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M&A Insurance Claims Spikes: Median Payout Surges to $8.2M
Median R&W claim payments surged 49% to $8.2 million in 2025. Aon's study of 2,000 claims shows rising severity and new patterns in IP losses and late notifications that will reshape deal insurance pricing.
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Aon plc has released its 2026 Global M&A and Transaction Solutions Claims Study, and the headline is clear: M&A insurance claims are getting bigger, hitting limits more often, and surfaced at a record pace in 2025. The study, based on nearly 2,000 claims and over $3 billion in recoveries, shows a market in transition from niche protection to a core part of deal risk management. For anyone tracking the private equity or broader M&A landscape, this data changes how you should think about insurance costs, deal structuring, and post-acquisition risk.
The simple read is that insurers are paying out more because deals are getting more complex. The better read is that the rising claim values and frequencies are changing the underwriting cycle, which will feed back into premium pricing, policy exclusions, and the timeline for when buyers actually see their money back.
The $2.7 Million Jump in Median Claim Payments
Aon reported that the median R&W (Representations and Warranties) claim payment exceeded $8.2 million in 2025. This is up sharply from $5.5 million a year earlier, a roughly 49% increase in the midpoint of settlements.
What is driving the severity?
The study attributes this to more complex post-acquisition disputes and greater sophistication in the use of transaction risk insurance. In plain language: buyers are getting better at using the policies they bought. As the market matures, legal teams and claims consultants have built a repeatable playbook for extracting value from these policies.