The New Order in Construction Insurance: Insights, Trends and Risks
Professional Summary of the IRMI CRC 2025 Conference
Dec 31, 2025
By: Itzik Simon
There are moments when an entire industry is forced to stop, examine itself, and realize that the rules it has relied on to this day are no longer sufficient. The IRMI CRC 2025 conference, held this year in Indianapolis, was one of those moments.
Thousands of entrepreneurs, contractors, underwriters, risk managers and consultants gathered for an intense professional discourse, and the message that emerged from the lectures, panels and behind-the-scenes conversations was consistent and clear: construction insurance is entering a new era, where real risk management replaces statements, and data replaces work assumptions.
The insights from the conference are not only relevant to the American market. On the contrary. They directly concern projects in Israel, especially against the backdrop of tightening underwriting, regulatory changes, and the shift to broader responsibility for developers and contractors.
The End of the Confrontation Model: Moving to an Information-Based Partnership
The old model, in which the contractor and the insurer stand on opposite sides of the fence, is clearly in decline. In its place is a new model of operational partnership, based on transparency, continuous monitoring, and information sharing.
Insurers are no longer content with static reports and general statements. The requirement today is to see the site in real time, understand how risks are actually managed, and how daily decisions are made.
Monitoring systems, smart cameras, and employee behavior analysis are no longer a “technological addition,” but an integral part of the underwriting and pricing process.
The result is clear: a shift from reactive insurance to preventive insurance, and from coverage that is activated after an event to a system that aims to prevent the event in the first place.
One of the most notable changes discussed at the conference is the way underwriting decisions are made. Artificial intelligence-based systems now analyze external data, claims history, project characteristics, and field observations, producing a dynamic and up-to-date risk picture.
The implications for contractors and developers are clear: the quality of actual risk management increasingly impacts the availability of coverage, the terms of the policy, and the premium. Those who operate a “quiet” website in terms of data are likely to be perceived as a superior customer.
In this context, the presence of Israeli technologies was particularly prominent, especially in the areas of water damage prevention and safety management, which have become a real signature element in the international market.
Underwriting is changing: fewer documents, more algorithms
The focus on the human factor was one of the significant parts of the conference. The HOP (Human and Organizational Performance) approach presents a clear alternative to the traditional blame approach.
The starting point is simple but shocking: human error is inevitable. Therefore, effective safety does not focus on preventing errors, but on building systems that can absorb them without escalating into a serious incident.
A statistic presented at the conference illustrated this well: About 95 percent of accidents do not stem from engineering failure, but from poor daily planning. Not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of dialogue. The significance is also clear for Israel, especially in light of the increasing regulatory emphasis on morning briefings, safety culture, and actual site management.
HOP: Safety is not the absence of accidents, but the presence of protections
The US E&S market served as a kind of warning mirror at the conference. When standard insurers refuse to bear risk, contractors are forced into an expensive, rigid, and exclusion-laden market.
Although there is no formal E&S market in Israel, in practice a similar phenomenon is emerging. Complex projects, conservation work, sensitive excavations, or contractors without a risk management system, find themselves facing unusual premiums and particularly high co-payments.
The way to avoid this is not insurance magic, but an early screening process, introducing systematic risk management, and building a client profile that insurers are willing to work with.
The Insurance Vacuum: Between American E&S and Israeli Reality
The day before the conference was dedicated to contractual risk transfer, and this point is particularly relevant to the Israeli market. Many contracts include indemnity and extended liability clauses, which are not backed by the existing policy.
When an event occurs, this gap is discovered late, and sometimes at a heavy cost. The role of an insurance consultant specializing in engineering projects is to ensure that contractual requirements and insurance coverage are matched as closely as possible, and to alert in real time when a change is required.
The Contractual Gap: A Silent but Substantial Risk
The bottom line: Resilience is not a slogan, but a management decision
The main message from the conference is clear: Those who do not adopt data-based risk management will find themselves out of the game. Insurers who do not analyze data will lose relevance. Contractors who do not instill a true safety culture will have difficulty obtaining reasonable coverage. And entrepreneurs who do not understand the connection between contract, management, and insurance will only discover the gap in times of crisis.
At Itzik Simon Agency, we see these insights as everyday tools, not theoretical ideas. They are already being implemented today in support of projects in Israel, with one goal: to reduce risks before they become claims.
Attached are articles published in the Polis newspaper about the conference.
