US NAIC Spring 2026 National Meeting Highlights: Natural Catastrophe Risk and Resilience (EX) Task Force

The Natural Catastrophe Risk and Resilience (EX) Task Force (the “NCRRTF” or the “Task Force”) of the US National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) met on March 24, 2026 at the NAIC’s Spring 2026 National Meeting in San Diego, California. The NCRRTF was established following the NAIC Fall 2025 National Meeting, where the NAIC announced plans to restructure and consolidate the Climate and Resiliency (EX) Task Force, the Catastrophe Insurance Working Group and the NAIC Federal Emergency Management Agency Working Group into one working group. The consolidated structure is intended to enhance coordination among regulators and stakeholders, strengthen natural catastrophe management and improve communication and mitigation strategies.

In addition to routine matters, such as adoption of the minutes from the NCRRTF meeting on February 24, 2026 the NCRRTF addressed the following matters.

Presentation on Future of Insurability in the Face of Catastrophe Risks

The Task Force heard a presentation from Liz Henderson, Global Head of Climate Risk Advisory at Aon, titled Future of Insurability in the Face of Catastrophe Risk. The presentation addressed the ways in which climate change can impact extreme weather events and the insurance market. Henderson described a complex landscape of hazard and loss dynamics, noting that loss drivers outside of climate change can be just as impactful to the insurance landscape, including building density, the impact of inflation and the lack of sufficient upfront mitigation, all of which continue to exacerbate losses.

The presentation also addressed how the industry has responded to climate change. Over the past three years, reinsurers have changed their appetite for lower catastrophe excess-of-loss layers. As a result, direct insurers are retaining more risk on their own balance sheets and require better models and better views of how these risks are changing to enable insurers to price them more accurately, which is a shift that ultimately impacts consumers exposed to these types of risks. Henderson identified three levers available to address insurability and affordability challenges: non-renewals, rate increases, and investing in and understanding resilience and mitigation; she emphasized that resilience and mitigation are levers regulators can most productively address.

The presentation concluded with the view that long-term insurability depends on leaning into resilience, including coordinated infrastructure decisions, factoring climate risk into public investment, shared responsibility and collaboration between regulators and insurers, and understanding practical steps regulators can take early to support resilience investment, mitigation discounts, and better risk selection.

Building Regulator-University Partnerships

The NCRRTF also heard a presentation from Dr. Lars Powell, of the Center for Risk & Insurance Research (“CRIR”) at the University of Alabama, on building regulator-university partnerships. Dr. Powell addressed several key considerations for building effective partnerships between state insurance regulators and universities.

Natural Catastrophe Risk Dashboard Report and Updates

In addition, the Task Force adopted minor revisions to the Natural Catastrophe Risk Dashboard (the “Dashboard”), a monitoring tool for insurance regulators to understand climate risks such as wildfire risks, convective storm risks, and flood risks, as well as considerations for protection gaps.

At its February 24, 2026 meeting, the Task Force adopted the Dashboard following a public comment period that ended January 12, 2026. In response to comments received from interested parties, the Task Force agreed to add language to the private market trends section of the Dashboard, noting that “there are cost drivers beyond natural catastrophe risk that may contribute to increased homeowners insurance rates,” including “factors such as inflation in building materials and repair costs, and costs associated with legal system abuse and fraud”. Consumer advocates requested modification of the language regarding fraud and legal abuse to reflect uncertainty regarding the true volume of such activity.

After considering these revisions further, at the Spring 2026 National Meeting, the Task Force adopted alternative language retaining “legal system abuse” as a framing concept while adding explanatory sub-categories: the revised language references “costs associated with legal system abuse-claim-related litigation and alleged fraud.” The Task Force reasoned that these revisions better reflect the intent and mission of the Dashboard.

2026 Working Group Priorities

The Task Force discussed priorities for its two working groups in 2026.

• Pre-Disaster Mitigation & Risk Modeling Working Group: This working group will focus on crystalizing the Task Force’s vision to grow the success of mitigation programs by collaborating with the NAIC Catastrophe Risk Management Center of Excellence on research and modeling. It is also charged with developing and coordinating regulator-facing resilience tools for state mitigation programs, allowing regulators to access real-time modeling data when disaster events occur. In addition, the working group is charged with considering the development of a model law related to mitigation programs, a significant regulatory initiative aimed at providing a framework for states to strengthen and expand mitigation efforts.
• Severe Peril Working Group: This working group will focus on evaluating and monitoring peril-specific protection gaps and market conditions across severe perils and launching a national initiative to raise awareness of flood risk and risk-mitigation strategies.

Catastrophe Risk Management Center of Excellence Update

The Task Force received an update on the NAIC Catastrophe Risk Management Center of Excellence (the “COE”). The COE, which operates within the NAIC’s Center for Insurance Policy and Research (“CIPR”), provides regulators with technical training and support regarding catastrophe models and information regarding their use within the insurance industry. The COE shared the range of support it can provide to regulators, offering services across the pricing, solvency, and mitigation and resiliency space. The COE noted that catastrophe models have not historically captured the full extent of severe convective storm risks, and as a result, insurance companies have tended to rely on historical experience rather than models to set their rates. Over the past year, the COE has observed significant updates to SCS models and expects insurers will begin relying on these models more frequently, with such models likely to appear in rate filings.

NAIC Disaster Preparedness Guide

The Task Force received an update on the NAIC Disaster Preparedness Guide (the “Guide”). As reported in our NAIC Summer 2025 National Meeting Update, the Task Force formed a drafting group to create a comprehensive tool for state insurance regulators on disaster preparedness, providing practical tools for disaster preparation, rapid post-disaster response, and recovery coordination. Work on the Guide has been ongoing since March 2025, and the drafting group now has two draft documents: (1) an executive summary tailored toward regulators, and (2) a more comprehensive document tailored towards staff members that provides information such as consumer education sources, NAIC resources, and examples from various state insurance departments on post-disaster steps and timelines. The Task Force plans to expose both documents for final review in April with a 30-day comment window and expects to propose the documents for adoption in advance of the NAIC Summer 2026 National Meeting.

Mayer Brown associate Lindsey Gilberg also contributed to the content of this article.

To view additional updates from the US NAIC Spring 2026 National Meeting, visit our meeting highlights page.