Aon’s second-quarter 2026 Public D&O Pricing Index shows the average price of primary directors’ and officers’ liability policies edging up 0.6% compared with the second quarter of 2025, the first gain after sixteen straight quarters of price declines. The move is small in magnitude, but for a market long defined by falling rates, brokers and risk managers are treating it as a signal worth watching.
Sixteen quarters of declines end with an uptick
Aon Commercial Risk Solutions (U.S.) published its latest public company D&O pricing analysis covering the second quarter of 2026. The release posted on Aon’s website describes the reporting period as the three months ended July 31, 2026, while the underlying PDF index report dated the same day states the period as the three months ended June 30, 2026. Aon has not reconciled the two dates in either publication, so InsuraBeat is reporting both exactly as written rather than assuming which one is correct.
The headline figure is a 0.6% average increase for primary policies renewing with the same limit and deductible, though the median price change was zero compared with the prior-year quarter — a gap suggesting the average is being pulled upward by a smaller number of larger increases rather than a broad-based hardening. Programs renewing with the same total limit posted a similar 0.5% average increase. Aon framed the shift as evidence that the market appears to be firming, with primary pricing increasing for the first time in sixteen straight quarters and total program pricing also increasing.
That narrative sits alongside a separate metric moving in the opposite direction. Aon’s own composite Pricing Index fell to 1.04, down from 1.06 in the prior-year quarter. The index and the average-price-change figures are not the same measurement, and neither Aon publication explains how the two square with each other — a reminder that one quarter of higher average pricing does not by itself describe the full trajectory of the book.
A market split down the middle, and a bumpy path to get there
Behind the average sits a wide spread of outcomes. Among primary policies renewing with the same limit and deductible, 25% saw a price decrease, 47% renewed flat, and 28% saw an increase — figures Aon repeated in both the web release and the underlying index report. Where prices fell, the drop was steep: the average decrease was 5.7%, with a median decrease of 5%; where prices rose, increases ran even hotter, averaging 7.4%, with a median increase of 5%.
Aon’s monthly detail shows the quarter was not a straight climb. In April, 21% of primary policies received a price decrease, 50% renewed flat, and 29% received an increase, with the average price change up 2.1% that month. May reversed course, with 31% of policies receiving a decrease, 47% flat, and 22% an increase, and the average price change down 0.9%. June saw 23% of policies decrease, 45% renew flat, and 32% increase, pushing the average back up 0.8% for the month. Renewal terms themselves stayed largely unchanged: 98% of primary policies kept the same limit, 87% kept the same deductible, and 85% renewed with both unchanged, while 96% stayed with the same carrier — evidence this is a market moving on price, not on structure or capacity providers.
That combination — modest average increases, high renewal retention, and a market still capable of moving prices down as often as up — fits a broader pattern across other lines, as InsuraBeat reported in its look at how global commercial rates moved in the same quarter.
Total program pricing follows the same uneven pattern
The dynamic repeats at the program level, which captures primary layers plus excess towers. For total programs renewing with the same limit, 28% received a price decrease, 46% renewed flat, and 26% received an increase in the second quarter. Where the total limit and deductible both held steady, the average price change was up 0.5%, with a median of zero. As with primary layers, the spread between winners and losers was wide: the average decrease across total programs was 6%, with a 3.6% median decrease, while the average increase was 8%, with a 4.4% median increase.
Composition data for the full program mirrors the primary-only figures: 98% of primary policies renewed with the same limit and 87% with the same deductible, 85% of clients kept the same limit and deductible as the prior-year quarter, and 96% of primary policies stayed with the same carrier, with only 4% switching. That stability in placement structure, even as pricing direction flips month to month, points to a market where capacity is not the constraint — carriers are competing on rate rather than withdrawing limit or changing hands. Excess layers on D&O towers have also drawn fresh capacity from specialty carriers building out long-tail books, a trend InsuraBeat has tracked through how new entrants are positioning in long-tail specialty lines at the Lloyd’s market.
Litigation activity and the index’s long data trail
The pricing shift comes as securities litigation ticks higher. Aon’s index report cites Securities Litigation Analytics data showing 49 federal securities class actions in the second quarter of 2026, up 5 from the same quarter the prior year — a modest rise, but one more data point underwriters weigh alongside claims trends when setting renewal terms. The D&O Pricing Index itself draws on a deep well of history: it is built from policy information covering almost 17,750 D&O programs for publicly traded companies between January 1, 2001 and June 30, 2026, giving the benchmark a multi-cycle view spanning the hard market of the early 2000s through the extended softening of the past several years.
The report is produced by Aon’s U.S. Financial Services Group, which the company says manages more than $4 billion in annual premium and assists with approximately $1.5 billion in claim recoveries annually. Regulators elsewhere have been sharpening their own view of management liability exposures — Australia’s prudential regulator, for instance, recently moved to isolate cyber and directors’ and officers’ claims within its own database, a change InsuraBeat covered in its look at how APRA is restructuring its claims reporting for management liability lines. On the underwriting side, insurers are also testing whether new technology can compress how quickly D&O and other liability risks get priced, a question InsuraBeat explored in its coverage of a startup betting that AI-assisted underwriting can shorten placement cycles.
