The 2025 calendar year continued to be a period of growth and activity for Bellrock’s Claims Team. Some key statistics from the Team across this period include:
- Claims reserves of over $100M are currently being managed.
- An average of 82 new claims are received each month, with an average of 42 claims closed per month.
- Over the last 12 months (as at 2 December 2025), a total amount of $7,479,027.51 has been paid in terms of claims advocated by the Team across all insurance classes.
The breakdown, across business lines, for settlements and payments achieved by the Team are illustrated in the graph below:
In terms of new notifications for the 2025 calendar year, Bellrock has continued to see a steady flow of activity with 1006 notifications being managed by the Team. The breakdown across business lines is illustrated in the table below:
Additionally, 2025 also saw further growth within the Team, with Bellrock welcoming Jayde Bryce, as a Senior Claims Advisor. You can learn more about Jayde here.
Trends in claims
Overall, during the 2025 calendar year, claims continued to trend in accordance with our Claims Market Update: July 2025 with Financial Lines remaining top in terms of new notifications with Motor, Plant & Machinery, and Property rounding out the top four. Some notable developments across business lines include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Bellrock continues to notice a mixed experience as far as the quality of insurers’ claims handling propositions are concerned across all classes of business. As such, Bellrock advocates that claims service remains a critical factor underpinning the recommendation and selection of an insurance partner for our policyholders, especially in an increasingly soft market. Noting the above, Bellrock suggests that equal consideration should be given to the extent of cover provided and claims service excellence in terms of insurer selection.
- As noted in our January 2025 Market Update – Claims, the cost of extreme weather events continues to rise in Australia as demonstrated by the sharp increase in annual claims value. The annual average over the past three decades sits at $2.1B in claims paid per year following extreme weather events. Over the last five years the annual average has ballooned to $4.5B. The Insurance Council of Australia has noted that extreme weather losses in the first half of 2025 totalled $1.8B with the number expected to increase once the full year figures are tallied .This calendar year, there have been several significant weather events, and the Insurance Council of Australia declared Insurance Catastrophes for:
- Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and subsequent storms occurring on 28 February 2025 which impacted Southeast Queensland and northern NSW regions.
- The Mid North Coast NSW and Hunter flooding event occurring on 17 May 2025.
- Southeast Queensland and NSW severe storms and hail occurring between 20 November 2025 and 27 November 2025.
- Bellrock continues to see longer lag times for sourcing key parts required for material damage repairs across motor and machine, plant, and equipment following losses. Additionally, there are skilled labour shortages in portions of the engineering and construction sectors plus ongoing inflation in rectification costs for design/construction defects, significantly impacting quantum.
- It has becoming apparent from the increase in Financial Lines notifications this calendar year, that the trend for large building defect claims in residential and commercial high-rise buildings and other construction projects continues. We have also noted the impact of latent conditions on construction projects in our article Latent conditions: The silent killer of civil construction projects.
- As noted in our Claims Market Update: July 2025, the new Statutory Tort for Serious Invasions of Privacy (STSIP) came into effect on 10 June 2025, following the passage of the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (Cth) . In October, the NSW District Court applied this new legislation in Kurraba Group Pty Ltd & Anor v Williams [2025] NSWDC 396 to grant injunctive relief to a plaintiff, whose wedding photos were misused by a defendant following the defendant’s opposition to a property redevelopment project proposed by the plaintiffs.
- Bellrock continues to monitor developments in the D&O Insurance space following a shareholder of SkyCity Entertainment Group (SkyCity) seeking leave from the NSW Supreme Court to file a lawsuit on behalf of SkyCity (known as a derivative action). The lawsuit is seeking damages from former directors and officers of SkyCity who were alleged to have breached duties of care regarding AML/CTF obligations which led to AUSTRAC levying a $67M fine against SkyCity.
- Bellrock have observed increased frequency of payment re-direction losses stemming from email account compromises. Such losses highlight the importance of regular IT health checks as well as payment verification processes. We discussed this trend in more detail in our article, Rising payment redirection scams: Essential prevention tips for Australian businesses.
- Bellrock note an ongoing rise in employment claims following redundancies as well as employment claims stemming from allegations of workplace harassment.
- Insolvencies remain on the rise particularly in the construction space highlighting the need for policyholders to consider counter party contracting risk and to ensure that sub-contractors maintain adequate insurances.
- Workplace injuries, which often lead to WH&S regulatory activity and knock-on personal injury claims remain a concern. As noted in our January 2025 Market Update – Claims, personal injury litigation continues to distend public liability losses with increased legal costs and psychiatric injury claims being the main drivers. Bellrock highlighted psychosocial risk in the workplace in our article Victoria joins the push on psychosocial safety – are you ready?
Continue reading our full range of market updates:
- Insurance Market Overview: January 2026
- Claims
- Workers Compensation
- Corporate and Multinational Risk
- Construction, Property and Development
- Financial Lines
