Chubb extends policy for private equity firms

Chubb Ltd. is providing expanded insurance coverage thorough its Private Equity+ offering to address the unique risks private equity firms face, the insurer announced Wednesday.

According to a statement released by Chubb, the extended offerings provide private equity firms with a “comprehensive solution designed to help transfer and mitigate many of their most significant liabilities by combining four coverages focused on management (directors and officers), outside directorship, professional services (errors and omissions), and employment practices liability into one policy.

Some of the coverage extensions in the policy include:

• Preacquisition defense costs that may arise from lawsuits brought against the private equity firm as controlling shareholder of a company held within the equity firm’s portfolio, even when the alleged acts of the portfolio company precede the private equity firm's acquisition date
   
• Crisis costs incurred by the private equity firm, including hiring a public relations firm to mitigate the potential reputational damage resulting from the termination of a key executive
   
• Defense costs incurred by a private equity firm executive as a result of his or her being interviewed by regulatory enforcement agencies

Limits are “case by case” on the expanded coverages, a Chubb spokeswoman said in an email.