Read article
It is rare to find a Management Liability product that has been created from scratch. As a consequence of the typical ‘pick and mix’ approach, there can be inconsistent definitions and understandings of some of the key concepts. “Continuity” is one such area.
A picture of MPR’s Cyber Credentials.
The recent economic landscape has sharpened the focus on the increasing risks of insolvency to directors & officers and, consequently, to providers of Management Liability Insurance.
When considering what limits to choose under a Management Liability (“ML”) policy, much of the focus centres on the Directors and Officers (“D&O”) liability section.
‘This “triumph for access to justice” will not be welcomed by all’. So declared Supreme Court judge, Lord Reed, on ruling unanimously in favour of Unison, following their appeal against the legality of the system of employment tribunal fees on July 26 2017.
It doesn’t seem long since our tips on navigating a hardening market, but the cyber insurance world moves fast, and we find ourselves at a different stage of the cycle. An abundance of options and pricing disparities can make softening markets just as tricky to navigate, but there are important points to bear in mind.
The question of how to most appropriately address cover for overseas subsidiaries under Directors and Officers Liability (“D&O”) policies has circulated for over 15 years.
The ‘Golden Hour’ is a phrase most commonly used in the medical profession to describe the vital period of time following a traumatic or critical injury, where providing prompt medical or surgical intervention offers the highest chance of survival.
2024 continued to show the same variety of claims that we saw in 2022 and 2023. As with those years, the constellation of facts in each case is unique.
Cyber Insurance has seen significant change in recent years however, the key themes and concepts remain vitally important.
A picture of MPR.
Organisations that provide pensions and the trustees of such schemes play crucial roles in maintaining their suitability and integrity.
The origins of ‘entity cover’ as an extension to Directors and Officers Liability (“D&O”) policies dates from the late 1990’s.
We are absolutely thrilled to secure a 5 star ranking for the fifth consecutive year. Thank you.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of employment tribunal cases rose by 13.4%, with an increase of 7% in the 2023/24 financial year.
MPR Underwriting Managing Director provides an overview of factors impacting MGAs today
MPR have developed EIGHT products, each specifically designed to match the requirements of a particular type of organisation.
Hidden in the depths of most Directors and Officers Liability (“D&O”) policies is a clause granting cover for Outside Directorship Liability (“ODL”).
In 2017, Tim Jones wrote an article titled Cyber events and the importance of incident response. A lot has happened since, so it seemed like an appropriate time to sense check the different approaches to underwriting Cyber Insurance that have developed.
Cyber Insurance remains a hot topic into 2024. With changing market conditions and increased competition, it can be difficult to keep up – especially when coupled with wider issues of the volatile threat landscape and systemic event concerns.
Directors and Officers Liability (“D&O”) policies (or D&O sections of Management Liability (“ML”) policies) do not usually exclude cover for employment claims. However, such cover is only of minimal use and is rarely triggered in disputes between employees and employers.
As with 2023, Management Liability (“ML”) claims continue to arrive from a variety of sources.
It is more than 15 years since The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (the “Act”) was introduced on 6 April 2008. The Act was an attempt to make it easier for the authorities to prosecute organisations where a corporate management failing caused a fatality.
External fraud in the UK is on the rise and, whilst accounting fraud has reduced since the last report, it is likely that alternative working practices necessitated by Covid means that some frauds are yet to be discovered.
The cyber market has seen some recent instability. A wave of cyber events (particularly Ransomware) drove harder market conditions and the raising of the bar on cyber security requirements. This has attracted new insurers and competition is intensifying again.
It is abundantly clear that not all Management Liability (“ML”) policy wordings are of the same quality. The difference is perhaps more acutely observed when comparing off line language with e-traded/statement of fact based policies.
MPR has now been established for over 6 years and since then we have observed many Management Liability claims. Perhaps as might be expected, there is a noticeable increase in regulator activity during that period.
The construction of an exclusion is vital to its operation and impact. The preamble can often be more fundamental to the outcome than the language that follows.
Pension Liability Insurance has become more difficult to place due to the falling number of carriers from whom the cover can be sourced.
The turbulence in the Management Liability (“ML) market caused a shift away from e-traded solutions in favour of ‘in person’ underwriting.
The request to include ‘associated companies’ on a management liability policy is common. The response from underwriters is not.
The question of how to choose a Directors and Officers (“D&O”) liability policy limit is one which is frequently visited. Unhelpfully, there is no clear and unequivocal way to answer.
Governing law (or “choice of law”) and jurisdiction are quite closely linked, and are often dealt with in the same place, but they do cover 2 slightly different things.
Cyber Insurance is becoming a more challenging product to place. Frequent and severe losses, combined with a previous ‘soft’ market landscape have created profitability issues for insurers.
At a time when the PI market is just about as confusing as it has ever been, talking about Miscellaneous PI appetite can be a particularly tricky business.
A recent policy comparison highlighted ‘all employees as Insured Persons’ as the main policy feature. From the perspective of a director, I found this both curious and puzzling.
The ‘duty to defend’ is a long-standing provision in D&O policies and, in broad terms, allows the appointment of a lawyer to be the choice of the insured person(s).
The heritage of ‘Order of Payments’ or “Priority of Payments” clauses is rooted in the introduction of entity coverage to the Directors and Officers (“D&O”) policy architecture in the early 1990’s.
Risk mitigation is a key compliment to any quality insurance solution, and cyber is no different. A combination of a rise in the severity of claims and hardening market conditions has focussed attention on simple yet effective measures that insurers will look for as minimum requirements
There is little doubt that Directors & Officers (‘D&O’) Liability is a sophisticated product which contains potentially complex concepts and processes. Despite the low profile in a D&O policy features showreel, ‘allocation’ is nonetheless a key component of any contract and plays a role in all claims.
Once upon a time, deductibles were a common feature of Directors and Officers (‘D&O’) Liability policies. Typically reserved for larger or more challenging private risks, or those that were publicly listed, they faded from view as the soft market invaded every element of the contract.
Conversations about entity cover run off often only crystallise when the perceived requirement for cover is most urgent.
MPR feature on a podcast looking at the role of MGAs within the Insurance industry.
The case for solid analysis and judgemental flexibility in the underwriting process has never been more important. Here are some strategies that may help.
As Shakespeare conveyed in Hamlet, “There is nothing good or bad, only thinking makes it so.” No event or occurrence is truly good or bad, they are based on our cognitive processing and pre-suppositions.
Our ever-increasing reliance on technology to complete even the most menial of tasks in our everyday lives can provide a metaphor for businesses and how they might mitigate their exposure to these types of fraud by risk control and/or risk transfer.
MPR’s CIRI policy specifically has an ‘Immediate Incident Response Expenses’ definition, because we want the policyholder to act without hesitation, even if they feel they may be able to handle it themselves.
Over 18 months ago, we wrote about the PI underwriters thought process in what PI underwriters care about. Since then, significant change has swept through the market.
The question of the difference between, and application of, the prior and pending litigation date (“P&P date”) and the retroactive date (“retrodate”) is a frequently visited conversation and can sometimes be difficult to decipher.
Discussions about cyber insurance policy cover and sales techniques have intensified recently, but the narrative can be high level and lacking in any real-life context.
Incident response providers have observed that a strong theme emerging, even where a cyber insurance policy in force, is poor escalation from the discovery of the cyber event to the point at which the appropriate experts are engaged.
Those of a certain vintage will recognise that ‘Difference in Conditions’ (DIC) clauses have been around for quite some time.
Anyone who has ever been involved with junior sport will know the challenges associated with keeping all those involved happy.
‘Insured capacity’ is a frequently visited subject and continues to be a central aspect in many discussions around the scope of D&O policies.
Despite a continuing increase in cyber breach events, a changing regulatory landscape (post GDPR) and a further increase in use of (and reliance on) technology, cyber insurance is still often regarded as a difficult product to sell.
With a multitude of cyber insurance products available in the UK a lot of work has been carried out on policy comparisons, but there are some product characteristics that are often overlooked or require further examination. Here are five key features and why they’re important.
The case for run off on a D&O policy is well established. However, an internet search for ‘crime insurance run off’ will deliver slim pickings.
A ‘need’ is something that is necessary for an organism to live a healthy life, which, for as enthusiastic as we are about D&O insurance, is something of an ambitious claim.
The Insurance Act 2015 (“the Act”) was hailed by some as “the most profound shift in UK commercial insurance law ever”.
At the Championship play off final in 2010, Blackpool FC sold 37,000 tickets for their game against Cardiff. Seven years later, in the League Two final against Exeter, only around 5,000 tickets were sold.
The profile of litigation funding has been raised recently with the case of RBS, and there is further evidence that it is emerging as a greater threat in the event of alleged wrongdoing, whatever the nature or scale of the organisation in question.
During the many conversations around the challenges of selling cyber insurance, some common themes emerge, but these are often easily answered.
When it comes to Cyber events, we’re not talking about “if” and “when“ any more… it’s more a case of “How“… How will an organisation deal with the situation?
The emergence of ‘Social Engineering’ has shattered many organisations. In this case, the hospice was duped into believing they were taking part in an on-line virus check.
Why ‘approved’ insurers are all looking to write the traditional business from a similar perspective on the same basis, with pricing and service the only real differentiators.
When considering insuring professional service firms’, the focus tends to be on the business activities, fee income and claims experience.
Cyber Crime cover from MPR Underwriting.
Many architects PI claims don’t come from typical design errors that you might expect, but from inspection duties or project management, either during the project or post completion.
A component part of many PI policies is that they provide cover for forms of defamation (most commonly libel and slander) in the course of their business activities.
The same pattern sometimes appears in business. When things go wrong, frustrated parties can act irrationally and may say things that won’t necessarily be followed up on.
The duty to defend principle is an important one, and it governs how the mechanics of a claim are handled. It describes the insurer’s obligation to provide an insured with defence to claims.
This constant legislative evolution is not to suffocate organisations, but to seek to keep them honest and to protect innocent people reliant on the future of a company, such as suppliers, manufacturers or customers.
Managing a typical cyber event with MPR Cyber Incident Response and Insurance.
This ‘rationalisation’ is part of a standard methodology developed by fraud investigators. It is also one aspect of the most widely accepted model for explaining why employees steal from their employers, namely the ‘fraud triangle’.
Underwriters don’t like surprises. We like the predictable and the foreseeable. Yet, every now and then, a theme emerges that wasn’t predicted or foreseen.
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that, on average, 6% of the turnover of an organisation is lost to employee fraud.
Privacy Policy and Cookie Information
We use a small number of cookies on this website to make the website as useful as possible. None of these cookies collect any personal information. To find out more about these cookies and how to control their use, see our Read More.
Close
