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Aerial view of a braided river delta with teal channels and gold sediment banks

Risk research

Secondary perils are now primary: wildfire, hail and inland flood

For the eighth consecutive year, so-called secondary perils contributed more to insured losses than named windstorms. We examine what that means for per-risk pricing and aggregate deductibles.

28 June 2026 / 9 min read

Property underwriting team - Global RE Underwriting

Aerial view of a braided river delta with teal channels and gold sediment banks

The label no longer fits the loss pattern

Wildfire, hail, convective storm, and inland flood can no longer be treated as secondary modifiers to a wind or earthquake view. They are recurring drivers of earnings volatility for property portfolios.

Global RE looks for cedants that separate these exposures in pricing, reporting, and accumulation controls rather than folding them into broad catastrophe loadings.

Data quality matters more than model count

Multiple models can still produce a narrow answer if the exposure data is weak. Construction, occupancy, roof age, geocoding precision, and flood-defence assumptions often explain more of the risk than the vendor model selection.

Where data quality varies across a schedule, attachments and deductibles should reflect that uncertainty instead of assuming all locations are equally credible.

Implications for treaty structure

Aggregate deductibles, occurrence definitions, hours clauses, and reinstatement provisions carry more weight when frequent severe weather is the driver.

For cedants, the strongest submissions make clear how pricing, accumulation, and claims handling have changed after recent loss years.