There is a broad brushstroke being used when it comes to rates, says one broker, who sees quality business clients being unfairly lumped together with the bad risks.
“The market seems to be painting with a broad brush with rates," says Sam J. Feldman, senior vice president with Renfrew insurance Ltd., in Calgary, Alta. "and some businesses that run good, clean businesses are getting hit with unreasonable increases and/or reduction in coverage,”
And that is the challenge that the industry is facing going into next year, says Feldman.
“The challenges ahead for 2015 is going to be capacity issues in some market segments," he told Insurance Business, "such as residential realty and maintaining reasonable pricing on some of the basic coverages for flood, hail and water damage.”
Feldman is just one of the many brokers who took part in the Insurance Business Top 30 Elite survey, and said that he sees cyber risk as one area of potential growth.
“I have seen a trend by insurer's wanting to sell cyber risk and in the last 6 months especially,” says Feldman, “and I see that there is significant need for both. Brokers and customers really should be taking a good, hard look the appropriate cyber risk coverage available for their business and the risks associated.”
According to Richard Grant, senior vice president of corporate risk at Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company, clients are coming around to the idea that they do need cyber risk coverage.
“It’s not uncommon to hear a broker state that a particular client, or sometimes a subset of clients, has little to no risk for a breach, and thus doesn’t need a cyber product,” says Grant. “However, that is very rarely the case. While it’s true that some companies don’t need a large limit or a robust standalone cyber product, the vast majority of businesses have some level of need for this type of coverage.”
Look in the September issue of Insurance Business magazine for how an evolving cyber marketplace is demanding better education and risk management.
