Articles

Q&A: Consultant Stephen Bushnell Digs into Green Insurance Products

July 24, 2023 by Allen Laman

After learning about green buildings, after examining their structural characteristics that may not be covered by traditional insurance policies, and after studying green rating guides and the commissioning process, Stephen Bushnell came to a notable conclusion. “It seems that green buildings would be better risks for us to write than a traditional building,” he thought. Bushnell researched green...

3 Emerging Risks to Watch: The Rise of Robotics, Infrastructure Spending, Vehicle Subscriptions

Years ago, it may have been hard to imagine a time when robots could have nine-to-five jobs and handle household chores, drivers could subscribe to luxury vehicle features like heated seats and big infrastructure projects would become common across the country. Remarkably, these aren’t future endeavors — they’re happening today. And they represent three emerging risks insurers should keep track of...

Brokers Must Get Creative As Construction Market Grows Amid Project Delays, Labor Shortage, Higher Costs

July 10, 2023 by Andrea Wells

The U.S. construction sector continues to see strong growth in various sectors and geographies but higher interest rates, higher building costs, and a decades-long shortage of skilled labor are contributing to a “cautiously optimistic” outlook for the rest of 2023 into 2024. Insurance costs are among those that are rising, which insurance professionals say means that they must find creative ways t...

Why Schools Must Reset and Reboot When it Comes to Insurance

June 29, 2023 by Andrea Wells

Public entities have unique challenges when it comes to mitigating risks and insuring exposures. They serve their communities through education, public utilities and first responder services, and must do so often with limited resources. Today that effort is even more challenging, insurance experts say. It’s normal for public entities like schools and other government organizations to be asked to d...

Challenges, Opportunities for Brokers in the Music Events Space

June 16, 2023 by Allen Laman

As musicians prepare for a star-studded summer of live events, the demand for performances is huge. At the same time, entertainment carriers are adjusting their appetites and underwriting parameters. Catastrophic losses at music festivals and concerts have led to more thorough and stringent underwriting reviews. Because of restricted underwriting and overall capacity, umbrella/excess coverage has...

Risks on Stage: New World, New Life in Entertainment Business

Spectator Safety, Natural Catastrophes, Rising Costs Top Concerns Today As theater shows and live events return to full force this year coming off pent-up demand, underwriters are placing extra scrutiny on safety, resulting in increased rates and tightly worded policies. Specialists in the entertainment insurance industry say that coverage for venues, performers and promoters is attainable, but pa...

What Young Consumers Want from Insurance

May 25, 2023 by Andrea Wells

Young consumers don’t always trust the insurance industry, but most do, according to a new study from the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute, which found that on average, younger consumers rated insurance companies a six out of 10 in terms of trust. The study analyzed how younger consumers understand, evaluate and purchase insurance plans. The study also investigated younger consumers’...

Exploring the Dos and Don’ts of Drones, Insurance-Wise

Drones are an increasingly popular hobby for adults and kids. And it’s all fun and games and cool videos until something glitches, and an out-of-control rack of spinning blades hits someone in the head. Or crashes into a house. The potential for drones to cause injury and property damage raises questions about what types of activity are covered by existing insurance and whether drone hobbyists or...

Hard Commercial Property Market to Linger as Property Owners Take On More Risk

Today’s hard U.S. commercial property insurance market — one that is the longest and toughest seen during the careers of even the most seasoned industry veterans — is likely here to stay for a while. “This is the hardest property market we’ve seen in 20 years,” said Scott Purviance, chief executive officer of Amwins. “I’ve never seen anything like this hard market,” added Nancy Woode, head of the...

Landlords and Their Tenant’s Liquor Liability

A landlord decides to lease a space in a retail strip center to a sports bar. The landlord’s commercial real estate representative sends the lease to the new prospective tenant to sign — it is a standard industry lease that has the typical insurance clauses like general liability, workers’ compensation, property, etc. — simple enough, right? However, there is one important consideration for landlo...

5 Things to Consider When Transporting Cannabis

When it comes to general insurance issues, cannabis-related businesses face the same general liability and property risks faced by other industries, like workplace accidents, damage to property, crop failure and transporting their products to market. However, cannabis businesses require more comprehensive commercial insurance due to the high risks involved in transporting cannabis-related products...

Opportunity to Bring Value in High-Net-Worth Space

Expertise and relationship-building are especially important when securing insurance coverage for high-net-worth individuals. In the dynamic high-net-worth (HNW) homeowners insurance space, independent agents and brokers can stand out with their advice and guidance. High-value home insurance is designed for high-net-worth individuals with luxury homes and expensive valuables and assets. Unlike tra...

Overvalued Homes and Flood Risk

The increasing cost of flooding due to climate change has led to growing concerns that housing markets are mispricing these risks, thus causing a real estate bubble to develop, according to a study published recently in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study examined the potential cost of unrealized flood risk in the U.S. real estate market and found that flood zone property prices are overv...

Insurance Advertising and Regulators

Anyone who has read this column for the past four years, or earlier articles of mine, knows that I am passionate about my disdain for the proliferation of price-focused industry advertising. I believe it creates or fuels the perception in the minds of consumers that insurance is a commodity differentiated solely by price, where coverage is pretty much the same from one policy and insurer to anothe...

Livestock Operations Grow as Demand Rises; Nationwide’s Cumings Sees Direct-to-Consumer Models Adding Additional Liability Risk

Specialization is critical in the cattle business and increased consumer demand for protein is driving new trends, including niche farms that offer direct-to-consumer strategies. In today’s evolving and growing livestock landscape, deep knowledge of market conditions and specialization is key to success, according to Erin Cumings, a senior consultant with Nationwide’s sponsor relation team who has...

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