These changes affect the number of tropical cyclones that occur and the number that make landfall. Thus, future activity, on all time-scales, will NOT equal the average of a short period of historical activity. However, research into the climate system may soon allow researchers to forecast future activity in a way that will allow insurers to better understand their expected catastrophe risk. Climate scientists study phenomena on time scales from days to millennia, and use data having much shorter time scales. Insurers tend to write annual contracts and many of these contracts specify renewal deadlines.
Insurers also develop business plans and client histories over years to decades.
Primary insurers in many countries are furthermore regulated and thus have additional constraints on how they might use new information to conduct their business. Historically, some individuals and companies within the insurance industry have maintained strong ties to the academic science community, and a few scientists have expended considerable effort reaching out to insurers. A number of reinsurers, most notably Swiss Re and Munich Re, have built and maintained substantial in-house research groups that include scientists hired from academia. Some primary insurers have also developed in-house research expertise, as have a number of brokers and service companies, particularly those that have developed risk modeling approaches. These groups are responsive to the parent company and conduct focused projects related to company needs.