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Brokers adapt to increasingly global market

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NEW YORK — Relationships and globalization are among the topics at the 2015 Brokerslink Conference in New York, drawing delegates from nations around the world.

The risk landscape can be divided into product-centric and customer-centric ends, Robert Schimek, senior vice president and CEO of the Americas region for American International Group Inc. in New York, said Saturday.

Product-centric markets, he said, usually provide a single solution and do not seek to build relationships.

“It's a plain-vanilla risk transfer solution,” he said.

The customer-centric side, he said, seeks to emphasize science and innovation while building relationships with clients, often across more than one risk solution. He said that today in the U.S, AIG has more engineers than underwriters in its property business.

Markets are more global and interconnected than ever before, said, William Porter, head of international sales and distribution, global corporate, for Zurich North America in New York.

“Everything in the world is becoming more globalized,” said Mr. Porter.

It was only five or 10 years ago that things were much more localized, said Mr. Porter.

“People thought in terms of their own companies and countries,” said Mr. Porter, rather than “What happens when that first domino falls in Asia, how does that impact my supply chain?”

“That type of thinking is really starting to become a lot more prevalent,” said Mr. Porter.

A panel discussion on cyber threats and coverage emphasized how policies can provide expertise necessary for a proper response to a cyber incident and also dispelled some fears about the costs of such policies.

“The fantastic thing with respect to these cyber policies is they offer experts who can parachute in,” and help clients navigate a crises, said Joseph Bermudez, a partner with Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker L.L.P. and managing partner in the firm's Denver office.

With cyber coverage, said Mr. Bermudez, clients get access to a panel of experts before a breach happens, and then the day it hits, they can call their hotline number and say, “We need help.”

Cyber coverage also can be affordable, according to another panelist, Geoff Kinsella, ‎partner and chief operating officer at Safeonline L.L.P. in London.

Mr. Kinsella told of a client which had lost a laptop computer worth perhaps $300. The client had thus far spent about $800,000, he said, notifying clients and doing research, but he had fortunately secured a $1 million limit cyber policy for a premium of about $1,500.

“Fantastic,” said Mr. Kinsella.