Investment managers are moving capital into AI, biotech, fintech, digital assets, and the space economy at a faster clip. The shift is exposing a weak spot in how these firms buy insurance.
Many now run complex structures where coverage sits in separate policies across the platform. Gaps or duplication can then surface at the worst possible moment, during a claim.
Relm Insurance is going after that problem with ALPHA, a consolidated investment management policy released recently. The product pulls several financial lines into one framework.
ALPHA folds investment advisor professional liability, fund coverage, management liability, employment practices liability, and crime into a single policy. It adds extensions for pre-claim expenses, public relations costs, and loss mitigation.
The design matches how these firms work. Exposures often overlap across advisory, fund, and management activities, and a fragmented program does not capture that.
The gap is well documented. Traditional insurance programs have not extended adequate coverage to digital asset activities, one recent analysis found. This has pushed some firms toward alternative risk transfer. The shortfall points to wider uncertainty over how to underwrite digital asset exposure.
Appetite has also been slow to follow the money. Questions around regulation, asset custody, valuation, and frequent high-profile thefts have held carriers back. The pull is institutional investment, which has grown enough that buyers now want protection that mirrors traditional financial markets.
The exposure reaches further than many brokers assume. Clients are increasingly investing in, doing business with, or becoming fintechs, crypto platforms, and digital asset firms. This reality raises a direct question for advisors about whether they can cover the space.
The underlying risks are not new. They stay rooted in established financial lines exposures, even as the sectors these managers back move into less familiar ground.
Shane Doyle, Relm’s chief underwriting officer, framed the launch as a way to reach the firms that fund those sectors.
“Investment managers play a critical role in financing the innovative industries that Relm serves,” he said.
Doyle said backing the capital allocators is how the insurer supports the industries themselves: “Supporting the firms that allocate capital into these sectors is, in turn, how we support the industries themselves.”
Relm has worked these sectors since it launched in 2019, insuring digital asset and emerging technology risks from the start. The carrier has since tied its product design closely to underwriting in frontier areas such as AI and the space economy.
ALPHA builds on ALPHAWEB3, an earlier product for managers running blockchain-based strategies. The new policy widens that approach to firms investing across both emerging and traditional sectors.
It pairs a proprietary form with capacity of up to $5 million across multiple currencies. Coverage is tailored to different strategies, structures, and stages of growth.
