THE
BROKER BRIEF
Canadian P&C Intelligence · Every Tuesday
ISSUE · 08
May 14, 2025
HOW TO ACTUALLY WIN IN A HARD MARKET
The hard market didn't end this year — it just got quieter about it. Premiums aren't spiking the way they were in 2023, but capacity is still tight in the lines that matter most to your clients: commercial property, cyber, and anything with habitational or wildfire exposure. The brokers winning right now aren't the ones with the biggest book. They're the ones who stopped treating the hard market as a temporary inconvenience and started treating it as the operating environment, full stop.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW
Capacity is selective, not absent.
Insurers aren't leaving lines entirely — they're getting picky about which risks they'll write and on what terms. Brokers who bring underwriters a clean, well-documented submission are getting quotes back in days. Brokers who bring a half-finished application are getting declines, or worse, silence.Clients are shopping more, but switching less.
Renewal season has clients calling three brokers instead of one. But the data is consistent: most stay put if their current broker shows up with options and a clear explanation of why pricing moved. The relationship is still the moat. It only works if you actually use it.MGAs are becoming the pressure valve.
As standard markets tighten appetite, MGAs are absorbing more of the specialty and marginal risk. Brokers who've built two or three solid MGA relationships are placing business faster than brokers relying on the traditional market alone.
BY THE NUMBERS
◉
62%
of brokers report longer quote turnaround times this year
◉
3.2x
more submissions needed per bound policy in hard-hit lines
◉
41%
of clients say they'd stay with a broker who clearly explains a premium increase
Illustrative figures for design purposes only — not sourced data.
THE OUTSIDE VOICE
“Brokers who complain about the hard market are usually the ones who stopped doing the underwriting homework for their clients. The ones thriving right now are basically doing half our job for us before the submission even lands.”
That view lines up with what's showing up in bind ratios across the country. Submissions with loss run summaries, updated valuations, and a one-paragraph risk narrative attached are converting to quotes at a noticeably higher rate than bare-bones applications.
ONE THING TO DO THIS WEEK
Pull your top 10 renewals due in the next 60 days. For each one, build a single-page “market conditions” brief: what's happening in that client's specific line, why capacity is or isn't available, and what you're doing about it. Send it before the renewal call, not during it.
“You can't out-negotiate a hard market. You can out-prepare it.”
Full feature continues at brokerbrief.ca
BLOCK 4 · MGA Q&A
FIVE MINUTES WITH THE MARKET
PA
headshot
PRIYA ANAND
VP, Underwriting — Commercial Property
Harborstone Underwriting Partners (illustrative company)
SPECIALTY: Commercial Property & Habitational Risk
MARKET ACCESS
Q: What types of risks are you actively seeking right now, and where are you pulling back?
Right now we're leaning into mid-market habitational and mixed-use commercial property, especially outside the major metros where capacity has thinned out. We're also comfortable on older buildings if the electrical and roof updates are documented. Where we're pulling back is coastal wildfire exposure without mitigation evidence, and anything with a loss history we can't get a clear narrative on. Brokers who bring us a one-paragraph explanation of what happened and what's changed since the last loss get a much faster answer than those who just forward the loss run and hope for the best.
STRATEGY
Q: What's one thing brokers get wrong when submitting business to your team?
Treating the submission like a formality instead of the first pitch. We see a lot of applications with the bare minimum: no narrative, no context on why the client is a good risk beyond the numbers. The submissions that get quoted fastest read almost like a short cover letter — here's the client, here's what makes them a decent bet, here's what's changed for the better. It's maybe two extra minutes of typing for the broker, and it consistently cuts our back-and-forth in half. We're underwriting the story as much as the schedule.
GROWTH
Q: What should a broker do in the next 12 months to deepen their relationship with your MGA?
Bring us your renewals earlier, even the ones you're not worried about. The brokers we end up prioritizing for quick turnarounds and pricing flexibility are the ones who give us a heads-up 90 days out instead of 30. It lets us actually shop the risk properly instead of scrambling. Beyond that, come to one of our quarterly underwriter calls — brokers who show up and ask questions directly tend to get a more direct line to us when something urgent comes up. It's a small time investment that pays off at the renewal table.
INDUSTRY NEWS
THREE STORIES WORTH YOUR ATTENTION
A mid-size Canadian MGA launches a new cyber insurance product built for mid-market manufacturers.
Ontario's insurance regulator announces Update E to broker licensing renewal requirements, effective Q4.
Canadian P&C brokers earned an average of $94,000 in 2025, up 6% year-over-year.
Disclosure: The Broker Brief is published for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional insurance, legal, or financial advice. Sponsored content is clearly labelled throughout. Sponsorships do not influence editorial coverage.
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