The Insurance Act was the most fundamental change to UK law governing commercial insurance and reinsurance since the Marine Insurance Act 1906. It governs all polices placed, amended or renewed after the 12th August 2016 and aimed to address the imbalance between insurer and insured rights and encourage a deeper understanding of the risk by all relevant parties. The legislation made significant changes to: the pre-contract duty of disclosure, insurer remedies in the event of a breach of the new duty of fair representation and certain terms used in policy wordings. This guide aims to assist risk professionals in making the most of the benefits of the Insurance Act, while ensuring their own compliance with the duties placed upon them.

Companies seek to seize and deliver on opportunities that create long-term value that are aligned to their purpose. But every opportunity and every action (or inaction) has an associated risk. Investing is as much about assessing the risk as the related opportunity. This means that all organisations have a story to tell on these topics to investors, regulators and other stakeholders. But is this story clear, is it connected and does it reflect the organisation’s processes?

Affordable D&O insurance has probably never been more difficult to find. One alternative to the pricey and constrained commercial market is to place D&O risk in a captive, but although there are potential advantages, risk managers should know this solution is largely untested, say Jonathan Barnes and Alex O’Shea of KPMG in Bermuda.

Following the trend set by their publicly traded peers, privately held companies continue to face elevated directors and officers liability (D&O) insurance pricing increases, which are likely to continue trending upward through 2021. Insurers are also increasingly limiting coverage terms and/or conditions. It is important to understand why the market is firming as you set new strategies with your broker partner.