Populism? That was very 2016 wasn’t it? The vote for Brexit and the election of Donald Trump had many warning that 2017 could be even worse.

The conventional wisdom for generations has been that life expectancy will continue to increase much at the same rate as it did for most of the 20th century.

This week, a Swiss Re sigma report estimated global total economic losses from natural catastrophes of $44bn in the first half, which compared to a ten-year average of $120bn.

This week, It was the turn of the life insurers to hog the headlines, and not only interim financials. Aegon is to offload its Irish book to Athene Holding and sell a major financial advisor in Holland.

Clyde & Co research showed that insurance M&A activity worldwide had continued its downward trend in the first half of 2017. Beazley released its Breach Insights findings for the first six months based on client data, and Standard & Poor's said in a new report that the global life reinsurance sector's operating conditions look promising.

The pace of announcements by UK insurers and brokers of new domiciles within the European Union for their post-Brexit operations has quickened in the last few months. Many are talking down the extent of the operations and staff who will have to move to service the business of EU clients. The regulators have other ideas.