United States – October 17, 2026 -- Coalition says policies it provided paid more than $315 million in cyber claims in 2025. The insurer is urging brokers to counter the belief that cyber insurance does not pay claims, an objection it says can stall coverage decisions.
Zero-indemnity closures reflect early intervention, Coalition argues
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) reported that 26% of cyber claims in 2025 closed with indemnity payments. Verizon reported a recorded pay-out on 55% of 2025 claims. Coalition says critics read claims closed without an indemnity payment as denials, when many reflect incidents contained early.
Calling the claims hotline early satisfies policy reporting requirements and unlocks pre-claim legal and forensics practitioners. If a threat is mitigated before significant damage, costs may stay below the retention and trigger no payout. Forensics teams may also find the suspicious activity benign.
Coalition's Active Cyber Policy includes Rapid Response Services, which are not subject to any retention or limit. The company says 64% of its closed claims in 2025 resulted in no out-of-pocket loss for policyholders.
Retention choices drive the NetDiligence 32% coverage figure
Critics cite a NetDiligence report finding that insurance covered only 32% of total incident costs across thousands of historical claims. Coalition notes that 11% of those claims remained open, so payouts could still rise.
The larger driver is buyer choice, according to the insurer. Large enterprises often select higher retentions, averaging about $1.8 million, and insurance pays an average of 27% of their incident costs. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) choose retentions averaging about $41,000, and insurance covers 69% of their incident costs.
Outsized losses cut the insurer-paid share of incident costs
Some losses exceed policy limits. One claim of more than $500 million cut the share of large-business incident costs paid by insurance from 42% in 2020 to 13% in 2021. In 2022, two claims of more than $100 million each pulled the SMB share down to 44%, from 86% in 2020 and 83% in 2021.
Coalition advises businesses to use a specialist cyber broker to match coverage, limits and retentions to their risk profile.
Coalition disputes three denial statistics circulating online
Coalition says unsupported figures spread when a website posts a fabricated, possibly hallucinated statistic that blogs, LinkedIn posts and AI tools then recirculate. It flagged three:
- "82% of denied claims involved no MFA": attributed to Coalition, which says it is incorrect and that it has never published claims-denial data.
- "44% of claims are denied": attributed to Advisen. Coalition says long-standing editors confirmed that Advisen and its parent Zywave never published cyber claims-denial reports.
- "40%+ of claims denied": attributed to Fitch Ratings. Coalition says neither Fitch's 2024 nor 2025 cyber reports contain the figure, as confirmed by a senior leader of its cyber practice.
Coalition gives brokers three scripted responses to client objections
For clients who say most claims close without a payout, brokers are advised to explain that a $0 payout can mean a crisis prevented, with incident responders and legal teams paid outside the retention under some policies. For clients citing partial coverage of breach costs, brokers should separate unpaid claims from deliberate retention and limit choices, while warning about underinsurance.
For clients citing denial statistics, Coalition advises checking the source, methodology and context. It adds that security vendors may steer budgets toward software tools instead of insurance, and that outcomes depend on policy terms, the nature of the incident and applicable coverage.