ldoherty

However, armed with knowledge gleaned from a ten-minute segment on NBC, I had other ideas. The programme had highlighted how modern sustainable development techniques hugely reduced the risk of hurricane damage. If we are to gather a pool of federal money, why use it to maintain an artificial insurance market? Surely better to use the funds to incentivise building back better. Because the main impediment to people doing that is the cost, but if they did build more resilient homes the private insurance market would return as the risk would be so much better mitigated.

And then, back on home turf and in conversation with my former chair-turned-climate-guru, Richard Dudley, I was provided with the evidence that really makes my case: Babcock Ranch. Babcock Ranch, America’s first solar-powered town, is 12 miles northeast of Fort Myers – and so took the full brunt of Ian. But it is a purpose-built sustainable community. It has a 700-pane solar array just outside the 2,000-person community which provides more electricity than its residents use. The streets are designed to flood so houses won’t. Builders have used native landscaping techniques that both look nice but also control storm waters. And they have buried all the cables. The net result of this inbuilt climate resilience was that the town had not one second of outage during the hurricane – despite 2.6 million people losing power all around it. The only damage was a couple of uprooted trees. The town stood in the way of a category 5 hurricane and barely chipped a toenail. It is living proof that sustainable development could be the future for Florida and for the insurance sector.

The one thing Press reports on Babcock Ranch are pretty coy about is how much it all cost. But I feel confident in asserting that the answer to that question is “quite a lot” and probably out of the reach of a section of civilians. So, I return to my earlier point. Given what it has proven to be possible, surely public money would be best spent subsidising the creation of many more Babcock Ranches than propping up the insurance of legacy properties. It is a classic prevention-not-cure investment decision. And this is not just about public money. How can we as an industry incentivise this sort of sustainable development? Because it is in our interests, too, that these sorts of communities proliferate.

To give some context to this conundrum, take a look at the report the McKell Institute produced for Insurance Commission of Australia. This shows that during 2005–2022, the Australian government spent AU$24 billion on disaster relief but only AU$0.51 billion on building disaster resilience. Which seems sort of, to use the technical term, nuts. Surely, redressing the balance between these two figures could deliver a lower overall total?

So, I returned from Colorado a resilience disciple. It is further proof that our business is risk management consultancy and only, in part, the insurance of risks that can’t be mitigated in better ways. To paraphrase Che Guevara, what we need to build is two, three, a million Babcock Ranches. The future of our industry and the future of society demand it.

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How can reputational risk impact organisations?

“There are lots of different ways that reputational impact can affect an organisation, particularly as we see more and more companies are being valued by their brands,” he said. “And that can be very interpretational and can swing to huge degrees of volatility, far greater than that experienced in the past.”

In terms of market value, if you think about the top 10 companies of 20 or even just 10 years ago, they were heavily in the manufacturing/physical product space, he said, whereas now the top 10 are dominated by firms with heavily intangible assets. And while the risk of reputational harm is sitting high on the risk register of lots of C-suite leaders, many of them don’t yet understand how to combat or reduce their exposure – or how mechanisms such as insurance can help remove some of their risk exposure.

While brand reputation has always been a central factor in a business’s success, its value as an intangible asset – particularly in the context of a world that disseminates good and bad news alike so rapidly via social media – has come into its own. And so, the role of insurance in creating the right products and services to go alongside that evolving significance is more critical than ever.

The changing nature of reputational risk insurance

Edwards highlighted that, traditionally, reputational risk (or brand rehabilitation or crisis management) insurance was not bought in isolation.

“It’s historically been an add-on to more traditional products,” he said. “Where you’d typically see a sub-limit or an additional bolt-on providing a company with limited indemnity or limited support around a breach at an intangible level.”

The shift in the value of intangible assets as a key measure of a business’s share price has focused minds on the risk of reputational damage – whether that’s hands-on harm caused by the business itself, or inadvertent damage through their industry or association with an impacted brand. This damage can now have a far greater impact on a firm’s share price and ultimately its business value, he said, and it’s an evolution that is leading businesses to ask more of their insurance providers.

For LSM the answer to this evolving need has been to go one step further than creating a solution that matches the most pressing needs of clients, to develop an offering that is always a step ahead of where the winds of reputational harm are blowing.

“For us, for example, we’re looking at broader impacts like how companies can be affected by association with celebrity endorsements,” he said. “It’s a real gap when you think about some recent high-profile examples and how their associated brands which they endorse have reacted one way or another, either ending the relationship or continuing to use the individual(s) for future campaigns.”

The changing spectre of celebrity endorsements

Adaptability is built into the very core of LSM’s reputational risk insurance offering, he said, because the insurer recognises that reputational risk is not a binary matter, but a complex and delicate consideration that can appear to belie prediction. The product can’t afford to be overly restrictive about the brands that clients endorse, because high-profile modern celebrities have proven that even quite shocking associations can help sell a brand.

“So, more and more companies do associate themselves with [brands or individuals] who historically, from an underwriting lens, you’d think would surely have the largest claims possible,” he said. “But in truth, actually, because it’s a known substance with regards to how they’ve risen to publicity and maintained themselves at such a high level, it takes quite a lot to shock an audience.

“So sometimes, those which have a very clean bill of health as a celebrity endorser can be the ones that create the greatest challenge when either historic events are discovered or profile raised, or alternatively when they are involved in something that is against people’s perception of them. The big balance that we have to find is between the known risk and the unknown risk.”

Liberty’s reputational risk insurance offering is highly in-tune with the tide of public opinion, Edwards said, because it works so actively with a range of partners to perform horizon scans for companies that measure their risk exposures. LSM’s reputational crisis product supports clients in both understanding and managing this risk through insurance risk transfer, real-time reputational data analysis and industry-specific crisis and brand rehabilitation consultancy services.

The role of data insights in mitigating reputational risk

In order to supply its clients with the reputation intelligence necessary to help mitigate their risk, LSM’s underwriting team has partnered with Polecat Intelligence – an insurtech which has built an algorithm offering significant horizon scanning across both traditional media and social media to generate advanced data insights. This multi-lingual tool can even dig into even bespoke industry publications, he said, as well as monitor social media content.

Built into the algorithm is the creation of a sentiment and taxometry scale, he said, where the LSM team can measure discourse around a certain topic – whether that’s by the volume of its audience or the frequency with which a certain company or specific keywords are being used. There are a number of different metrics which are used to create a ‘horizon score’ and a ‘sentiment score’ which is then sense-checked against the industry sector in which the client operates. This allows the score to be benchmarked against a client’s true peers in the market.

All the information utilised by LSM is publicly available, he said, but Polecat pulls it all together to form “one version of the truth“. This then allows clients to be deliberate in managing their reputational risk exposures rather than taking a scattergun approach to determining their next steps whether that’s to do with marketing campaigns, limiting the damage of a reputational crisis or looking to change the way they’re viewed in their marketplace.  

“While the LSM product solution is still in its infancy, we see the use of these tools becoming more critical,” he said. “This is a problem that is not new but it’s growing at its fastest pace in terms of becoming more critical to the valuation of a business. At the same time, a lot of companies have yet to get a handle on how they can de-risk themselves nor what tools are available to support such understanding.

“For companies which have started to try to address and understand their exposures, we have many now looking at these types of products as being critical. More and more [these businesses] are looking at their reputation exposure as a business-critical insurance risk transfer purchase, in the same vein as liability cover, or traditional tangible property coverage.”

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How the Sterling Cup came to be

Revealing how the Sterling Cup first came about, Cook shared that in October 2018 his wife was diagnosed with cancer. It was while his family was struggling through the diagnosis, treatment and recovery, that the support and care of these charities really came to the fore. Having access to the services provided by these charities went such a long way to keeping his own stress levels manageable, he said, while he was caring for their three young children – to say nothing of the care shown to his wife.

“It was unbelievable, and I’ll never forget it,” he said. “So, there is for me a massive driver to give back. Because without people like us giving those UK charities money and support, then they won’t be able to give these treatments to others.”

Cook’s wife had already started treatment for her cancer when Archie Wilks – whose father Simon Wilks works at Sterling Insurance – was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in January 2019. When his wife had been given the all-clear, he said, he turned his mind to what could be done to raise money for his colleague’s child to go to the US and receive the treatment required to help prevent his cancer from returning.

“There are lots of cake sales, football tournaments, etc. going on to raise money,” he said. “But where the Sterling Cup came together was when I went to our board of directors and asked if there was any chance that I could hold a charity golf day – and whether there were any funds available to get that started. I’ve always been an organiser throughout my life with friends and family and so on, but to hold something of this scale with people from all across the industry was quite the challenge!”

To get started, he enlisted the help of good friends in the industry, Rod Wellard and Paul Copeland, who both know a lot of people in the industry and were keen to help in any way. They got some teams together and started getting people involved, he said, and then it occurred to them that it would be a great idea to pit the teams against each other in a Ryder Cup format that would see them competing to win a replica of the Ryder Cup.

An all-inclusive insurance industry initiative

“From the beginning I wanted this to be an industry event where anyone who wanted could come along as long as they paid the entry fee,” he said. “We don’t care who turns up, which has been great because we’ve had rival brokers turn up, people from insurance companies, etc. For us, this is about if you’re in the industry and you’re aware of this and you want to come along, then great. Come along and join us for a great day of golf and have the chance to chat with other brokers and other insurers.”

The success of the inaugural event led to the planning of 2022’s day – which got off to a great start with the news that Archie Wilks is now in full remission after 42 months of care. Almost 70 golfers from across the sector came together on the day itself, forming 17 teams, he said, and the atmosphere of the event was absolutely electric.  

“You can only really judge the success of it by the fact that so many people came back that we increased the teams from 13 to 17, without any problem,” he said. “We filled those spaces without too much rallying around – and the feedback that we got from people who attended was thanking us for a great event and saying they’d be back next year…

“The real judge will be the success of future years as well. If people keep coming back and keep enjoying it then we’re doing something right… And it’s great to see the profession come together because it’s maybe not the most elite golf course in the country. So, for people to come and play who are used to the highest-calibre of golf courses is really confirmation that they’re coming for the right reasons – to enjoy themselves in good company and support a great cause.”

Of course, all of this is made possible by a combination of people being willing to give up their time and of companies being willing to throw their weight behind important causes, Cook said. With that in mind, he paid special tribute to this year’s sponsors – with special thanks to Intelligent Vehicle Services (gold sponsorship), Strategic Insurance Services (silver) and Auxillis (bronze).

Teeing up for 2023

Two years into the high-stress planning that these events take hasn’t dampened Cook’s penchant for organising and the date of September 14, 2023, is already in the diary for the next Sterling Cup.

“So that’s in the calendar and God willing, we’ll all be heading across to the Manor of Groves at Sawbridgeworth and getting out on the course again,” he said. “So, hopefully, we’ll continue to build momentum and attract sponsors – we had 13 sponsors this year and could do with about 18 sponsors for next year.”

Those looking to register a team can do so through the dedicated Sterling Cup webpage, he said, or alternatively, reach out to him through LinkedIn for more information. For those looking for a reason to get involved, he suggested they look at the Facebook page ‘Archie’s Journey’ which shares his progress to date.

“When you see those pictures, and you see his face, and you see him and the family in America, you understand it all,” he said. “The [Wilks’ family] got to take some time in Disneyland recently and seeing him having breakfast with Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse and the rest, for me, just makes all the stress and anxiety and sleepless nights that go into arranging something of this scale absolutely worth it.”

If you would like to get involved with the 2023 Sterling Cup tournament, you can sign up today. Did you attend the 2022 event? If so, let us know how it went in the comments below.

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Tesla first announced the fully-electric Semi back in 2017, promising ‘The Future of Trucking’. It was supposed to be in production in 2019, but the program suffered repeated delays, including pandemic-driven supply chain issues.

On the Tesla website, details of the Semi are sparse. Apparently, the truck can accelerate from 0-100km/h in 25 seconds, fully loaded, and maintain highway-level speeds even up steep grades. It can also travel up to 800km on a single charge (allegedly proven in the successful test run), using less than 1.25kWh per kilometre of energy consumption.

Tesla team just completed a 500 mile drive with a Tesla Semi weighing in at 81,000 lbs!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022

According to the Tesla website, the Semi truck also comes with “active safety features that pair with advanced motor and brake controls to deliver traction and stability in all conditions”.

The future of trucking

Pushing the noise and speculation around this Tesla product release aside, I’m excited about the “Future of Trucking” promise sold with the Semi because – as any commercial transportation insurer or broker will know – the industry is in desperate need of change.

The commercial transportation sector has long been on a bumpy road. In the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry was plagued with challenges around distracted driving, a general increase in auto claim costs due to new technology, and a rise in catastrophic liability claims driven by social inflation and nuclear jury verdicts (particularly in the United States, but the trends are true in other major trucking economies).

Today, the industry can add a few more challenges to the list, such as inflation and soaring gas prices, the ever-growing driver shortage, and supply chain delays, which are adding pressure to delivery schedules, and increasing the cost and time it takes to complete truck repairs.

Facing such challenges, commercial transportation insurance loss ratios have deteriorated, and as a result, most insurers have raised rates for both primary and excess/umbrella coverage, while also limiting capacity and applying strict risk selection and underwriting criteria … so, you can add insurance woes on top of that list above.

Is Tesla’s Semi the answer to all of those industry problems? Maybe not, but electric trucking, in general, could mitigate some of the core challenges … but not without introducing some new exposures.

Advanced in-cab safety technology – the likes of which Tesla claims to have included in the Semi – could help to reduce collisions, potentially even those tied to distracted driving or driver fatigue, which should (in theory) reduce auto insurance claims costs and eventually premiums.

For years, transportation insurers have tried to accentuate the importance of technologies like dash-cams and telematics to promote safer driving, but it has been a struggle getting truckers to engage. If these tools are already built into trucks, there should be an automatic positive feedback loop.

Having electric trucks with the ability to maintain highway-level speeds, even up steep grades, should also help to reduce crash frequency, as trucks would be able to share the road better with other vehicles.

But while frequency might go down, it remains to be seen what will happen to crash severity, especially if these electric trucks are far more expensive to purchase and repair. ENGS Commercial Finance Co. reported that the cost of buying an all-electric semi-truck is between 10% and 80% more than a comparable diesel truck, before rebates. This could result in higher loss severity in the event of an accident.

Energy challenges

Innovation always comes with its challenges. I personally think electric cars and trucks are amazing, and they’re an important step in the global race to net-zero carbon emissions – although they’re too expensive (at present) for the average consumer.

But nothing is ever 100% awesome. A Bloomberg article earlier this month, entitled ‘Electric Truck Stops Will Need as Much Power as a Small Town,’ cited a new study of highway charging requirements conducted by National Grid Plc. Researchers found that by 2030, electrifying a typical highway gas station will require as much power as a professional sports stadium—and that’s mostly just for electric cars. The projected power needs for a big truck stop are expected to equal that of a small town by 2035.

That’s a very dramatic increase in demand for power, which utility providers may struggle to match. The success and efficiency of electric transportation is heavily dependent upon energy infrastructure and the capacity of electrical grids. Some places, such as California – a very pro-electric vehicle state – are already struggling.

Californian officials have warned that extreme heat and other climate change impacts will threaten the reliability of the state’s electrical grid over the next five years, potentially causing electricity blackouts due to power supply shortages. Well, what happens when an electric truck carrying essential goods can’t reach its destination in time because it is unable to recharge?

In some countries, like the US, Canada, and Australia, the distances that truckers travel are immense. The infrastructure required to maintain electric fleets across areas of such enormous scale is not there yet – and based on the roll-out of electric vehicles for personal use – it will take some time for the necessary developments to take place.

I consider the Tesla Semi release as an exciting development in the trucking industry. It’s certainly positive for commercial transportation insurers and brokers, but, like all innovation, the rise of electric trucking will inevitably come with new exposures and insurance challenges.

Will electric trucks have a positive impact on the commercial transportation insurance market? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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As part of the deal, Flint Insurance will become a GRP retail hub, with its 126 employees – including vendors Darren and David Taylor – remaining in the business. It will also continue to trade under its brand and operate out of its Orpington and Chelmsford offices.

Flint Insurance managing director Darren Taylor commented that the company had tremendous success as an independent broker. However, becoming a part of GRP – including Brown & Brown’s capabilities and investment – was compelling.

“We started talking to GRP some time ago, and while there were attractions to their private equity backing, once they had secured their ‘forever’ platform and we had a chance to meet the team who lead Brown & Brown, it was an easy decision,” Taylor said. “We have seen how the GRP businesses have grown to a new level of success as part of the wider group, and we are looking forward to further accelerating our exciting growth plans with owners who share our customer and employee-focused culture, including staff share ownership.

“The firepower that GRP and Brown & Brown can provide for growth-oriented businesses like ours is second to none in the market. Our clients and the Flint family – our fantastic team of people – will equally benefit from the wider range of products and services we can call on as part of a bigger group.”

GRP group CEO Mike Bruce hailed the latest acquisition, which has already received regulatory approval, as a significant milestone for the company.

“This acquisition underlines our continued appetite, despite the uncertain economic environment, for larger businesses that meet our strict quality criteria and are culturally and strategically aligned with us,” he said.  “Flint Group is a brilliantly run brokerage with highly entrepreneurial owner-managers in Darren, David, and their team, who will all fit superbly into our wider group. We look forward to supporting them as they begin the next stage of their successful journey as part of the GRP/Brown & Brown team.

“This acquisition underlines our determination to continue to grow our UK retail business division, utilising our hub and spoke strategy.”

Flint Insurance’s acquisition follows GRP-owned health insurance intermediary Premier Choice Healthcare’s dual deal earlier this month.

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What springs to your mind when you are asked to imagine a ‘typical’ hacker? For many, it’s a picture that has changed substantially in recent years – with the image of a hoodie-clad youth sitting alone in their room gradually being overlaid by market reports of highly sophisticated and well-structured organisations boasting teams of threat actors.

Find out more: Discover how Altus’ team can help you navigate today’s ever-shifting cyber landscape

However, as tempting as it can be to shift from one narrative to another, as with so much around cyber, the picture of the online threat actor landscape is more nuanced than any simple interpretation. This nuance comes back to the message central to the work that Aaron Cain (pictured) and his team at Altus are doing – creating accessible discussions around cyber risk without falling into the trap of assumptions and oversimplification.

Looking at the current risk landscape, Cain – a cyber security consultant with Altus – highlighted that cyber criminals, with exceptions, can generally be sorted into three categories. The first of these are state actors often assumed to be located in North Korea, Russia, several locations in the Middle East, or China. These are intelligent individuals who have been given a way out of poverty or into a better life than would otherwise be available to them.

“Nation-state groups create various pieces of malware – for instance, the WannaCry [malware] – that cyber specialists researched and saw it had North Korea’s or Russia’s or somewhere else’s fingerprints on it and thus could be identified as a state-sponsored attack,” he said. “So, states bring out something and it hurts their adversary’s marketplace and has an impact. However, once that impact is mitigated, they then take that packet of software and put it on to the dark web version of GitHub.

“The next category of hackers are those located anywhere in the world who then acquire that particular piece of malware. Where the nations have been using it at the state level, individuals can now use it at that next level – which is targeting corporations, small businesses, etc. They add their own wrappers, and if they’re smart enough, sometimes they recode it. In many cases, it comes with a complete operating manual on how to deploy it and how to get your payment out. ”

Cain noted that what makes this category of threat so daunting is that, with an internet connection and nothing else to do with their day, these hackers can be tireless in chasing one exposed prospect after the other. They’re not sophisticated, he said, but they don’t have to be because they’re using services somebody else has put together to relentlessly scan for any weakness in a business’s infrastructure.

Further compounding the issue is when the code becomes ‘Ransomware as a Service’ with hacking consortiums supporting users in these deprived areas. They invite successful hackers to join the business, he said, offering a monthly salary, skills upgrades, and English lessons among other perks. Having teams of such individuals hitting and re-hitting targets until something gives is still how a lot of cyberattacks are getting through.

“And are we going to put them in jail?” he asked. “We can find them, but even if we find them and pin down what it is they’re doing, what can we do? Absolutely nothing, because they’re in countries that don’t allow us to… So, when you’re dealing with that level of threat, you’re dealing with the major growth of the problem – like dust at the bottom of a cloud that just spreads and spreads.”

Read more: A shifting paradigm – how digital transformation is creating new cyber risk exposures

Considering the third category of risk, he said, corporations find themselves dealing with hacktivists – people who are morally outraged with an organisation and are looking for a way to do it damage. Traditionally, Cain said, the easiest way to hurt a company doing something you don’t like was to take its money away. Ransomware and denial of service attacks were the most popular way to do this, hitting a company financially while also doing reputational harm and raising the profile of the hacktivist’s cause.

“However, it’s a changing world,” he said, “and people have started to realise that even if I do get through, all that really gets affected is [my target’s] insurance. The attack is paid for, systems and services are restored, and it hasn’t really done what I wanted it to do. So, ransomware is starting to evolve into new threats like wiperware. Basically, instead of going in and encrypting systems, they’re deleting things, so you end up with machines with no data, no operating system and nothing left.

“And if they can find it, they will go after your backups as well so you can’t restore that data. This at least stops the organisation from doing whatever evil they perceive it’s doing for an indeterminate period of time until it’s brought back online. Additionally, it raises the visibility of their cause.”

This category of cyber risk represents a huge hazard in the context of nuclear power stations and worldwide supply chains. This kind of attack and attacker deals with more idealistic, siloed thinking, he said, which creates new sets of problems that cannot be met with a ransom payment.

An interesting combination of the types of threats is being exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine. Up until this point, he said, the general populace in Russia has been able to almost shrug off the sanctions which have targeted the oligarchs first and foremost. However, as time goes by, there is increased financial motivation behind the government stepping up their cyber game.

“They’ve done a fair bit of damage in cyber,” he said. “In my opinion, they’ve been rather clumsy about it – their hacks haven’t had the sophistication that we see from other nation state actors, for instance… but they’re getting better, they’re sharpening up and they’re realising they can make up that lost ground. Along the way, they can trigger hacktivism with their mindset that any damage they do to the West is to their benefit.”

With so much cyber risk to balance simultaneously, it’s no wonder that companies are looking for any and every opportunity to mitigate their chance of being attacked but Cain highlighted that, unfortunately, you can’t afford just to focus on prevention. Everybody will be hit at some point in time, he said, and so the focus needs to also be on damage limitation.

The most frightening element of the shifting paradigm of cyber threats and cyber threat actors is now that wiperware concept, he said, as for every second in which that attack goes unnoticed or is not shut down, critical information and systems are being deleted or rendered unusable. With that in mind, Altus is changing the conversation around this threat by recommending segmentation and isolation of clients’ systems.

Traditionally, he noted that cyber security reviews acquire vast amounts of data about an organisation, regardless of whether it’s a small company, a big organisation or a government entity. Approaching every engagement in the same manner is the carpenter’s syndrome, he said, “where everything’s a nail because I’ve got a hammer”.

What Altus has recognised is that while cyber security needs those components, it also needs to know bespoke, mission-critical information such as where sensitive customer data is held, where financial data is kept, where third-party information is stored and where the control layer for all your IoT devices is located.

“We separate those out,” he said. “Part of what we’re looking at is that network segmentation so that when somebody gets in… a compromised account within the network only has a limited amount of information that they can see. [The hacker] can’t move from one segment to the other, because we’ve put that separation in place.”

“We’re [moving with the market] towards ‘zero trust architecture’ where if somebody’s in and trying to escalate to higher authority, they have to validate and revalidate over again to break out of the channel that they’re in. So, we’re containing and limiting the damage that’s being done because as long as they can’t get data out, then they’re restricted to the damage that can be done within that segment.”

Read more: Altus’ Aaron Cain on creating a culture of ownership around cyber risk

To get to a place where this approach is the new normal for cyber security will take significant collaboration, he said, and Altus is committed to fostering that collaboration.

“We’re willing to invest our time, our help and our experience into these environments to make everybody safer and systems much more defendable,” he said. “Because we know that then when somebody is not prepared for something, we can help with programme delivery or if you’re already there with a tabletop exercise or assessments to prove what you’ve done is effective.

“The key thing is that if the market is stronger and sounder, then we’re not seeing huge amounts of money lost to individual hackers and collectives. Everybody at Altus  knows that having these conversations educates the market – and an educated consumer is a better consumer.”

Find out more: Discover how Altus’ team can help you navigate today’s ever-shifting cyber landscape

With over four decades of experience in multiple market verticals, Aaron Cain has worked to integrate and secure business critical information flows across technology stacks ranging from legacy systems to cloud computing.

During years of independent consulting assignments based in the UK and EU, Aaron has developed the ability to frame complex technical and security concepts in concise and clear business terminology. Leveraging his experience with banking, hedge fund and insurance clients, Aaron will be working within Altus to develop specialised cyber security solutions and programmes for the financial services marketplace.

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Opening keynote speaker Mandy Hickson, a former RAF Fast-jet Pilot, started off Insurance Business UK’s 2022 ‘Women in Insurance Conference’ on a strong footing. Sharing her experiences flying multi-million-pound jets for the RAF and as the only woman pilot on her Front Line Tornado Squadron, Hickson emphasised the critical need to surround yourself with the right team in order to succeed and thrive, whatever your career path.

“As I’m talking,” she said, “I want you to reflect and think on who are your wingpeople? Those people that you know have got your back. Some of them may well be in the room with you today, but others might be colleagues – because it’s those relationships that are ones that make all the difference to us, leading us to high performance.”

Hickson’s keynote discussion set the tone for the day which was in itself a celebration of networking, effective leadership, and the creativity and diversity of experience that so many women bring to the insurance ecosystem. Panel discussions featuring some of the insurance profession’s most respected leaders – among them the likes of Lisa Bartlett, Sian Fisher, Jason Groves and Sheila Cameron – touched on a range of topics from ‘Personal brand and your leadership’ to ‘Lessons learned from a multigenerational workforce’.

This being the first WII Conference I have had the pleasure of attending in-person since joining Insurance Business, I was struck by the enthusiasm of the speakers and the audience alike, and the willingness of everybody assembled to engage with the full raft of topics on discussion. Throughout the day and into the late afternoon, it was remarkable to see just how much there was left to say – not to mention to do – when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion in insurance.

Read more: LMA CEO Sheila Cameron on the two secrets to a successful business

The power of passion was a key takeaway from the conference. To hear such talented, enthusiastic and compelling women and men discussing their experiences within the insurance sector was something of a revelation. There are so many conversations about the power of passion but it’s only when you get an opportunity to see these playing out in real-time that you can truly appreciate the deep and abiding connections that underpin so many insurance relationships.

Whether discussing the paradox of flexibility and exposure in this new working environment or how to make a positive, lasting impression in the workplace – passion stood out as the key ingredient among each of the speakers. And to see it in action really was to see the insurance profession at its finest.

Another takeaway for me was realising the sheer variety of voices that can be heard across the insurance market – when they’re given a platform to speak. The wealth of insight generated from the diversity of backgrounds, routes into the market and differing experiences of a career in insurance is extraordinary to see.

Read more: How to have the difficult conversations around diversity and inclusion

And far from limiting themselves to the broad-strokes questions around gender, age and race – these voices touched on topics including everything from neurodiversity, engaging with introverted talent and developing emotional intelligence.

Of course, hearing these insights also begs the question of who else are we not yet hearing? Who else doesn’t have a seat at the table but would be able to further educate and inform us about topics beyond our realm of experience if they did? The conference was, in essence, an invitation to think bigger and broader about DE&I and to engage with it not as a destination to reach but as a road to keep travelling.

Did you attend the Women in Insurance 2022 Conference? Please feel free to share your comments or insights below.

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FloodFlash has again beaten its own catastrophic property flood claim payment record – from five hours and 36 minutes in February to less than four hours after flooding this time around.

“On November 22, 2022, at 9:40am, the sensor at a property management client based in Stamford detected that their chosen trigger depth of 1m had been met,” reported the parametric insurance provider. “By 1:30pm, FloodFlash had paid the client in full.”

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As part of the restructuring, David Sawyer, who joined Markel International in 2015, will take on an expanded role with responsibility for the combined divisions as divisional managing director of PFR and cyber. Meanwhile, Chris Burgess will continue to lead the London-based cyber team, and will now report into Sawyer, with a role focused on developing growth potential for the business line.

Markel’s commitment to the evolution of its cyber team has been clear in recent years from its variety of senior appointments including that of Ed Rawe, who joined Markel in 2021, and has been promoted to senior cyber underwriter.

In addition, Lewis Bennett has joined as senior cyber underwriter from Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) while Dan Fox has joined as senior underwriter from Aspen Insurance Group and Ollie Carroll has joined the team as assistant underwriter.

Commenting on the move, Andrew McMellin, managing director of wholesale at Markel International, said: “When Markel started writing cyber business almost ten years ago, clients were facing a very different, and significantly less complex risk landscape than the one they face today.

“Cyber risks have gained prominence and are now intertwined with other business lines, especially those that sit under our PFR division. When we were looking at how we can keep our business relevant and tailored for our clients, we saw many benefits in the merging of the two divisions.” 

He added that this means that Markel International’s cyber underwriters can now align themselves more closely with its PFR teams. This, he said, will allow them to plan and innovate collaboratively, and bring about a more holistic approach to its cyber offering – to the benefit of both its broking partners and end clients.

Discussing the growing cyber team, Sawyer commented: “We have highly skilled and well-respected cyber underwriters and I look forward to working with Chris and the rest of the team, as we continue to expand our combined offering for our brokers and clients.”

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In this part of our client education series, we will explain the meaning behind common industry buzzwords to help consumers gain a proper understanding of how different insurance policies work, so they can find the coverage that best suits their needs. We encourage agents and brokers to share this article with their clients to help them navigate these complexities.

If you are looking for a specific term, push control + F (or Command + F on Mac) and then type in the word to find the definition right away.

The insurance terms below are divided into five categories:

1. General terms – for buzzwords that apply to all insurance policies
2. Auto insurance terms – for terms that apply exclusively to car insurance
3. Health insurance terms – for accident and health insurance industry buzzwords
4. Home insurance terms – for terms often used in property insurance such as homeowners’, landlord, and renters’ policies
5. Life insurance terms – for jargon commonly found in life insurance policies

The definitions below were based on the glossaries of industry bodies National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), and International Risk Management Institute (IRMI), and several insurance industry specialists—including myself!

All-risk

All-risk coverage, also referred to as open perils, insures against all types of losses, except for those that are specifically excluded from the policy. This applies to several property and casualty (P&C) categories, including homeowners, auto, and commercial insurance.

Cancellation

This refers to the cancellation of an insurance policy before the specified end-date. Typically, policyholders get a refund for any unused premiums, although insurers may charge a cancellation fee.

Claim/Claimant

An insurance claim is a formal request filed by the policyholder to their insurer for compensation for covered losses or damages. These can include vehicular accidents for auto insurance, storm damage for homeowners’ policies, and emergency surgeries for health insurance plans.

A claimant, meanwhile, is the person who files the claim. In most cases, this is the policyholder.

Conditions (Policy conditions)

This is the section of a policy document that explains the duties and responsibilities of the insured (policyholder) and the insurance company. It also states the requirements that need to be met for the coverage to be valid.

Commencement date

This is the date when the insurance policy goes into force. It is also known as the effective date.

Declarations page

This section of the policy document, also called the dec page, summarizes the details of the policy. It contains the coverages, limits, deductibles, and effective date. This page is often located on the front page of the policy.

Deductible

A deductible is the amount the policyholder agrees to pay out-of-pocket before the insurance company shoulders the cost. Typically, the higher the deductible, the lower the premiums as the insurers bear less financial risk.

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There is no getting around paying insurance deductibles. Even the largest insurance companies in the world have these policies, and their main goal is to make it so insurance companies don’t get flooded with small claims.

Hazard

A hazard is a situation or condition that raises the likelihood that a loss will occur. Ice on sidewalks, for example, increases the chance of a person slipping and getting injured, while smoking raises the probability of a policyholder getting lung cancer.

This is different from a peril, which is something that causes a loss. This includes fire, theft, collisions, natural disasters, illnesses, and death.

Lapse

This refers to a period when one goes without insurance coverage. If a person, for example, fails to renew their auto insurance policy, then they now have a lapse in coverage.

Loss

A loss is the basis for filing an insurance claim. This includes direct and accidental damage the insured or their property sustains.

Named insured

The named insured is the person or business named in the policy, also referred to as the policyholder. An insurance policy can have more than one named insured. The named insureds are listed on the declarations page of the policy document.

Named perils

These are the specific type of losses or damages listed in the policy document. A named perils coverage provides protection against these.

Policy

An insurance policy is a written contract between the policyholder and the insurer that lays out the details of the coverage. This includes coverage, exclusions, deductibles, and premiums.

Premium

This is the amount charged by an insurance company in return for coverage. There are several factors that impact premiums. These include age, gender, and driving history for auto insurance, weather-related and crime risks in an area for homeowners’ policies, and medical history and smoking status for life insurance.

Rider

A rider, sometimes referred to as an endorsement, is an optional coverage that policyholders can add to their policies. This includes identity theft and water backup coverage for home insurance, and accident forgiveness and roadside assistance for auto policies.

Agreed value

This type of policy pays out for the value agreed upon by the policyholder and insurance company when the policy was purchased in the event the vehicle is wrecked beyond repair. This is as opposed to stated value coverage, which reimburses whichever is lower between the stated value or actual cash value at the time of the loss.

Bodily injury coverage

Also known as bodily injury liability, this pays for the medical expenses a third party incurs due to an accident cause by the policyholder. This policy also covers legal costs in the event the insured is sued for damages.

Collision coverage

This part of an auto insurance policy covers the cost of damages resulting from a collision with another vehicle or object, or the car flipping over.

Comprehensive coverage

This is the portion of a car insurance policy that pays out damages not caused by a collision such as fire, vandalism, and natural disasters. It also covers incidents of vehicle theft.

Medical payments coverage (auto)

Also called Med Pay, this is an optional coverage that helps pay for medical expenses that the policyholder and their passengers incur due to a car accident, even if the driver was at-fault.

Motor vehicle report (MVR)

The MVR details a person’s driving history, including accidents and traffic violations, as reported to a state’s motor department.

Personal injury protection (PIP)

PIP is a part of an auto insurance policy that provides coverage for medical and other expenses resulting from a vehicular accident, regardless of who is at-fault. It covers the policyholder, the car’s passengers, and anyone driving the vehicle for injuries sustained from a collision, even those who do not carry insurance.

Telematics insurance

Also called usage-based insurance or UBI, this works by adopting onboard technology or mobile applications to monitor a policyholder’s driving habits. Telematics then uses the information gathered to reward safe drivers in the form of discounted premiums or, in some instances, penalize risky motorists in the form of surcharges.

Uninsured motorist coverage

Uninsured motorist coverage, also referred to as UM, is designed to provide compensation to policyholders when an at-fault driver does not have liability insurance or illegally leaves the scene of the crash.

Underinsured motorist coverage

Underinsured motorist coverage, or UIM, works almost exactly the same as UM. The only difference is that UIM provides protection when the at-fault driver carries insurance, but their coverage is not enough the pay for all expenses.

Would you like a little bit of help with getting your premiums down? Read our list of the 10 cheapest cars for you to insure in the UK.

Ambulatory services

These are health services provided to policyholders who are not confined to a healthcare institution. Ambulatory services are also referred to as outpatient services.

Assisted living care coverage

This type of coverage pays out if the policyholder is confined to an assisted living facility. Some health insurers offer this type of policy as a rider.

Benefits

These refer to the total expenditures paid out by an insurer for health care services accessed by the policyholder, including medical and hospital bills.

Calendar year deductible

This is the amount that the policyholder must pay during a calendar year before the health insurance company covers the costs.

Coinsurance

Coinsurance is the portion of coverage that the policyholder must pay for covered services after the deductible has been paid. Coinsurance rates are often indicated as a percentage. For example, if the insurer pays 80% of the claim, the policyholder will shoulder the remaining 20%.

Copayment

This is usually a flat fee that the policyholder pays for certain medical services, with the rest covered by the insurance provider.

Group health coverage

This is an organization- or employer-sponsored plan that covers members or employees, as well as their dependents, under a single policy.

Long-term care coverage

Long-term care insurance, also called LTCI, pays out the cost of medical and non-medical services provided for senior-aged individuals who have lost the ability to care for themselves. It covers individuals cared for at home, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or adult day care centers.

Out-of-network provider

This refers to health services providers who are not part of a health plan’s network. Policyholders have the option to access out-of-network providers, but they generally pay more for their services.

Out-of-pocket maximum

This is the highest amount the policyholder pays during a year for coverage. This includes coinsurance, copayments, and deductibles, but is on top of the regular premiums. Once the out-of-pocket maximum has been reached, the health insurer will cover all expenses for the rest of the year.

Want to learn more? Read our list of the 10 largest health insurance providers in the US.

Actual cash value coverage

This pays for the value of the property at the time of the loss, factoring in depreciation. This is as opposed to replacement cost coverage, which is explained below.

Additional living expenses coverage

This covers the cost incurred if the home becomes uninhabitable due to a covered loss. Coverage is standard in most homeowners’, condo, and renters’ insurance policies, and includes meals and hotel stays. This type of policy is also referred to as loss of use coverage.

Appraisal

Appraisals are often conducted to get an accurate estimate of the cost to rebuild a home, settle claim valuation disputes, and provide sufficient coverage for personal belongings.

Market value

This value refers to how much a property will sell in the market.

Medical payments coverage (property)

This type of policy covers the medical expenses of guests who are accidentally injured within a property’s premises, regardless of who is at-fault. Coverage does not include the members of the owner’s household.

Other structure

This refers to structures within the property’s premises that are not directly attached to the house such as a garage, fence, or shed. Depending on the policy, these may be covered under homeowners’ insurance.

Personal injury coverage

This type of policy covers instances other than bodily injury and property damage. These incidents include false arrest, invasion of privacy, libel, slander, and wrongful eviction.

Replacement cost coverage

This covers the cost to repair or replace damaged property without factoring in depreciation. This type of coverage applies to the house, also called dwelling, and personal belongings.

Scheduled personal property coverage

This type of rider allows the homeowner to raise the amount of their policy limits to cover for high-value items such as jewelry, artwork, musical instruments, and other collectibles.

Water backup coverage

This optional coverage pays out for damages caused by backed-up drains, clogged sewer lines, and failed sump pumps, as well as mold buildup resulting from these events.

Beneficiary

A beneficiary is the person or entity that the policyholder designates to receive the death benefit. This can be the insured’s spouse, immediate family, other relatives, friends, business partners, or even a charitable organization. Policyholders can name several beneficiaries for their life insurance plans and assign how much benefit each person or group will receive.

Convertible term life insurance

This type of policy can be converted into permanent insurance without the need for medical assessment. The insurance company is required to renew the policy regardless of the insured’s health status, subject to policy conditions.

Death benefit

This refers to the amount that the insurer pays the beneficiary after the policyholder’s death.

Endowment policy

This type of coverage pays out the benefit either at the end of the contract period or upon the policyholder’s death. This is as opposed to standard life insurance policies, which pay the benefit only after the insured’s death.

Living benefits coverage

This rider provides long-term care coverage for the policyholder if they become terminally ill.

Permanent life insurance

Permanent policies provide guaranteed lifetime coverage and a cash value element that builds up over time that can be used as collateral if the policyholder decides to borrow.

Surrender value

This refers to the amount the policyholder will receive from the insurer if they decide to exit the policy before it matures. The value is often significantly lower than the actual benefit.

Term life insurance

This type of policy pays out a death benefit if the insured dies within a specified period. This means the insured can only access the payment in the years when the plan is active.

Universal life insurance

Universal life insurance is a type of permanent policy that uses different premium structures to build up savings, with the earnings based on how the market performs.

Whole life insurance

Whole life insurance is a type of permanent policy where the savings can grow at a guaranteed rate.

If you’re looking for some options here, read about the USA’s 15 largest life insurance companies.

Considering that insurance is designed to protect a person’s assets and loved ones, purchasing a policy requires careful planning and research. Having a firm understanding of these insurance buzzwords allows customers to find a policy that best fits their needs. With everyone speaking the same language, consumers can find the right coverage minus the frustration and disappointment.

Are there any more insurance terms that you want us to cover? Share them below and we will add them in an update.

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