Modern commercial insurance broking is under constant pressure from emerging risks and evolving client expectations. In this new era, brokers must deliver risk insight, agility, and innovation.
Cynthia Beveridge (pictured), global chief broking officer at Aon Commercial Risk, is one of the few at the forefront of this transformation. In a conversation with Insurance Business, she outlined the two biggest challenges for commercial brokers in 2025 and how differentiation will determine who thrives in the years ahead.
“The brokerage arena itself has had to change,” Beveridge said. “We’re focusing more on what clients need and translating that into product development. An off-the-shelf product just doesn’t work in today’s landscape.”
As 2025 unfolds, the first major challenge commercial brokers face is navigating divergent market conditions. While some areas are softening due to abundant capacity, others – particularly property-catastrophe, transactional liability (TL), and excess casualty – remain hard.
“In TL, for example, we don't have the capacity our clients need,” said Beveridge. “Standard P&C insurers may be hesitant to underwrite cat-exposed risks, especially after the events of 2024.”
The result is a market where brokers must simultaneously manage downward pricing pressures in some lines while grappling with constrained supply in others. Beveridge stressed that in a softening market, where time is often spent exploring a wider array of available options, brokers must become even more effective at prioritization and execution.
“Time management and prioritization become critical,” she said. “We need to explore every capital source and understand where there may be gaps. You need to know the wording, understand the claims environment, identify the best providers, and then build solid strategies.”
Technology is reshaping the industry landscape, but it also introduces a second major challenge: staying ahead of client expectations in a digital-first, analytics-driven world.
“We’re being flooded with efficiency tools like AI and new tech, which help, but the landscape keeps shifting,” Beveridge said.
To keep pace, brokers must think beyond insurance products and incorporate capital management, legal acumen, and broader business strategy into their value proposition.
Aon’s cross-practice collaboration, which ties its broking, risk advisory, reinsurance, and capital market teams together, is one approach to delivering this multifaceted support.
“Brokers need to be thoughtful legally and financially, and their acumen must evolve. It can't be business as usual anymore,” said Beveridge.
In a crowded field where many brokers offer similar services, including risk modelling, benchmarking, and access to global markets, how can firms truly differentiate themselves?
“First and foremost, brokers need to listen to clients,” Beveridge said, “not just think about our industry or the products we’ve developed over the years. Clients have bespoke concerns. Some are worried about financial issues or future risks that haven’t even been captured in policy forms yet.”
By continually iterating solutions and challenging conventional structures, brokers can stand out. This is especially true in developing areas such as parametrics, captives and alternative risk transfer (ART), which have evolved from niche options.
Originally popular for catastrophe coverage, captives and parametrics are now being applied in areas like casualty, workforce risks, and supply chain protection. These solutions are increasingly becoming part of core insurance programs, according to the Aon leader.
“Parametric solutions are here to stay,” Beveridge said. “After Hurricane Milton in the US, we had six clients receive payouts in under four days. That’s real performance, and that’s what clients want.”
Aon’s response has included proactive education, such as seminars and playbooks for brokers and clients, to help navigate tariff-driven disruption and political risk. These tools are helping clients shift from reactive to proactive, according to Beveridge, with insurers and capital providers being asked to meet the moment with new clauses and innovative coverage structures.
Looking to the future, Beveridge sees significant growth in several high-impact areas: cyber, AI, energy transition, construction, and natural resource management. Each brings with it not just insurance needs, but a demand for strategic guidance.
In the US, sectors such as construction, tariff policy and material sourcing also present ongoing complications.
“If it all works the way it's envisioned under President Trump’s view, materials will be US-made, sourced domestically,” Beveridge said. “In the short term, it’s going to hurt, and our clients will feel that. So, it’s vital to keep presenting new options because they’re becoming more effective and more popular.”
