ADDRESSING AGENCY OPERATIONAL RISKS It is critically important to identify and avoid heightened agent and broker operational risks during the pandemic By Peter Biging As COVID-19 vaccine distribution grows, so does hope that life may actually begin to return to normal—or something closely approximating normal—by summer. Once the dust has settled, we will have lived through more than a year of life impacted by the pandemic. What does this mean
Specialty Lines
AGENT ERRORS AND OMISSIONS Producers brace for a hard market’s challenges and opportunities By Joseph S. Harrington, CPCU As the economy emerges (we hope) from pandemic conditions, insurance agents and brokers face higher rates and tougher conditions for their “errors and omissions” (E&O) professional liability insurance. “The market began to harden in March in response to the COVID-19 outbreak,” says Mark Lann, executive vice president of the brokerage division at
Coverholders and Risk Takers By Frank Huver OUTSIDE THE BOX London market carries solid history of fresh approaches The insurance industry has a bit of a perception problem. The typical stereotype is that we are a sorry lot—conservative, stodgy, technologically challenged, and just plain boring. Remember attending a party (in the pre-social distancing era) and watching someone’s eyes glaze over when you told them what you do for a living?
Specialty Lines Markets FOCUS ON SPORTS AND LEISURE Canceled seasons lead to new mitigation strategies to resume playing safely By Lori Widmer By May 2020, the news was grim. Professional sports leagues were predicted to lose $12 billion in revenue as the pandemic truncated schedules and prohibited full stadiums, according to ESPN data. College athletics programs faced a $150 million loss as games were banned to control the corona-virus spread,
PRIVATE FLOOD INSURANCE All pieces are in place. Is it time for take-off? By Joseph S. Harrington, CPCU While most of us had to put our lives on pause in 2020, there was no letup in efforts to establish a self-sustaining voluntary market for private flood insurance in the United States. In December 2019, the Property and Casualty Insurance Committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) released a
