Table of Contents 

Special Section
Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS)

The industry it is a-changin'

Incoming PLUS president leads charge
to address emerging issues

By Phil Zinkewicz

Changing regulations in the United States regarding corporate disclosure requirements, changing exposures in the errors and omissions and directors and officers arenas as more U.S. companies consider expanding internationally, and changing trends in the property and casualty insurance marketplace in general are some of the topics that will be discussed and analyzed at next month’s PLUS International Conference in Washington, D.C. Small wonder, then, that the theme of this year’s 20th annual meeting of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society is “20 Years and Changing.”

“There is no question that the property and casualty insurance market has changed a good deal in the last 20 years,” says Stephen J. Sills, incoming 2008 PLUS president and 2007 conference chair. “We have a wider diversity of professionals attending our annual meeting than 20 years ago and a wider diversity of topics to discuss than 20 years ago.”

Sills, who is chairman, president and CEO of Darwin Professional Underwriters, the company he founded in 2003, is an expert in specialty liability insurance. He is also founder and former CEO of Executive Risk and was the catalyst for the company’s growth over its 13-year history. Under his leadership, Executive Risk grew from a small, private D&O reinsurance facility into a publicly traded $600 million specialty lines insurance carrier.

Sills was featured in a Fast Company magazine article titled “These Executives Love Risk.” The article examined Executive Risk’s entrepreneurial, responsive and innovative atmosphere. He also has been quoted extensively in numerous insurance periodicals and major business publications, and he has been featured on CNN Financial News Network’s show “Business Unusual.”

Two areas of professional liability that are garnering significant attention in today’s market, Sills says, are errors and omissions and directors and officers liability. “We have been in a hard market that is now softening. We must keep a sharp eye on these exposures to see how they’re treated in a changing environment. This is not only true in the United States, but in overseas markets as well. The more U.S. companies seek to do business in overseas countries, the more E&O and D&O exposures will surface,” he asserts.

In the continuation of an ongoing trend, American businesses increasingly are expanding into overseas markets. According to a recent Chubb survey, most U.S. companies are either making moves into foreign markets or are planning to do so. In the Chubb survey of 242 upper-level employees and corporate risk managers, about three-quarters (76%) of respondents indicated that their company is likely to expand its operations in 2007.

The vast majority of respondents (86%) anticipated that revenue from their operations outside the United States/Canada is likely to increase over the next five years. Thirty-four percent of respondents indicated that this revenue would increase substantially. The survey showed that the ways corporate America is considering moving into foreign markets include expansion of operations (76%); introduction of new products (72%); increasing employee headcount (66%); opening a plant or office (62%); and acquisition of another company (47%).

“There is no question that PLUS is increasing its international activities to keep ahead of this changing world,” says Sills. “Last year, PLUS hosted a symposium in London to exchange ideas between the U.S. insurance marketplace and the London marketplace. We’re doing that again this year.”

During his term of office, Sills says, he intends to concentrate on a number of areas. “We need to do more to help our local chapters become successful,” he says. “The local chapters are the lifeblood of our organization, and they must have our attention.”

Further, he says, “PLUS must strengthen its position as the quintessential source of information for its members. In that regard, we are expanding our university and making significant changes in our RPLU program. For professional liability underwriters, brokers and buyers, PLUS is a highly relevant organization in making them more effective in doing their jobs.” *

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