Cyber Challenges Still Evolving

A lack of available data hamstrings cyber-risk underwriting, no matter what the exposure.

Some chief information security officers fail to see the value of standalone cyber-risk coverage, while some brokers give the impression that traditional policies cover many of the same risks.

These factors have contributed to surprisingly low recent take-up on standalone cyber coverage, according to Charles Cowan, counsel to law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath’s insurance transactional and regulatory team.

Cowan and Andrea Best, a partner with Drinker Biddle, addressed four emerging areas of cyber-related risk on May 19 in the Old Lloyd’s Library, built in 1928 and now in the basement at Lime Street. That very day, Lloyd’s announced its move into cyber coverage in Poland.

In the heavily wood-paneled atmosphere of the past, the speakers addressed four potential horsemen of the digital apocalypse.

Cyber-risk itself, drones, autonomous vehicles, and ride/car share all fall under the cyber umbrella and share a primary reliance on data that is largely not yet available, given the newness of the risks. The lack of data means that none of these risks is yet properly understood.

Cyber

“First and foremost in cyber risk,” said Cowan, “is the need for data. Not a lot of reliable data exists about incidents and where future potential attacks might be, or of what size.”

Cowan added that little litigation has yet taken place to clarify the validity of exclusions. The wording of the standard war exclusion “requires a hostile act by a foreign Government,” he said, “without naming names.” The Sony hack, reportedly by the Government of North Korea, came to mind.

Following another hack that exposed some 80 million customer and employee records at Anthem Health Insurance, the company notified and conducted its correspondence with its customers on paper, Cowan said. (Target experienced further opportunist email hacking after advising its customers by email that the personal data of up to 70 million customers, including credit card numbers, had been stolen in late 2013.)

“For larger breaches, costs can be astronomical,” Cowan said, citing a three-year-old U.S. report that valued the average stolen record at about $180. Cowan, who had left Lloyd’s three weeks earlier, is now working with the Department of Homeland Security on garnering more timely information.

Drones

About 80 percent of commercial unmanned aerial systems, or drones, are used in agriculture. The U.S. economy might expect to earn $82 billion from the use and knock-on effects of drones by 2025, and the FAA is due to issue a set of standards in this as-yet largely unregulated area.

Liability issues abound: criminal activity, matters of privacy and trespass, nuisance and general danger, air traffic problems, misdirected payloads, and of course hacking. “Any system is hackable,” Cowan said.

Autonomous Vehicles

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers forecasts that as many as 75 percent of all vehicles, some with removable steering wheels, are expected to be autonomous by 2030, Best said. Legislation in the U.S. is being enacted at the state level (five states plus Washington, D.C.), or has failed (12 states), or is not being considered at all.

Autonomous vehicles will require sensors for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, “but we’ll also have to have sensors on buildings, bridges, traffic lights and other objects we’ll have to navigate around,” Best said.

“The ultimate question, if this technology really takes off, and is so safe, is how much of an automobile insurance coverage market will there be left?” — Andrea Best, partner, Drinker Biddle & Reath

It is not yet clear who will need coverage. Manufacturers of the vehicles? Of component parts? Of the sensors? One known unknown is whether driver premiums for autonomous vehicles will fall, due to the lowered risk, or increase for traditional hands-on drivers.

“The ultimate question, if this technology really takes off, and is so safe, is how much of an automobile insurance coverage market will there be left?” Best asked.

Coverage challenges include the reliability and vulnerability of the technology, the adaptability of the driving public, and the hackability of the autonomous systems.

“These are probably just interim challenges,” Best said. “Given the level of investment, and how much of a push there is for (autonomous vehicles), these issues will fall away.”

Ride/Car Sharing

The former will be familiar from transportation network companies such as Uber, which arrange one-time shared rides on short notice, and others that arrange transportation for a fee using online technology platforms.

The latter includes peer-to-peer car rentals organized by program administrators (such as RelayRides and Getaround) for short periods of time.

“Both services present new insurance coverage challenges,” Best said.

Ride-sharing is typically excluded from personal auto policies, creating coverage gaps. NAIC has issued a white paper to help state insurance regulators, and legislation is pending in more than 35 states. Similar coverage gaps exist in the car-sharing realm.

As if these four risks were not enough to digest, on the subject of emerging risks, in Best’s words, “we could have covered any number of topics and be here for hours.”

Roger Crombie is a United Kingdom-based columnist for Risk & Insurance®. He can be reached at [email protected].

How a Carrier Partner Can Help Navigate a Challenging Management and Professional Liability Market

A combination of a choppy economy with increased claims frequency and severity could lead to rate increases in the Management & Professional Liability market.

By: Risk & Insurance | April 3, 2024

Rates in the management & professional liability (M&PL) markets were on the rise from 2020 to early 2023 and are now falling rapidly.

M&PL divisions manage a number of different insurance products including management liability (D&O), professional liability (E&O), employment practices liability (EPL), fiduciary liability policies, cyber, etc. In 2023 and into 2024, a big influence on the marketplace has been the extremely aggressive and softening public company D&O market.

Though these rates have been softening for management liability, that may change over the next few years as companies continue to adjust their business models motivated by economic uncertainty. Layoffs were up nearly 200% last year, Forbes reported, even as other recession indicators, like the inflation rate, improved. A recession could lead to an increased claim activity and force carriers to raise rates.

“Whenever there is a meaningful downturn in the economy, we tend to see claim frequency pop up,” said George Schalick, Jr., senior vice president of the Management and Professional Liability Division at Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY).

With continued fiscal uncertainty, businesses potentially already burdened with pandemic-related claims should seek a carrier with a long history in M&PL products. They will provide much-needed risk management guidance and be better positioned to support their insureds during market fluctuations.

Why Insureds Might See an Uptick in M&PL Claims

George Schalick, Jr., Senior Vice President of the Management and Professional Liability Division, Philadelphia Insurance Companies

The current soft market might come as a bit of a surprise as it does not track with previous underwriting cycles and economic conditions. Afterall, many privately held and non-profit organizations struggled during the early days of the pandemic with shutdowns and rapidly declining revenues. But the Government assistance programs, like the Paycheck Protection Program loans, helped keep many afloat during the tough times.

“During COVID many organizations stopped doing business until they were able to sort out all of the health and safety challenges,” Schalick said. “They were forced to lock down, but then all the government assistance programs allowed them to keep people employed. The increased volume of claims we anticipated we would see coming from the lockdowns and restrictions that were imposed upon businesses in the U.S. didn’t manifest at first.”

“Just because there wasn’t an onslaught of reported claims at the beginning of the pandemic, doesn’t mean the circumstances that would give rise to a claim being reported didn’t occur. Courts and the judicial system were closed or slowed and now that they are back open, we’re starting to see the circumstances that occurred during the COVID lockdowns becoming claims today,” Schalick said. “Litigation is progressing.”

Added to the delayed pandemic litigation is a concern over newer claims that might be filed as the country inches toward an economic downturn. Though a recession was avoided in 2023, experts think a soft dip could occur in 2024, with 76% of economists saying there’s a 50% or less chance of an economic downturn this year — that almost always results in more management liability claims.

“During the Great Recession in 2008, we saw an almost immediate spike in claims because of the economic conditions and the pressure it placed on organizations. They were making personnel changes with significant belt tightening almost immediately.” Schalick said.

What’s in Store for M&PL Policy Rates in 2024?

Despite an uptick in claims and increased economic uncertainty, management liability rates haven’t increased, resulting in market-wide pricing levels that may not meet the increased pressure of rising settlements and jury verdicts.

“Rates are going the other direction and settlement values are not falling,” Schalick said.

The mismatch between rates, claim frequency and severity is, in part, because carriers experiencing the dramatic soft market in the public D&O market are seeking premium gain in the private and non-profit market.

“In the public company market, the rates have been decreasing significantly. The rates were increasing in the private, not-for-profit market, and rightfully so, but there’s a desire to supplement overall mid-size D&O for carriers who also write private not-for-profit, and they see that as an opportunity to aggregate premium,” Schalick said. “So the always competitive landscape in the private, not-for-profit market has dramatically increased in the last 18 to 24 months.”

Still, companies of all sizes and types should be concerned about management liability rates in the future. Legal system abuse is resulting in increases in both the amount of litigation and the size of verdicts plaintiffs are receiving.

Certain areas of the country are particularly vulnerable to this type of legal system abuse. As a result, insureds in these localities are likely to be vulnerable to rate increases.

“The environment is so positive for the plaintiff that forces premium increases so carriers are able to stay in that market long term,” Schalick said.

Why a Tenured Carrier Partner Can Help Insureds Navigate An Uncertain Market

It’s clear that insureds are facing an uncertain M&PL market over the next few years. Fortunately, carriers with a long history in the M&PL space will be there to offer stability.

Philadelphia Insurance Companies has been supporting this market for 35 years. PHLY is committed to offering long-term rate stability, even as economic and claims trends start to push premiums upwards. They have an appetite for all sorts of companies, large and small, for-profit and nonprofit alike.

“We’ve been at this game for a long time and are one of the most tenured underwriters in this space,” Schalick said. “We like to stay very consistent.”

PHLY has worked with both for-profit and non-profit on management liability policies. With dedicated M&PL teams throughout the company’s 13 regions, PHLY provides the support agents and brokers are looking for on behalf of their clients. The teams know their regions well and can respond to local trends. They’re also dedicated to making the renewal process as easy as possible for their partners and policyholders.

“We have real confidence in our results, so we focus a lot on making the renewal experience as painless as possible for all agents and insureds,” Schalick said.

The company is also investing in tools to help insureds avoid losses. Earlier this year, they launched a new online risk management platform, PHLYGateway, which offers resources for insureds on how to create an employee handbook and trainings on issues such as recognizing workplace sexual harassment and discrimination.

If insureds have questions, they can consult a Best Practices Help Line, provided via the platform. That way, they can get on the spot risk management guidance to help them prevent claims.

To learn more, visit: https://www.phly.com/mplDivision/managementLiability/default.aspx.

This article was produced by the R&I Brand Studio, a unit of the advertising department of Risk & Insurance, in collaboration with Philadelphia Insurance Companies. The editorial staff of Risk & Insurance had no role in its preparation.

Cyber Threats