The figures underline the critical role of protection insurance in providing financial stability during periods of personal crisis. Individual life insurance, income protection and critical illness policies accounted for £5.32 billion of the total—up 10% on 2023. Notably, this increase came despite the number of individual claims holding steady at 275,000, suggesting that the average claim size has risen sharply. The average individual payout climbed by 10% year-on-year, reaching £18,700.
Shipping Secretary T.K. Ramachandran recently confirmed the government’s intention to proceed with setting up the club, following a tender process to appoint consultants and a pending proposal to be submitted to the Union Cabinet. The club would be designed to insure third-party liabilities – including oil pollution, wreck removal, and cargo loss – traditionally covered by international P&I clubs, primarily the London-based International Group (IG), which dominates the global maritime liability space. He has appointed ACE Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd to help assess launching India Club.
Some operators are already rethinking their logistics. Khanna said that rerouting is increasingly viewed as the prudent course. “The option remains, obviously, to go around the Cape of Good Hope and avoid the Red Sea area altogether,” he said. “Which I think in many cases, they should start thinking about, not just the vessel owners, but also the cargo owners.”
Erin Patterson, a 50-year-old woman from Leongatha, Victoria, was convicted in July 2025 of the murder of her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, both aged 70, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66. She was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Reverend Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, following a fatal lunch in July 2023 in which she served a beef Wellington dish laced with death cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides), one of the most lethal fungi known.
Less than 48 hours later, another Greek-operated cargo ship, the Eternity C, was struck by rocket-propelled grenades and maritime drones, killing at least four crew members, injuring others, and prompting a wide-scale search-and-rescue operation. The group also claimed to have taken some surviving crew members into “custody”.
In today’s fast-evolving business environment, corporate responsibility is no longer a question of compliance – it’s about contribution. With Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) expectations rising across all sectors, insurance brokers and carriers are uniquely positioned to influence real, measurable change. Their trusted, long-term relationships with clients, combined with their central role in underwriting risk and allocating investment, give them a powerful platform to lead on responsible business practices.
The incursion, which began with a sophisticated act of impersonation involving one of M&S’s external partners, was not detected until two days after the breach occurred on April 17. By then, substantial damage had been inflicted on the retailer’s IT systems, culminating in depleted store shelves, crippled online functions, and an operational headache estimated to cost the business up to £300 million in profit.
The insurance broking industry showed further consolidation in 2024, with the top 15 groups controlling 48.7% of total global broking fees and commissions, up from 47.6% in 2023 and 45.8% in 2020. This trend appears likely to continue into 2025, with eight of the top 500 groups in acquisition processes during the first half of the year.
According to its annual report, the FSCS processed nearly 12,000 claims linked to investments, pensions, and mis-sold financial advice, resulting in payouts amounting to £176 million. A further £134 million was disbursed to policyholders of collapsed insurers, while £17 million was paid to members of failed credit unions, reflecting a broad spread of exposures across the financial services sector.
For insurers, the data present a mixed picture. While the broader financials category ranked second among 21 global sectors for output growth, the insurance subsector sat in the middle of the performance table, behind banks and other financials. Notably, the insurance industry experienced a slower rate of input cost inflation than most other service sectors, suggesting some relief from margin pressures.
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