AIR Worldwide forecasted total insured losses of between $20 billion and $65 billion. The firm's president Bill Churney said he would publish an updated forecast on Monday.
All combined, the storms are likely to "translate into an underwriting loss for the year," said Robert DeRose, senior director at the insurance ratings agency A.M. Best.
His firm estimated that $75 billion in insured losses would result in an average industry-wide combined ratio, a closely-watched measure of expenses to premium income, of 106 percent compared with 95 percent in 2016. Ratios greater than 100 point to losses.
The big question for the industry has been whether reinsurers will see such high losses that they can then demand higher prices for their coverage. That would be the first major reversal since Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history with insured losses of around $80 billion.
The verdict so far among analysts is that profit will take a hit, but the dynamics of capital and pricing will not.
"We don't see this as a market-turning event," said Brian Schneider of Fitch Ratings. "Pricing is not likely to respond."
Irma's timing is giving attendees plenty to talk about and in some cases disrupting their own travel plans.
Reinsurance broker AON Benfield told some staff who had planned to travel to Monte Carlo to instead remain to deal with Florida claims, Chief Executive Officer Eric Andersen said.
With Monte Carlo's yacht-filled harbor and billboards advertising private jets offering a contrast to the destruction wrought in Texas and the Caribbean, one journalist asked whether insurers might move their annual meeting to a more modest venue.
Monte Carlo is "the place to be at the end of the day," said Munich Re's Jeworrek. "The industry wouldn't move to another location to get rid of the reputational damage to its image."