High defense costs and increased litigation make D&O market one to watch

By Josh Bradford on May 23, 2016

CHICAGO – According to experts participating in Advisen’s Executive Risk Insights Conference in Chicago, the directors and officers insurance sector has been anything but business as usual in recent years.

Securities class action litigation offers one example of activity.

“In 2015, securities class actions lawsuits were at their highest level in six years,” said Kevin LaCroix, executive vice president for RT ProExec and conference chair. “But even more importantly, the number of class action lawsuits relative to the number of public companies was at its highest level in modern times.”

This interesting environment is not exclusive to public companies. For example, emerging employment practices issues are affecting private companies as well.

Employer mandates under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and website accessibility to the visually impaired, and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) have produced interesting claims and coverage issues.

Other industry trends include globalization and the importance of locally issued D&O policies, and cyber risk.

“Cyber is one product that we talk about services before insurance, which is fantastic,” said conference keynote Paul Schiavone, regional head of financial lines in North America for Allianz.

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This story in an excerpt of the original. The content originally appeared in Professional Front Page News. To read the whole story, you must be a subscriber. Subscribe now. If you are a subscriber, check your email for Professional Front Page News on May 11.

Josh is an Editor at Advisen in the Research & Editorial division. He is the lead editor responsible for several of Advisen’s Front Page News editions and he also originates custom research on behalf of Advisen’s largest insurance company clients. Contact Josh at [email protected].