Oct 12, 2026 · 7 min · 7 segments
David Nelson, executive vice president, Nationwide E&S Wholesale, said disciplined underwriting, smarter data and technology are key to navigating complexity and capturing opportunity in E&S.
So David, what are the key factors shaping underwriting pricing and capacity today?
I think today, you know, underwriting pricing capacity are being shaped by a handful of forces.
Things like lost cost inflation and casualties severity, especially social inflation, large verdicts and litigation funding, I think are keeping pricing firm.
Other things like cap volatility and tighter capacity and harder classes and geographies are forcing more selective underwriting and more constrained terms, particularly when it comes to wildfire prone areas.
I believe that data quality, modeling, and underwriting judgment matter more as risks get more complex and less comparable.
Then I think there's reinsurance conditions, capital availability and portfolio discipline and how they influence how much capacity comparators are willing to deploy in the market.
And I believe one final factor that I think is really driving it is technology and analytics, which are increasingly central to risk selection, pricing precision and speed to quote.
Overall, John, I feel the market is still rewarding discipline, well-understood risks, while complex and loss-heavy accounts face tighter capacity and more scrutiny.
So David, what are the key factors shaping underwriting pricing and capacity today?
I think today, you know, underwriting pricing capacity are being shaped by a handful of forces.
Things like lost cost inflation and casualties severity, especially social inflation, large verdicts and litigation funding, I think are keeping pricing firm.
Other things like cap volatility and tighter capacity and harder classes and geographies are forcing more selective underwriting and more constrained terms, particularly when it comes to wildfire prone areas.
I believe that data quality, modeling, and underwriting judgment matter more as risks get more complex and less comparable.
Then I think there's reinsurance conditions, capital availability and portfolio discipline and how they influence how much capacity comparators are willing to deploy in the market.
And I believe one final factor that I think is really driving it is technology and analytics, which are increasingly central to risk selection, pricing precision and speed to quote.
Overall, John, I feel the market is still rewarding discipline, well-understood risks, while complex and loss-heavy accounts face tighter capacity and more scrutiny.
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