1. Continue to recruit and develop talent for our firms to ensure tour momentum and stability as an industry continues;

2. To help construct a 21st century legal and regulatory environment that addresses local, national and global legal and regulatory issues in ways that are efficient, effective and adaptive to innovation; and

3. To make the necessary successful human and financial investments in rapidly changing communication, information, and data analytical technologies that can continue to drive our industry's ability to provide competitive and innovative risk solutions.

Davis D. Moore 
President & CEO, Worldwide Facilities LLC
Los Angeles

Our industry continues to be challenged by the oversupply of capital. Industry surplus is at a record level, and as new capital enters our marketplace surplus levels continue to outpace overall economic growth contributing to the imbalance between supply and demand. The resulting competitive environment creates a challenge to maintaining or growing market share and desired profitability—both of which are key factors that contribute to a healthy insurance industry over the long term. The dynamic of historically low interest rates has created additional profitability pressures for underwriters. The persistent low yields on underwriters' invested asset portfolios results in low investment income which underwriters can only offset with increased underwriting profit.

Continuing on the challenge front, there is a seemingly increased need for scale in order to remain competitive and positioned for growth. Entering new markets and geographies, developing and distributing new products, maintaining relevance with markets, distribution channels and customers, capitalizing on the increasing influence of technology and competing for talent and capital, all of which occurs in increasingly compressed time frames, requires significant resources to execute and compete at optimal levels.

On the opportunity front, development and delivery of unique and specialized products remains the hallmark of our industry. The E&S industry continues to require a value proposition that includes expertise and specialization. Whether it is product or industry focused for underwriters or brokers, we have an opportunity to continue to fill the value added role in our industry by delivering expertise to our customers. A recent example of this is cyber liability, where we are dealing with an emerging product that presents a whole array of new challenges. As technology continues to play an increasingly greater role around the world, the demand for cyber coverage will increase and the E&S industry will respond with innovative solutions.