Torch Briefings
Strategic professional liability briefings for architects, engineers, and design professionals — written for principals and practice leaders, not the trade press.
The 2026 A&E Renewal Is Not a Pricing Event
Seventy-three percent of A&E carriers plan single-digit rate increases — and the same number plan to target their increases at accounts with adverse loss experience. The renewal is a discipline event with a pricing number stapled to it.
Read briefing → Regulatory & CodeTornado Wind Load Just Entered the Building Code. The Standard of Care Did Too.
For the first time in U.S. building code history, the 2024 IBC includes tornado wind load criteria. The ICC called it “the most significant life safety change since Hurricane Andrew.” A quiet, seismic update to what “reasonably foreseeable” means inside a structural engineer's stamp.
Read briefing → Technology & AIWhen the AI Hallucinates, the Standard of Care Doesn't
Stanford Law School benchmarked general-purpose AI tools and found hallucination rates of 58–88%. That landed quietly in the legal press — and is landing very loudly inside the professional liability market for architects and engineers.
Read briefing → Cyber & Data60% Got Hit. The Cyber Gap Inside Your Professional Liability Policy.
60% of engineering firms reported a cyber incident in the last year. Average breach cost: $400K. Most professional liability policies for A&E were never built to respond to a cyber event. That is the gap — and it is widening fast.
Read briefing → Market & PricingA&E Professional Liability Is Tightening Again in 2026
The Ames & Gough survey landed in March. Seventy-three percent of A&E carriers plan rate increases. Eighty-five percent cite claim severity as the dominant driver. The headline read is stable with competitive pressure. The market read inside the submission is two-tier — and the AI exclusion conversation is the new tier boundary.
Read briefing → Operational DisciplineThe QA/QC File the Professional Liability Underwriter Is Now Reading
The 2026 professional liability submission does not start with the application form anymore. It starts with the QA/QC file. WTW, Ames & Gough, and Aspen all show the same headline. The underwriting questions say something else.
Read briefing →