While the job of insurers is to help clients manage risks, the insurers chronically face enormous risks of their own. What are they most concerned about in 2026?
Asked to cite the single most impactful risk for this year, 100-plus chief risk officers, chief actuaries and other insurance industry thought leaders put financial volatility at the top of the list, named by 25% of the participants.
Next came geoeconomic and globalization shifts (19%), discrete extreme weather events (14%), cyber events (8%) and adverse AI outcomes (8%).
However, participants’ responses were heavily influenced by the type of organization they work for — life insurance, property and casualty, reinsurance or industry consulting firms. Other industry thought leaders were also invited by the research sponsors, the Society of Actuaries and the Casualty Actuarial Society.
Among respondents from life insurers, 63% picked financial volatility, compared to the 25% of the entire survey sample. The only other risk that more than 6% selected was “a large change to asset prices,” with 19%.
For respondents from property and casualty companies, discrete extreme weather events were first (22%), then geoeconomic shifts (20%) and then financial volatility (16%).
For their part, outside insurance-industry consultants chose adverse AI outcomes as the greatest risk (35%), followed by financial volatility (18%) and armed conflicts (18%).
Meanwhile, the survey also asked about perceptions of risks three or more years in the future. Among the full survey base, adverse artificial intelligence outcomes were selected as the top risk (27%), with financial volatility falling to second (17%). At 10% were both long-term climate change risks and discrete extreme weather events.
Altogether, the survey provided respondents with 17 specific risks to choose from, divided among 5 broad categories: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological.
Other notable survey results regarding differences between 2026 risks and those three-plus years out included:
- 76% of those who selected a technological risk as most impactful in 2026 also selected one as the biggest future risk.
- 63% of those who selected an environmental risk as most impactful this year also chose one as the top future risk.
- By contrast, only 24% of those who selected a geopolitical risk as most impactful in 2026 also did so with respect to future risks.
- 17% of participants selected economic risks as being the most impactful among the five broad risk categories, both in 2026 and over the next three or more years.
- 14% selected technological risks as being most impactful, both in 2026 and over the next three or more years.
