Insurance Compliance Is No Longer Just a Checklist: Key Takeaways from MBA’s Insurance Conclave 2026

Insurance specialists are doing far more than checking compliance boxes. They are managing risk. 

That message echoed throughout MBA’s recent CRE Insurance Conclave in Chicago, reflecting the industry’s recognition that insurance compliance is essential to protecting commercial and multifamily collateral throughout a loan’s life. 

Record attendance underscored the industry’s heightened focus on insurance risk management. Across discussions of market conditions, catastrophic coverage, litigation, and artificial intelligence, one theme prevailed: a certificate may satisfy a requirement without adequately protecting the collateral. Coverage must reflect the asset, location, operations, and lender’s risk tolerance. 

Below are several key takeaways from the conference. 

A Soft Market, with Pockets of Liability Pressure 

With roughly 1,500 carriers and major players well capitalized, the insurance market is soft. Premiums remain above historical norms, but the sharp year-over-year increases following recent catastrophes have largely stabilized. 

Most borrowers can secure needed coverage, although properties exposed to wildfire, flooding, storm surge, erosion, or other catastrophic risks may have limited traditional options. When markets are tight, borrowers should ask brokers to fully explore wholesale carriers. 

Pressure is greatest on liability coverage. Concern over claim severity is driving more exclusions for sexual abuse and molestation, habitability, assault and battery, dog bites, and firearms, especially in multifamily portfolios. Because underwriting depends heavily on loss history, management practices, and crime statistics, borrowers and servicers must examine exclusions as closely as covered risks. 

Effective Insurance Review Requires Property-Specific Risk Judgment 

Insurance teams must balance efficient, scalable reviews with the judgment needed to understand each property’s risk profile. Conversations with borrowers, agents, and lenders remain essential. 

Parties must understand the property, loan documents, insurance requirements, and whether those requirements address the asset’s actual risks. Review should begin before closing and continue as the building and operations evolve; meeting minimum requirements can still leave material gaps. 

Insurance must protect both the collateral and the income that services the loan. Business income coverage, extended indemnity periods, and deductible structures can determine whether a property can fund repairs, absorb disruption, and continue meeting obligations after a loss. 

Policies deserve the same scrutiny as loan documents. Summaries and Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD) forms are useful, but only the full policy reveals exclusions, limitations, and endorsements that may affect a claim. 

AI: A Tool for the Compliance Desk, Not a Replacement 

The industry’s view of artificial intelligence trended optimistic at the conference. AI can accelerate first-pass reviews, data extraction, research, and administrative processing, freeing specialists for higher-value analysis. 

Its value is in elevating—not replacing—expertise. With routine work automated, specialists can spend more time validating assumptions, discussing risks, and identifying gaps that a document review may miss. 

AI can analyze ACORD forms and locate policy provisions, but it cannot conduct follow-up conversations, challenge ambiguity, or judge the practical effect of exclusions and endorsements. Those responsibilities remain with experienced professionals. 

The Bottom Line 

• Protect both the asset and its income.  

• • Borrower action: Confirm that property, business income, extended indemnity, and deductible provisions support continued debt service after a loss. 

• Review the full policy, not just the certificate.  

• • Borrower action: Ask your broker to identify material exclusions, limitations, and endorsements and explain how each could affect a claim. 

• Match coverage to the property’s actual risks.  

• • Borrower action: Reassess catastrophe exposure, operations, loss history, and liability risks before closing and at every renewal. 

• Expand the market when options are limited.  

• • Borrower action: Direct your broker to explore wholesale carriers for difficult-to-place risks and document the alternatives considered. 

• Use AI for speed, but retain expert judgment.  

• • Borrower action: Use automated reviews to flag issues, then have an experienced insurance professional validate the coverage and resolve ambiguities. 

• Treat compliance as an ongoing responsibility.  

• • Borrower action: Schedule insurance reviews after operational changes, losses, acquisitions, renovations, and well before renewal.