By Chris Munro

April 21 - (The Insurer) - WR Berkley $(WRB)$ is actively working to assess what impact U.S. tariffs will have on its business, with president and CEO Rob Berkley confirming that the measures in their current form will drive up loss costs.

Talking to analysts on Monday evening shortly after WRB reported its Q1 2025 earnings, Berkley said the company is “paying close attention, as you would expect, to the tariffs”.

“It is a very fluid situation as everyone has an appreciation, so trying to unpack that and figure out what it means for loss costs - that's something that we are working on actively.”

“As that comes into sharper focus, that may be instructive to us as to how we think about both loss ratio as well as rate need,” the executive stated.

Berkley said WRB is particularly focused on how the tariffs may impact shorter tail line business, notably property and auto, especially physical damage.

“(Do tariffs) have an impact on property? Yes, potentially, it would. Would that include personal lines and homeowners? Without a doubt. And certainly, another obvious one is auto physical damage,” said Berkley.

“But while those may be the two more significant spots, I would encourage folks not to underestimate or completely ignore other product lines as well.”

Indeed, Berkley said “it would be a mistake” to discount lines of business other than property and auto and how they may be impacted by the tariffs.

He highlighted workers' compensation as a case in point, with the tariffs potentially impacting pharmaceuticals as a lot of drugs are manufactured outside the U.S., Berkley explained.

“It's something that we're very focused on,” said Berkley.

“We are doing our best to try and read the tea leaves, and we are actively doing a variety of different analyses to try and figure out what this means for loss picks and how that would instruct rate need,” he added.

In response to an analyst question about how WRB’s loss ratio could be impacted by the tariffs in their current form, Berkley said it remains too early to determine.

“The tariff discussion coming out of Washington, particularly led by the administration, I think, is still a bit of a moving target,” he said.

Berkley said WRB hopes to provide more of an answer on that though within 90 days “give or take”.

“Right now, I think it would be premature,” he stated.

“We are very focused on it and making sure that we will take the appropriate actions from a loss ratio as well as what those implications are from a pricing perspective,” Berkley noted.

“The short answer is if (the tariffs come) to be as it's been advertised, yes, it's going to drive up loss cost. Do I have a number for you? No, not that would be particularly valuable to you or valuable to us sharing with anyone at this moment.”