Help

BI’s Article search uses Boolean search capabilities. If you are not familiar with these principles, here are some quick tips.

To search specifically for more than one word, put the search term in quotation marks. For example, “workers compensation”. This will limit your search to that combination of words.

To search for a combination of terms, use quotations and the & symbol. For example, “hurricane” & “loss”.

Login Register Subscribe

Execs, risk managers at odds on world risk: Study

Reprints

Risk managers are not always on the same page as their companies' top executives in assessing the risks associated with international expansion, according to the "2007 Chubb International Risk Survey."

While 43% of top executives are concerned that international risks pose a greater threat to their companies than domestic risks, only 16% of risk managers concur. In addition, while 24% of corporate-level executives cite terrorism as the top threat facing their companies, about the same percentage of risk managers say natural catastrophes such as hurricanes and earthquakes are the chief threat.

Top executives and risk managers also differ in their assessment of their companies' exposure to professional liability risks.

While 59% of executives said employment practices liability is becoming a more significant source of risk to their companies outside the United States and Canada, followed by fiduciary liability (58%) and D&O liability (55%), 55% of risk managers cited D&O liability as No. 1, followed by EPL (43%) and fiduciary liability (35%).

The findings illustrate the need for greater collaboration between an organization's risk manager and its most senior executives, said Kathleen Ellis, senior vp, Chubb & Son Inc. in Warren, N.J., and worldwide manager of the Multinational Risk Group for Chubb Commercial Insurance.

"To effectively allocate resources, organizations need a clear, agreed-upon picture of global risk--one that's built on many perspectives," she said in a statement. "Companies that don't take this holistic approach could find themselves unexpectedly self-insuring losses that occur outside the United States and Canada."

The survey also found that only 25% of U.S. or Canadian companies are studying the impact of global warming on their business.

About three-fourths (76%) of risk managers and top executives say their companies are likely to expand their operations this year, and 86% anticipate that revenue from their operations outside the United States and Canada is likely to increase over the next five years.

The survey was conducted in March by Opinion Research Corp., a worldwide research and consulting firm based in Princeton, N.J., in conjunction with Warren, N.J.-based Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. The Web-based survey queried chief executive, operating and financial officers as well as risk managers at 242 U.S.-based companies. Summaries of the report findings can be found on Chubb's Web site at www.chubb.com/corporate/chubb6893.pdf.