Even veterans of the stop loss industry are scratching their heads these days, wondering if this is the hardest market with which we’ve ever had to contend. With loss ratios peaking at 91% last year and widespread underperformance across all segments, insurers are struggling to keep pace with the accelerating trajectory of high-severity claims. But big premium adjustments risk alienating customers. So in this episode, we’re discussing these trends with three veterans of the stop loss industry, and exploring opportunities to stabilize and sustain the stop loss marketplace moving forward. Joining us are Jeremy Freestone from Symetra, Ryan Siemers from Aegis Risk LLC, and Steve Gransbury from Captive Resources, LLC. With their insights, we’ll explain the current market’s repercussions for the growth of self-insurance, the increasing impact of new technology on the underwriting process, and four potential solutions to button up margins as we head into the next year. 🖥️ Play on BCS website – https://bcsf.com/firmandfinalpodcast/ 🎧 Listen on Spotify – https://spoti.fi/3U7rYuq 🍎 Listen on Apple Podcasts – https://apple.co/3Kvdlhg ☑️ Sign up to subscribe – https://bcsf.com/firmandfinalpodcast/ 🦸 Recommend a Legend – legends@bcsf.com

Hardening Stop Loss Market | Jeremy Freestone, Ryan Siemers, Steve Gransbury

Firm & Final

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Firm &amp; Final

## Transcript

You're listening to Firm & Final, the podcast from BCS Financial. This season we bring together industry veterans, emerging leaders, and innovators to explore what's shaping the future of self-funded health plans. Through one-on-one conversations and small group discussions, we'll cover the challenges, trends, and decisions influencing the broader self-funded landscape.

Firm and Final is where informed perspectives meet real-world experience to move the conversation forward. Hey everybody, welcome back to Firm & Final. I'm your host, Mehb Khoja, and today we're talking about things that are happening in the stop-loss industry. I'm joined by three awesome guests today. We have Ryan Siemers, who's the founder of Aegis Risk, Jeremy Freestone, who's the Senior Vice President and P&L Leader of Stop Loss at Symmetra,

and Steve Gransbury, who is the President of Health Solutions at Captive Resources. As I get us started today, guys, I gotta think we are in a very crazy market. You guys have been around stop-loss a very long time. Do you remember a time that is as crazy as the one that we're in today? Steve, why don't we get started with you? Late 90s, believe it or not. Just a couple years in the business,

and we had a dramatic hardening in the market where we had much more capacity exits than what we're seeing now. We had a reduction in acquisition costs. My commissions were being limited. Again, I was just early in my career, but I remember it well, but I haven't seen anything like that since. And I think we're on our way to a real hardening market, but I still think there's a bit to go in terms of capacity and maybe some contract kind of ring fencing around certain terms.

Jeremy, how about you? Have you seen a market like this since you've been at Symmetra? I don't know if I'm younger than Steve or what, but I haven't seen anything this crazy personally. I mean, loss ratios in 2025 reached a new all-time high, just over 91%. And that was on top of an all-time high the previous year. The loss ratios have been for the market have been in the 80s or so since 2019, I would say.

But for the first time, it went over 90% in 2025. And where it's going to go in 2026, hard to say, but it still seems like employers are dealing with tough renewal increases in marketing. So that's crazy. And that high loss ratio has led to some dynamics I hadn't seen before in terms of how many clients are asking for brokers to shop their business this year more than ever. And clients themselves are unhappy with what those initial quotes are looking like. And some of them are deciding to move on to new brokers.

You know, maybe we can find someone else who can get a lower. So I'm seeing more turnover there. You're seeing later decisions than before. I know when we were tracking how January business was going, at first it was like, no one's making decisions. Is this us? Are we not going to sell any business this...

Hardening Stop Loss Market | Jeremy Freestone, Ryan Siemers, Steve Gransbury

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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Hardening Stop Loss Market | Jeremy Freestone, Ryan Siemers, Steve Gransbury

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.