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Navigating the storm – PI Market

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.

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Prior & Pending Litigation Date and Retroactive Date
– A Case of Mistaken Identity?

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.

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Cyber Insurance – a ‘Potential’ Difference

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.

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DIC Clauses – Let’s have a look
at what you could have won!

Those of a certain vintage will recognise that ‘Difference in Conditions’ (DIC) clauses have been around for quite some time.

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Entity Cover for a Nonentity.
Confused? Join the Club

Anyone who has ever been involved with junior sport will know the challenges associated with keeping all those involved happy.

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Insured Capacity –
does it come with guarantees?

‘Insured capacity’ is a frequently visited subject and continues to be a central aspect in many discussions around the scope of D&O policies.

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Avoiding the Sucker Punch:
Buying and Selling Cyber Insurance

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.

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Entity Cover: Can Some Body Help Me?

In 1998, it wouldn’t have been possible to Google ‘entity cover’, because Google had only just been founded. Equally, even if you had been able to do this, there wouldn’t have been much content, given entity cover only emerged in the same year.

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If the crime policy didn’t run off, where did it go?

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.

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D&O – do you need to run off?

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.

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The Insurance Act 2015:
Was the jump as long as the run up?

The Insurance Act 2015 (“the Act”) was hailed by some as “the most profound shift in UK commercial insurance law ever”.

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Whatever Happened to
the Major Shareholder Exclusion?

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.

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Litigation Funding
and D&O Liability

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.

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Cyber events and the importance
of incident response

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?

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Technology Firms – the backbone
of the UK economy needs protecting

The technology sector continues to grow, particularly post-Brexit as the UK strives to be a leader in technological advancement. Recent reports have suggested that the UK’s digital economy is growing faster than ever.

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Call off the robots

There have many recent articles highlighting growing automation in all industries and the loss of jobs that will follow. The insurance industry is no exception and seems to be fully in the firing line.

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Fraudsters show no charity

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.

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Why ‘Miscellaneous’
simply isn’t good enough…

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.

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Professional service firms –
what PI underwriters care about

When considering insuring professional service firms’, the focus tends to be on the business activities, fee income and claims experience.

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Architects –
Beyond Design Exposures

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.

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Defamation exposure and
increased social media use

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.

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‘Verbal’ – one word,
all the difference

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.

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The Four C’s –
the diamond in the rough

When examining diamonds, the ‘Four C’s’ method is used. A diamonds value, rarity and beauty are determined by Colour, Clarity, Carat and Cut.

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To fee or not to fee

‘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.

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Duty to Defend –
spot the difference

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.

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Deferred Prosecution
Agreements

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.

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Corporate Manslaughter &
Management Liability

Nearly 10 years after the introduction of The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (the “Act”) was introduced, it’s possible to reflect and measure the impact on the management liability landscape.

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Why do staff
steal from employers

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’.

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Social Engineering Fraud –
a perfect storm

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.

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Recovery of assets following
an employee fraud

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that, on average, 6% of the turnover of an organisation is lost to employee fraud.