Next hard market won't be typical: Duperreault

Next hard market won't be typical: Duperreault | Business Insurance News, Analysis & Articles: "EW YORK—The insurance industry should prepare for an “invisible” hard market that is unlikely to produce the favorable conditions for insurers and brokers that typically accompany such periods, said a top brokerage executive.

“The hard market will evolve differently than any we’ve experienced in the last 50 years,” said Brian Duperreault, president and chief executive officer of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., who made his remarks Thursday at an Assn. of Professional Insurance Women luncheon.

Mr. Duperreault described a hardening market coming into play against the backdrop of staggering losses in the financial markets.

The coming year will see premium rates rising, while, at the same time, underlying exposures decline in many lines, he said.

Typically this means a better relationship between pricing and exposure, “but it may not produce a meaningful change in the top line,” he said.