Emerging Risks in D&O Liability: Key Insights for 2026

The threat landscape for corporate leadership has fundamentally shifted. Here's what you need to know to protect your clients.

RT Specialty ProExec's recently released analysis of the top ten directors and officers (D&O) liability stories from 2021-2025, now is the moment to make it a priority. This comprehensive webinar presentation, delivered in January 2026, reveals critical shifts in litigation patterns, regulatory enforcement, and emerging corporate risks that directly impact how you structure D&O coverage and advise clients on their insurance needs. The insights presented are essential reading for anyone involved in risk management, underwriting, or insurtech innovation in the specialty insurance space.

Why This Report Matters to Your Bottom Line

The traditional understanding of D&O liability is rapidly becoming obsolete. While securities class action filings showed a modest decline to 205 cases in 2025, the composition of those filings reveals a dramatic transformation. Artificial intelligence disputes now represent approximately 7 percent of all securities suits filed, while cryptocurrency-related claims account for another 4 percent. For insurance professionals, this signals a fundamental shift in how corporations face litigation risk. Your clients are no longer primarily concerned with legacy threats like COVID-related suits or SPAC-related filings. They are now grappling with novel risks that existing insurance frameworks may not adequately address.

The AI Liability Time Bomb

Perhaps the most compelling insight from the RT Specialty analysis is the emergence of what experts term "AI washing" securities litigation. Companies are now facing suits that allege they systematically overstated their artificial intelligence capabilities to investors. Companies like Tempus AI and AppLovin discovered that misrepresenting AI prospects creates direct exposure to shareholder litigation. Equally troubling are cases where corporations understated risks posed by third-party AI adoption, affecting everything from click-through rates to supply chain security. Reddit, DoubleVerify, and Synopsys have all faced such litigation. For underwriters and insurtech platforms, the critical takeaway is that AI-related corporate litigation typically does not stem from a company's own AI deployment. Rather, it emerges from the ripple effects of AI adoption by customers, suppliers, and competitors. This distinction fundamentally changes how risk should be underwritten and priced.

Regulatory Uncertainty Creates Coverage Gaps

The Trump Administration's approach to SEC enforcement has fundamentally altered the regulatory landscape. Enforcement actions dropped 27 percent in fiscal year 2025, with public company enforcement actions declining by 30 percent. However, this statistical decline masks the real challenge facing insurers and their clients: regulatory uncertainty. The SEC has dismissed pending cryptocurrency enforcement actions and abandoned cybersecurity disclosure guidelines, creating confusion about which disclosure failures will trigger regulatory action and which will not. Simultaneously, the Department of Justice has prioritized tariff evasion enforcement and created new task forces focused on trade fraud. Insurance professionals must help clients navigate this shifting terrain by identifying new compliance risks and coverage needs that legacy D&O policies may not contemplate.

What This Means for Your Business

The market is sending a clear message: insurance professionals who understand these emerging risks will capture market share from competitors who do not. Clients need advisors who can articulate how AI concentration in portfolio valuations might trigger systemic market risks, how tariff enforcement might create D&O exposure, and how disclosure failures in these emerging areas could trigger litigation. Forward-thinking insurtech companies should consider whether their underwriting models adequately account for these evolving threats and regulatory changes.

The 2025 D&O report from RT Specialty ProExec is a roadmap for understanding how corporate liability is evolving. Insurance and insurtech professionals who engage deeply with this analysis will be better equipped to advise clients, price risk accurately, and build sustainable competitive advantages in an increasingly complex marketplace.