Insureds should make early preparations for renewals and highlight actions taken to improve resilience following a year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Willis Towers Watson says.

Businesses should be prepared to demonstrate efforts to future-proof themselves for insurable and non-insurable risks and address how they have responded to the events of the past year, Head of Broking Australasia Trent Williams says.

“It is not just thinking about how they got through COVID, but how the situation with COVID has made their business even more resilient as a consequence,” Mr Williams told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

A Willis Towers Watson report released last month highlighted that a two-tier marketplace is emerging, with conditions starting to ease for good risks while challenged areas remain difficult.

Current conditions represent the hardest insurance market cycle since the mid-1980s, with COVID-19 acting as an accelerant on top of a number of systemic causes.

Property and liability remain difficult areas while major international ransomware incidents, such as the US SolarWinds breach, have particularly hit the cyber market.

“These global ransomware claims are huge and insurers have had to stop and pivot and say ‘have we been pricing these correctly and have we been providing the right level of cover’,” Mr Williams says. “I think a lot of insurers globally have paused to see what their strategy looks like on cyber.”

Mr Williams says it’s important for insureds to differentiate their risks and provide the data and information to show robust risk-management programs are in place as they pursue discussions with their broker and insurers.

“That early preparation and planning to map out what a successful renewal looks like is really key,” he said.