What ‘Social Inflation’ Means for Your Business
What ‘Social Inflation’ Means for Your Business Heading into 2026
You may have heard that liability insurance rates are rising—again. But do you know why? One of the biggest drivers behind these increases is a growing trend called “social inflation.”
Understanding this trend can help you make smarter, more strategic decisions about your commercial insurance before your next renewal.
What Is Social Inflation?
“Social inflation” refers to the rising costs of insurance claims due to changes in society’s attitudes, legal systems, and jury behavior. A few key reasons for this trend include:
- Larger jury verdicts in liability lawsuits
- More aggressive plaintiff attorneys seeking maximum payouts
- Third-party litigation funding from outside investors
- Shifting public sentiment toward holding businesses financially responsible
When claims cost insurers more, those costs are passed along to businesses through higher premiums, stricter underwriting, and more restrictive coverage options.
Lines of Insurance Being Hit Hardest
While social inflation affects all types of liability coverage, some lines are especially impacted:
- • Commercial Auto Liability: Claims involving vehicle accidents—especially with fleets or trucks—are seeing sharp increases in costs and frequency.
- General Liability: Even routine injuries like slip-and-falls can now result in higher-than-expected payouts.
- Umbrella & Excess Liability: These policies are no longer “cheap peace of mind.” Higher rates and stricter underwriting are common.
Even businesses with clean loss histories are experiencing rate hikes due to overall market pressure.
Why It Matters for Your Business
In today’s legal climate, a seemingly minor incident can lead to a lawsuit that exceeds your insurance limits. Without adequate protection, your business could be left financially vulnerable.
Potential consequences of insufficient coverage include:
- • Multi-million-dollar verdicts from seemingly small incidents
- Legal disputes that drag on for years
- Reputational harm, even if the claim is eventually dropped
What You Can Do Now
Here are a few proactive steps to help protect your business and keep your liability insurance working for you:
- Review Your Liability Limits
- Ask yourself: “Would my current policy cover a major claim or lawsuit?” You may need to increase your limits or consider an umbrella policy.
- Improve Risk Management: Invest in employee training, document safety procedures, and regularly inspect your premises to minimize risks.
- Document Your Efforts: Keeping a record of safety protocols, training, and risk mitigation can support your case with insurers—and possibly lower premiums.
- Start Early: Don’t wait until your policy renews. Starting your insurance review early gives you time to make informed decisions and avoid last-minute surprises.
How Our Agency Can Help You
Navigating today’s complex insurance landscape isn’t something you have to do alone. Our agency partners with business owners every day to help them make confident, informed decisions about their insurance coverage—especially as market conditions continue to evolve.
National Wellness Month
National Wellness Month, recognized annually in August, is meant to encourage people to prioritize self-care, build healthy routines, and support their physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Wellness goes beyond physical health. It encompasses mental clarity, emotional resilience, and a sense of balance in daily life.
When we invest in our well-being, we’re better equipped to handle stress, maintain relationships, and perform at our best—both personally and professionally. This month is an opportunity to slow down and focus on the following key well-being components:
Movement—You don’t need a gym membership to stay active. Stretch in the morning, take the stairs, or go for a walk during lunch. Movement boosts mood and energy.
Nutrition—Fuel your body with whole foods, stay hydrated, and avoid skipping meals. Even small changes, such as swapping soda for water, can make a big difference.
Mindfulness—This skill involves focusing on being present. Try meditation apps, journaling, or simply taking a few deep breaths during stressful moments.
Self-care—It’s important to take time each day to do something just for you. Whether it’s reading, listening to music, or having a cup of tea, self-care helps you recharge.
Stress management—Identify your stress triggers and create healthy coping strategies. These could include setting boundaries, unplugging from screens, or talking to a friend.
You can start taking small steps now to prioritize both your body and mind. Over time, these habits build a foundation for a healthier, more balanced you. If you’re struggling with any aspect of your wellness, seek help from health care professionals, including therapists, counselors, or wellness coaches. They can provide tailored guidance and support for your personal needs.
Understanding Your Cortisol Levels
Cortisol levels continue to trend on social media as people want to understand energy levels, manage stress, and boost their overall well-being. So, what exactly is cortisol? It’s your body’s primary stress hormone, helping regulate various functions, such as metabolism, blood sugar, blood pressure, immune response, and energy. While it’s normal for cortisol to fluctuate throughout the day (usually going up in the morning and slowly down during the day), consistently high or low levels can cause health issues. Ideal cortisol levels fall within a specific range that varies slightly based on the time of day and the type of test used.
To get a better understanding of your cortisol levels, seek the advice of a medical professional who can administer a cortisol test that measures the cortisol in your blood, urine, or saliva. Standard blood panels generally don’t test for cortisol levels. Cortisol testing is usually ordered separately by a physician to learn more about your health conditions.
Understanding how cortisol works can help you stay aware of potential symptoms that could indicate an imbalance. Talk to your doctor to learn more.
Medications That Make It Hard to Handle the Heat
Commonly prescribed medications can impact people more in the heat, causing dehydration or sun sensitivity or limiting the body’s ability to regulate body temperature. As such, these medications have heat intolerance, photosensitivity, or similar documented side effects:
- Antibiotics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen may make you more sensitive to sun exposure, resulting in severe sunburn or rashes.
- Antidepressants can cause excessive sweating, dehydration, and UV light sensitivity. They could also decrease sweat production, preventing the body from cooling down.
- Antihistamines can make your body produce less sweat, making it difficult to regulate body temperature in hot weather.
- Blood pressure medications can increase sweat production and dehydration. Sun exposure can cause a blood pressure dip, too.
- Decongestants like pseudoephedrine can decrease the blood flow to the skin, making it more difficult to sweat and regulate.
- Stimulants can increase your metabolic rate, impairing the body’s ability to cool down.
Keep in mind that the heat can also degrade certain medications like insulin, inhalers, and EpiPens.
The first sign of heat intolerance is feeling hot or uncomfortable. You may also experience headaches, dizziness, cramps, nausea or vomiting, weakness, or flushed skin. If you experience heat-related symptoms, go inside immediately and try to cool down. In addition to monitoring for symptoms, it’s important to stay hydrated, limit your exposure to direct sunlight, and wear protective clothing.
If you have questions about your medications or potential side effects, talk to your doctor. Also, don’t discontinue taking any prescribed medications without talking to them first.
This article is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to be exhaustive, nor should any discussion or opinions be construed as professional advice. Readers should contact a health professional for appropriate advice. © 2025 Zywave, Inc. All rights reserved.
Long-Term Investment Strategy
Sure, there are some lucky people who do get rich quickly. People do win lotteries, hit the jackpot on the slot machine, and even pick the “right” stock at the “right” time, turning their investment into a potential fortune overnight.
But these fairy tales rarely come true.
More often, we achieve our financial and personal goals when following the principle at the heart of Aesop’s Fable, The Tortoise and The Hare — that “slow and steady wins the race,” or more specifically, that consistent, effective effort leads to success. In the investment world, this is more likely to be true.
Stick to a consistent plan
In the simplest terms, if you start early and consistently stick to an ongoing savings schedule where you set aside money on a regular basis, you should start to see your savings accumulate over the long term. However, just as in the Fable, (where the turtle used “smarts” — not just time—to his advantage), when investing, there are time-tested strategies that can help you reach your goal.
Stay ahead of inflation
For the same reason you wouldn’t stash your cash under your mattress, when saving for the long term, most professionals wouldn’t recommend “banking” all of your money. While it’s true that investments with a fixed rate of return, such as CDs (certificates of deposit), offer principal protection that others do not, they may not provide the growth you need when you factor in inflation.
Inflation refers to a general rise in prices of goods and services. Even low inflation reduces purchasing power over time, because as prices rise, a dollar buys less. And inflation levels can fluctuate over time.
This is a primary reason people invest in stocks, or equities. Over the long term, stocks historically have been an investment choice for some to outpace inflation.
Diversify
However, no one can control or predict the performance of the stock market, let alone a single equity. That’s why it’s important to diversify your portfolio across major asset classes to help you pursue optimal returns for the risk level that you’re willing to take. In addition, you’ll want to diversify within each asset class to take advantage of different styles and market sectors so strong performance in one area may be able to help offset downturns in another.
The goal is what professionals call “non-correlation.” That just means all of your investments are unlikely to move the same way at the same time. On any given day, some may be up and others may be down in value. In a well-diversified portfolio, you can realize the profit on the gains without losing too much on the losses. It all goes back to the age-old adage — don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Dollar cost averaging
Another popular long-term investment strategy is called “dollar cost averaging.” It works like this …
Say you decide to invest $10 every week in a mutual fund. If in the first week, the cost of a share in this hypothetical fund was $1, then your $10 would get you 10 shares. If the price of a share in the fund rose to $2 in the second week, your $10 would only get you 5 shares. But if the price of a share fell to 50 cents on the third week, $10 would get you 20 shares. (A stock’s price usually isn’t this volatile, but we’ve made it so for the purposes of demonstrating the principle of dollar cost averaging).
At the end of the three weeks, you’d have 35 shares after spending $30. So, your average cost per share would be about 85 cents a share.
In short, more shares were purchased when the price was low, and fewer were bought when the price was high. It’s important to note that the dollar cost averaging practice doesn’t eliminate risk.1 But investors use this method to make the cost of taking on the risk lower by lowering the average purchase price.
Make it as easy as possible: Go automatic
Whenever possible, you should consider setting up an automatic investment plan.
For example, if you invest in an employer-sponsored 401(k), you can set up automatic investments for each pay period. The percentage of your total pay (up to the maximum permitted) is taken out of your paycheck before any taxes and invested in the mutual funds or asset allocation strategy you choose. Your employer might even match a portion of your contribution. Not only do your savings accumulate, but the taxes on any investment gains you may realize are deferred until you retire and begin taking distributions. 2
Be consistent — and smart
Consistency is the name of the game — as well as making a plan and sticking with it. Investors who change course a lot may be more likely to lose money.
Many investors put money regularly in a well-diversified portfolio, and reinvest all their gains and dividends along the way. But what’s financially appropriate can differ from individual to individual. Many people opt to consult with a financial professional to set an investment plan. But whether you’re saving for retirement, a new home, or a college education, slow and steady investing can help you win the race.
Provided by Cross Coastal Advisors, courtesy of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). ©2025 Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual®), Springfield, MA 01111-0001. All rights reserved. MM202712-311184