Most of today’s top business risks are uninsurable: Aon

Only 20% of the top global risks identified by business leaders in Aon’s tenth Global Risk Management Survey are fully insurable, Airmic members heard on a webinar hosted by Airmic with partner Aon, this month.

A new era of disruption demands a new approach and, as a result, risk professionals must think more creatively and holistically about risk transfer and pre-loss mitigation strategies:

“It highlights the need to think about all of the aspects of risk management if we’re going to stay current and relevant as risk professionals to the broader business,” commented Chris Scott, UK managing director, Aon Global Risk Consulting.

Alternative risk transfer mechanisms such as parametric insurance, captives and catastrophe bonds will play a growing role as traditional insurance struggles to fill the growing protection gap, he added.

By way of example, he noted how the Jamaican government received a $650m liquidity payment within two months of hurricane Melissa last year via the parametric and cat bond market: a speed that conventional insurance couldn’t match.

However, risk professionals will need to become more adept at using data and analytics, according to Eddie McLaughlin, global practice leader at Aon Global Risk Consulting:

“Quantification and analytics are key to unlocking some of that non-traditional capital and risk transfer. It's striking that there's still a lack of usage of analytics.”

Instability is up, but preparedness is down

One of the key messages from Aon’s survey is that the global risk landscape is increasingly interconnected, making it impossible to manage risks in isolation.

The four megatrends shaping the risk landscape, according to Aon’s analysis, are trade, weather, workforce and technology. “It is the interconnectivity and complexity of these as they converge that is causing that disruption,” noted Amy Froude, UK commercial risk chief commercial officer at Aon.

For example, a cyber attack – marked as both the top current risk and top future risk by Aon’s survey – could have serious consequences associated with all the other top 10 risks such as supply chain disruption, regulation changes or damage to brand and reputation.

The survey revealed that while global instability has spiked since 2025, businesses feel less prepared – in large part due to the unpredictable geopolitical landscape.

Within this context, enterprise resilience comes into sharper focus and risk professionals have an important role to play in bringing together different parts of the business, members heard:

“As risk professionals, we're going to have to start talking to our on-the-ground operations teams. We are going to have to start talking to our HR teams, our finance teams, in order to be able to complete that picture,” said Scott.

Where do you add value?

As the world feels increasingly risky, Airmic members should carve out space to focus on the upside of risk, according to McLaughlin.

"Where does the upside of risk feature in your risk maps? Start thinking about the ability to build an opportunity. AI is a great example of what you call an opportunity as well as a threat."

Scott agreed, noting that the upside of risk is underplayed: “It comes back to risk management as a value driver, and we should be bold about articulating that.

Risk functions add value across a wide range of areas, including protecting the balance sheet, decisions around loss mitigation and controls, and workforce challenges such as the talent agenda and succession planning.

“You must think about where you're adding value and then articulate it, because it's probably bigger than you think," said Scott.

To listen to the webinar in full, click here.