From secondary to central: pricing European wildfire

About this webinar

For years, European wildfire sat on a property underwriter’s periphery as a secondary peril. Two record-breaking fire seasons in two years have changed that. In 2025, wildfires burned more than one million hectares across the EU. In 2026, France set a national record, with costs potentially reaching €10–15 billion.

Yet European wildfire remains sparsely modelled, rarely insured and largely absent from the risk maps London relies on. That leaves the people who price and manage property exposure in a difficult position: a peril growing in frequency and cost, without requisite quantities of loss history or established models to lean on. The peril is also on the move, as it no longer respects the old lines of geography, so portfolios once considered clear of the peril may no longer be.

This webinar looks at how insurers and reinsurers are building a tangible view of a peril the market is just starting to price. It asks where existing models hold, where they break down and how underwriters can form a defensible view of exposure in the meantime. The focus of this session is on the decisions facing anyone currently underwriting European property: what to price, what to exclude and where they can push for better data.

Attendees will leave with a clearer sense of where European wildfire models are more robust, where judgement still plays a role and how the London market is starting to put a price on a growing risk.

The webinar will cover:

• Why two record seasons have moved wildfire from a secondary to a central peril
• Where European wildfire models endure and where they don’t
• How to build a defensible view of exposure with limited data and history
• What the shifting north-south geography means for fire-free portfolios
• How insurers and reinsurers are pricing, structuring and reserving for the risk now