The market for specialty insurance claims is entering a new phase of growth, driven by the expansion of Asian economies and increasingly complex assets.
Claims once considered niche, such as aviation losses, offshore energy failures, marine casualties and complex engineering incidents, are becoming more frequent, larger in scale and more internationally entangled.
At the same time, extreme weather events increasingly intersect with marine and energy infrastructure, driving ever-larger losses.
According to executives at Sedgwick, the shift is exposing a structural tension in the claims ecosystem. Clients increasingly demand the scale and sophistication of global firms, with the accountability of local experts who can manage highly technical losses from start to finish.
Specialty markets are expanding rapidly, particularly in Asia, where increased trade, infrastructure investment and energy development are driving demand for more sophisticated insurance products and more specialized claims handling.
“It’s an exciting time,” said Kevin Hagan (pictured left), chief commercial officer of Sedgwick’s newly launched Global Specialty platform. “There’s increased commerce, new markets opening up, especially in Asia, and much more complex products being written into the market. That creates a real opportunity for a specialist proposition like this.”
This complexity is translating into higher expectations around claims response, according to Sedgwick leaders. Specialty losses frequently involve layered insurance and reinsurance programs and carry reputational and financial consequences well beyond the insured risk itself.
Sedgwick’s Global Specialty platform, launched in January, aims to respond to these new demands. Headquartered in London, the platform is designed to handle the largest and most complex specialty losses across aviation, marine, energy, and technical and special risks.
Chief Executive Officer Damian Ely (pictured right) said the phased build began in 2024, with a 70-strong global aviation claims team operating across the UK, Asia, China, the Middle East, the US, and Latin America. The success of that model laid the groundwork for expansion into marine and energy, where Ely and Hagan joined Sedgwick in early 2025 to accelerate development.
By January 2026, Sedgwick had the scale, leadership and critical mass of expertise to formally unify those capabilities under one unit. The Global Specialty platform brings together more than 100 senior loss adjusters across hubs in Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas, enabling teams to blend local market knowledge with specialist expertise flown in from London, Singapore, or other centers as needed.
Ely said clients increasingly want a partner that can respond anywhere in the world while still delivering deeply personal, expert-led service. That dynamic is particularly pronounced in specialty lines, where claims outcomes are often driven by judgment as much as process.
“They want the infrastructure, the IT security, the compliance and financial firepower of a global organization,” Ely told Insurance Business. “But they also want specific experts they trust working on their claims. Clients will often nominate specific adjusters they want involved.”
Large specialty losses, such as aviation accidents, offshore energy incidents, and major marine casualties, rarely respect borders. For Ely, true global integration is no longer optional in the claims sector.
“Being able to get people on the ground quickly, wherever the loss occurs, is absolutely critical,” he said. “You can do a lot electronically, but nothing replaces being there, particularly when you’re dealing with losses in the hundreds of millions.”
As specialty claims grow more technical and high-profile, the role of the adjuster is also evolving. Deep subject-matter expertise, often supported by engineering, energy or aviation backgrounds, is becoming the primary currency.
To address this, Sedgwick investing heavily in graduate and apprenticeship programs, pairing emerging talent with senior specialists whose qualifications can take a decade or more to achieve. At the same time, the firm is exploring how data analytics and AI can help extract more insight from complex claims and deliver greater value to insurers and brokers.
Looking ahead, the global claims management firm plans to further expand the platform’s capabilities over the next 12 to 24 months, particularly in marine technical services and technical and special risks.
“Our goal is to be a dominant specialty player,” Ely said. “That means continuing to widen the mix of expertise we can bring to the market and making sure we’re aligned with where risk is heading.”
