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Bermuda Risk Summit 2026: A Deep Dive into Wildfire Risks

As the frequency and severity of wildfires continue to escalate, the insurance industry faces unprecedented challenges. The Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA) is set to host the Bermuda Risk Summit 2026, which will focus on wildfire and conflagration risks that increasingly threaten traditional underwriting models.

Summit Overview

Taking place on March 11, 2026, the summit will bring together a diverse group of professionals, including market leaders, catastrophe modellers, risk engineers, and wildfire specialists. The primary aim is to explore collective strategies for addressing rising loss severity and expanding exposures connected to wildfire risks.

Recent years have seen catastrophic losses from wildfire events, with these incidents leading to multi-billion-dollar claims across North America and beyond. Traditional assumptions about wildfire behaviors are being tested, particularly due to rapid conflagration dynamics that spread fire through urban areas, exacerbating the risk to properties and lives. Thus, a unified response involving mitigation, modelling, and capital strategies is essential for maintaining insurability.

Keynote Address and Expert Panels

The summit offers an in-depth look at these pressing issues through featured sessions:

• - Keynote: Beyond the Fireline: Conflagration Risk (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM)

- Presented by David Torgerson, Chairman and Founder, Wildfire Defense Systems

• - Panel Discussion: From Threat to Strategy: Building an Integrated Market Response for Wildfire Risk (1:00 PM – 1:45 PM)

- Moderated by Adam Champion, Price Forbes
- Panelists include industry experts such as Anne Cope, Chief Engineer at IBHS, and Loren Davis, Director of Risk and Catastrophe Analytics at Wildfire Defense Systems.

These sessions will shed light on how to integrate different aspects of underwriting discipline, capital deployment, mitigation services, data and modelling, as well as public-private collaboration, to reduce loss severity and boost market resilience. One focal point will be how the evolving fire risk landscape is reshaping portfolio management and enhancing expectations around prevention, defensible-space strategies, and community-level resilience.

Industry Insights

"Wildfire risk is no longer limited to wildland interfaces; it has become a significant issue affecting capital and insurability," remarked David Parker, Head of Business Development at BDA. He further emphasized that Bermuda serves as a crucial link between global risk dynamics and the capital needed to absorb those risks effectively. The summit's sessions aim to align various specialists working across modelling, mitigation, and underwriting to forge a cohesive market response that transitions from reactive loss recovery to proactive loss reduction.

As David Torgerson notes, "Conflagration events dramatically alter loss dynamics, making it crucial to coordinate activities across the value chain—from prevention and engineering to analytics, underwriting, and capital strategy. Collaboration is key to enhancing near-term outcomes."

The Bermuda Risk Summit stands out as an essential gathering for global insurers, reinsurers, brokers, asset managers, regulators, and institutional investors to critically examine the forces reshaping risk transfer and capital markets. In the light of evolving wildfire and related perils, the summit offers a platform for participants to pinpoint actionable solutions that reinforce resilience and bolster sustainable insurance capabilities.

Final Thoughts

The 2026 edition, themed Building What’s Next, highlights ongoing commitments to countering emerging risks alongside the support of key industry sponsors like EY and others. With registration currently open at a rate of $695, this summit promises to be not just an insightful exploration of wildfire risks, but also a vital networking opportunity for insurance professionals.

For further details on registration and participation opportunities, please visit bda.bm or reach out via email at [email protected].

Join us at the Bermuda Risk Summit to contribute to shaping the future of risk management amid evolving wildfire challenges!