[Companies] could now see an era of rising prices that runs for five or six years, which has not happened in the memory of any corporate executive”. By disrupting supply chains and whole sectors, the Covid-19 pandemic had “turbocharged” the rise in commercial insurance prices, he said. Areas such as professional liability and cyber have also seen sharp increases on the back of growing pay-outs. Hepburn predicted that the effects of the Ukraine crisis would push up prices even further. “I expect it will do massive reputational damage to brokers and insurers and the relationships with policyholders,” he said.
