Fortune Favors the Prepared Mind

June 3, 2026 / 4 min read

Dear Clients and Partners,

Those who know me know I like to use quotes from history, and one of my favorites has always been “Fortune favors the well prepared.” Well, it turns out the actual Louis Pasteur quote is “Fortune favors the prepared mind,” but given the uncertainty we’re all facing from a variety of sources I like to think the quote still applies. Preparation without the right mindset isn't enough. And a prepared mind — one that is curious, rigorous, and willing to confront what it doesn't yet know — is exactly what this moment demands of all of us.

The hazard environment is shifting in ways that challenge long-held assumptions. The competitive markets in which you operate are softening at a historic pace. The platform where you work with us is undergoing its most significant transformation in years — the progress is real and the outcomes are notable, but we understand platform transitions require time and patience. And underlying all of this is AI, which is challenging every organization to harness this technology responsibly and productively. These aren't isolated pressures. They're arriving together, and they're arriving fast.

In such times, the advantage goes to those who have been building toward this moment. Our Catastrophe and Risk Solutions team at Verisk has been doing exactly that, and I hope you’ll indulge me as I reflect on where we are and where we’re headed.

Our scientific standard hasn’t changed. We are building the most rigorous catastrophe models in the market. That means weather peril models providing a near-present climate view-of-risk, tied to the industry’s first and only globally correlated atmospheric framework, and developed with the transparency you can defend to regulators and explain to your boards. The updated U.S. Tropical Cyclone Model, arriving this month, represents the most significant advance in the model's history. We've also extended our scope beyond natural hazards, developing industry-first models for casualty risk and for strikes, riots, and civil commotion. Risk is pushing into new territory, and so are we.

Our newest models — with expanded event catalogs and massive data throughputs — demand a more powerful, cloud-based platform. Verisk Synergy Studio delivers that. Built on a single financial framework that spans all our models and all perils, Synergy Studio provides the speed, flexibility, and scalability to drive timely decisions rather than just report on past ones. The depth of proprietary data underpinning our work remains unmatched.

If AI doesn’t feel revolutionary when you work with us, it’s because we’ve been incorporating it throughout our value chain for years — not for show, but for practical enablement. It helps us analyze and downscale large volumes of data to fuel our newest models. It accelerates our ability to build and deliver innovations. It adds speed and functionality to the workflows we support. The impact is already here, and it’s focused on outcomes that are explainable to your stakeholders and defensible to your regulators. Going forward, you can trust we will continuously reimagine workflows and innovate AI solutions that are aligned to your hardest questions and, ultimately, free space for you to focus less on process and more on decisions around risk and capital allocation.

We also know your decisions can draw on multiple inputs, and not all of them come from us. Model Exchange now hosts more than 400 models alongside ours, with new vendor partners joining, including providers for cyber risk. We’re committed to open data standards — we believe a smoothly functioning market depends on them — and Model Exchange will soon be available within Synergy Studio, so you can run third-party models alongside ours in a single environment.

The change we’re facing together is significant. New ways of working, fast-moving technology, and market conditions none of us have seen before. We are part of the change you’re navigating, and we don’t take lightly what we’re asking of you. But a prepared mind meets uncertainty as an invitation, not a threat. That’s how we intend to show up for you — and I believe it’s how, together, we’ll continue to find our way forward.

Thank you for your continued trust and partnership,

Rob-Newbold-Signature_V2

Rob Newbold

President, Catastrophe and Risk Solutions