Politico Briefing on Politics and Cyber Security

Worth a read (and not just because they quote our estimate of premium volume).  Great commentary by Dave Perera on Cyber in the political realm, including the administration’s encouragement of Cyber insurance.

The summary is here: Politico

Unfortunately the balance of the article is behind their paywall, but the summary is useful.

Rick’s Keynote Presentation at the PLUS Cyber Symposium (September 17, 2015)

PLUS was kind enough to invite me to speak at this year’s Cyber Symposium, a not-to-be missed gathering of leaders in the Cyber insurance and risk community.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict but PLUS asked me to pre-record a keynote address. Done in the form of an interview, it was presented during the opening breakfast and can be watched here: PLUS Cyber Symposium 2015 Betterley Keynote

My thanks to PLUS for allowing me to share some of my current thinking about product, market conditions, and what’s on the horizon for Cyber.

New Cyber Risk and Privacy Insurance Product to Expand the Small and Medium Sized Market

We were recently introduced to Digital Risk Resources (DRe), a new company that is bringing cyber risk and privacy coverages to small- to mid-sized commercial insureds.  DRe is not an insurance company or a broker, but rather a company that provides a turnkey product for insurance companies that want to offer cyber risk insurance protection without the expense and risk (and long lead times) of creating their own product.

This private label product includes:

• Draft endorsement language (dubbed Internet Security and Privacy – ISAP),
• Web-based underwriting and rating,
• Risk management services, and
• Claims support

Best of all, they have 100% quota share support for ceding carriers.  Aspen Re, the A-rated Bermuda company founded in 2002, provides the reinsurance support and is a part owner of Digital Risk Resources.

Turnkey options like this, for carriers that don’t want to invest the time or money in creating their own product, staffing up, and securing reinsurance, are not new.  GenRe, for example, has had a similar product for Employment Practices Liability Insurance for years.

In our experience, carriers often face requests (and sometimes demands) from their agents to offer these new and complex products.  These requests to fill out the portfolio of coverages that the agent can offer from a single carrier have to be responded to; for cyber risk, DRe’s approach can make a lot of sense to a carrier facing these requests. http://www.digitalriskresources.com/welcome-digital-risk-resources

Welcome to The Betterley Report Blog on Specialty Insurance

Welcome to The Betterley Report Blog on Specialty Insurance Products.  In this blog, I hope to shed some light on the different specialty insurance products available to commercial insureds, and how individual products differ from one another.  With luck, we’ll be providing information that helps readers choose the right types of products for themselves and their clients.

If you are familiar with The Betterley Report, you know that I write about specialty insurance products designed for commercial insureds of all sizes.  I have been authoring these Reports since the mid-’90s (!), and am fortunate to have many of the leading insurance companies, agents and brokers, reinsurers, attorneys, and service providers, as well as Risk Managers and CFOs, as subscribers.

As I talk with my readers, they often ask me about new developments in the products I cover.  With each Report limited to an annual freshening, we have not had a way to provide interim updates.  I figure that this blog might solve that problem nicely, since I can report on new products and changes in existing products as they are hitting the market.  Since I don’t want to just be an outlet for press releases, I’ll be sure to offer some observations about those products as well.

These Reports are available only to subscribers, and each Report is updated annually.  Some of the products I research are Cyber Risk, Directors & Officers Liability, Technology Errors & Omissions, Employment Practices Liability, and Intellectual Property insurance.  There are 6 Reports each year.

I write The Betterley Report for insurance professionals that want to find out who has the most appropriate insurance product for their clients, and for insurance companies  looking for competitor intelligence.  To be candid, I also write because I believe that comparative information helps drive improvement in the product .  As an independent risk management consultant (which means I advise clients on the types of insurance they need and which insurers they should buy them from, as well as alternatives such as self insurance), improving the breed is a passion for me.

So, welcome – this is a work in progress, and I hope you will join me in moving the specialty insurance products business forward.

Note: just got my first comment on our October issue (covering Side A D&O products), so I’d better get blogging.