

• Abuse coverage options remain available and may provide first-year savings, but organizations should carefully evaluate the long term implications before moving from an occurrence-based policy.

• Carriers are looking more closely at the quality of data YMCAs provide during underwriting. Associations that focus on building maintenance, wildfire preparedness, accurate statements of values, and detailed COPE (construction, occupancy, protection and exposure) data are better positioned during the underwriting process.

• Some carriers remain healthier than others across the YMCA marketplace. Understanding your carrier’s experience and commitment to the YMCA and social services market continues to be important.

• Reinsurance conditions globally have generally stabilized but remain highly focused on catastrophic casualty risks, particularly abuse and automobile liability exposures.

• Major coverage form changes for 2026 remain limited. However, revisions to abuse forms and assault and battery coverage may affect how future claims are covered and should be reviewed carefully during renewal.

• The YMCA marketplace has seen limited new carrier entrants but competition among established carrier partners continues to increase.

A successful renewal process begins well before the renewal date. The following insights can help improve renewal outcomes.

• Start the renewal process early, especially if you’re facing a non-renewal, significant claims activity or concerns about your current carrier relationship. Finding a new carrier partner can take up to a year or more.

• Conduct post-renewal strategy sessions with your broker, develop a renewal timeline and establish milestones to track progress.

• Major carriers are requesting complete renewal submissions at least 120 days before the renewal date. Work backward to allow time to gather loss runs, complete supplemental applications, update exposures and develop a strong submission narrative.

• Meet with prospective carrier partners and underwriters throughout the year to build relationships and create additional renewal opportunities.

• Underwriters value complete, accurate data and a well-prepared submission to help creative productive underwriting discussions.

• Evaluate your broker’s market access to ensure they have direct appointments with carriers they are recommending. Carriers evaluate both the association and the broker during the underwriting process.

Emerging technologies continue to create new opportunities and risks for YMCA associations. Carefully evaluate these technologies and develop a strategy led with governance before implementation.

Aquatics – AI Assisted Lifeguard Technologies: AI assisted lifeguard systems continue to gain traction across the aquatics industry. These systems are primarily designed to support lifeguards by providing additional alerts and visual monitoring, but they are not meant to replace lifeguards or change a YMCA’s liability following an incident.

Wearable AI – Smart Glasses: Wearable AI devices, such as Meta Ray-Ban, are creating new privacy and risk management concerns due to the ability to discreetly record video, capture images and support facial recognition. Organizations should consider how these technologies may affect member privacy and operations, particularly in sensitive areas. A big topic of discussion surrounds these devices as they can be made with prescriptions.

YMCA Response to New Tech Trends: It’s important to connect with your broker’s loss control team, legal counsel, Alliant’s YMCA Practice board and committee structure to evaluate emerging technologies, develop a governance strategy and establish policies before implementation.