U.S. property/casualty insurers face growing geopolitical challenges, amid heightened global political and economic tension, a group of economic and insurance industry experts said Thursday.

The erosion of trust in institutions, productivity growth, inequality of wealth and climate trends are key long-term political and economic challenges, said David Wessel, director of The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy and senior fellow, Brookings Institution.

“We underestimated the cost of globalism. A lot of the problems we face are global in nature. How are we going to deal with climate change and terrorism if we are all suspicious of each other? It’s a real danger,” Mr. Wessel said during a panel discussion at the Joint Industry Forum hosted by the Insurance Information Institute in New York on Thursday.

The panel discussion followed the release on Wednesday of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report, which also said globalization of the world economy and growing nationalism is a growing risk.

The shift away from globalism means insurers needed to keep a close eye on international regulatory standards for capital adequacy and systemic risk, John Huff, president and CEO, association of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers.

One of the biggest risks is in not thinking globally, Mr. Huff said. “Insurance is a global industry and we cannot fit it into one jurisdiction.”

Global catastrophe losses also pose a challenge for insurers, said analyst Jay Gelb, managing director, Barclays Group US Inc.

Insurers weathered some $230 billion in global catastrophe losses in 2017-2018, the highest level of industry catastrophe losses on record for any two-year period, he said.

“The industry did extremely well in being able to address the level and magnitude of catastrophe losses,” Mr. Gelb said.

However, there are always lessons learned, he said. “Hurricane Harvey was a $30 billion insured loss event, largely because of flood, not wind. Some elements of flood the industry will take better into account going forward.”

Recent catastrophes demonstrated there is much more exposure to widescale losses, he said. “This is something the industry is going to think about. The large-scale exposure on an annual basis needs public policy solution.”

The panel was moderated by Bill Donnell, president and CEO of the National Council on Compensation Insurance.