In NERA’s 16th annual review of the asbestos-related liabilities reported in companies’ 10-Ks, Managing Director Mary Elizabeth C. Stern and Consultant Longxuan Wang use publicly available data to analyze trends in asbestos-related liabilities spanning 2008–2023.

Highlights from this report include:

• Dollars per resolved claim increased for the sixth year, up 7% in 2023 compared to 2022, with a cumulative increase of 161% over the past six years.
• In 2023, total spending remained essentially flat, declining only 1% after having increased 30% the prior year and far exceeding the top end of the prior historical range.
• Dismissal rates also remained stable, while resolutions maintained the up-and-down trend that began in 2019, with 2023 resolutions down 26% after having increased in 2022.
• Filings dropped 7%, continuing the trend of declining annual filings that began in 2014.
• Reserves increased slightly, while the number of divestiture transactions dropped relative to those in 2022.

In addition to reviewing 10-Ks, the authors collected data from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program on the incidence of mesothelioma diagnoses in the United States. These data are available through 2021. Mesothelioma incidence increased slightly by 1% in 2021 but remained 15% lower than 2015 levels.

Please contact the authors if you would like NERA to analyze your asbestos data in conjunction with those of other public companies in a benchmarking study.