Brian Thompson’s professional journey spanned over two decades, including significant contributions and leadership in the healthcare and financial industries. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealthcare, a position he assumed in April 2021. Under his leadership, the organization, which employs nearly 140,000 people worldwide, continued to thrive as part of UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest companies in the U.S., ranked sixth on the Fortune 500 list.
“We’ve seen that in recent events. In Italy, for example, severe convective storms in July 2023 led to a large insured loss and it was short-tail so everybody thought, ‘Okay, give it four or five months, and we’ll know the final loss amount,” he said. “However, the loss more than doubled after January 1. The initial estimates were off – and they were off maybe because the valuations of these installations and insulations [involved] were underestimated. But inflation doesn’t make it easier to estimate, it actually makes it more difficult.”
Storm clustering, a recurring feature of the European windstorm season, poses significant challenges for the insurance and reinsurance sectors. Under certain climatic conditions, storms can form in rapid succession, bringing damaging winds, heavy rainfall, and storm surges to multiple countries with minimal respite.
The coverage, often referred to as “organized crime cover”, is being purchased for assets such as factories, industrial sites, warehouses, and toll roads. This type of insurance provides protection against property damage and business interruption caused by cartel-related violence, risks that are typically excluded under standard Property Damage and Business Interruption (PDBI) policies.
Insurance firms around the world are grappling with how to best implement artificial intelligence (AI) in their business operations. Neil Morgan (pictured above), Insurance Australia Group’s (IAG’s) chief operating officer, told Insurance Business that his giant insurance firm is deploying 150 specially trained staff, called activators. Their role, he said, is to implement Generative AI (Gen AI) tools across the entire company.
Similarly, the Swedish Club has set a 5% general rate increase for the 2025-2026 policy year, which it described as a proactive measure to address rising claims costs and maintain financial resilience. The club reported a stable mutual P&I portfolio despite a slight overall tonnage decline, with net positive tonnage inflow in the first half of the year.
“Supply chains, globally, have become increasingly complex and their fragility has been underscored by a series of geopolitical shocks in recent years,” Parker said. “AI offers the potential for us to better understand our clients, to track the movement of goods and the aggregation of exposures in real time.”