In 2025, insurers are responding to catastrophic weather events with a combination of strengthened financial resilience, enhanced risk management, and strategic adaptation to a more volatile climate environment:

• Stronger Capital and Surplus Buffers:
  U.S. property and casualty insurers enter the 2025 hurricane and severe weather season with record-high policyholder surplus—over $1.1 trillion—and robust reserve positions12. This capital strength, built up through recent premium rate increases and disciplined underwriting, provides a substantial cushion to absorb large-scale catastrophe losses12.

• Reinsurance Optimization:
  The reinsurance market, after several years of hardening, is showing signs of stabilization with abundant global capacity and more favorable terms at mid-2025 renewals2. Many insurers have adjusted their reinsurance programs, retaining more low-level losses or utilizing captives, while securing coverage at flat or even reduced rates for higher layers2. This enhances their ability to withstand both primary and secondary perils, such as hurricanes, wildfires, and severe convective storms.

• Underwriting and Geographic Adjustments:
  Insurers are implementing stricter underwriting standards, higher retentions, and more selective coverage in catastrophe-prone areas37. Some are reevaluating or reducing their presence in the highest-risk regions, while others are encouraging policyholders to improve property resilience and review coverage before the storm season3.

• Advanced Risk Modeling and Data Analytics:
  With climate risks intensifying, insurers are investing in advanced catastrophe models, AI-powered analytics, and private data sources to better assess and price evolving risks—particularly as access to some federal real-time disaster data has been curtailed7. This shift is especially important for tracking the growing impact of “secondary perils” like hail, tornadoes, and regional flooding, which have become major drivers of insured losses7.

• Climate Disclosure and Resilience Initiatives:
  Leading insurers are expanding climate risk disclosures, setting science-based targets, and collaborating on industry-wide frameworks to improve transparency and resilience5. There is a push for actionable climate transition plans and investment in tools to measure and mitigate emissions and exposures5.

• Affordability and Coverage Gaps:
  Despite these efforts, rising catastrophe losses and reinsurance costs are straining the affordability and availability of coverage, especially for homeowners in high-risk areas46. The protection gap—the difference between economic and insured losses—continues to widen, with more Americans going without insurance due to cost concerns5.

In summary:
Insurers in 2025 are better capitalized and more sophisticated in risk management than in previous years, leveraging reinsurance, advanced analytics, and stricter underwriting to navigate catastrophic weather events. However, the sector faces ongoing challenges in maintaining affordable coverage and closing the protection gap as climate volatility and insured losses continue to rise