This year’s Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. annual conference, which opened April 19, was held virtually. It featured more than 170 online risk management educational sessions covering various hot topics, from how risk managers are navigating the hard market to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on coverage and claims. The following stories are a roundup of Business Insurance’s reporting on the sessions.

RIMS president urges risk managers to expand skills

By Gavin Souter​

The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the skills of many risk managers, but having helped their organizations navigate the crisis, risk managers should strive to extend their reach, the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s 2021 president said.

“It seems as though every risk that the risk management community has ever prepared for came to fruition in 2020,” said Ellen Dunkin, who is also senior vice president, general counsel and chief risk officer for Amalgamated Life Insurance Co. in White Plains, New York. Ms. Dunkin began her one-year presidency of RIMS in January.

She was speaking during the opening session of RIMS’ annual conference.

During the pandemic, risk professionals provided insight and direction to help their organizations adapt and remain resilient, Ms. Dunkin said.

Going forward, risk managers should continue to make their voices heard, she said.

“As individuals and as a community, let’s be strategic advisers and key contributors who enable growth and innovation. We must be indispensable,” Ms. Dunkin said.

To be successful, risk management must be represented in the boardroom, and a new initiative, RIMS – Path to the Boardroom, explores strategies to help risk managers become members of boards, she said.

“We’ll examine the skills and competencies needed for board service and what to expect along this professional journey,” Ms. Dunkin said.

The RIMS conference offered sessions related to the initiative, and RIMS plans to add related webinars and podcasts, she said.

In addition, RIMS plans other programs and initiatives to help risk managers, including revamping the RIMS Risk Maturity Model, said Mary Roth, CEO of RIMS. The benchmarking tool was launched more than a decade ago to aid enterprise risk management initiatives.

RIMS will also launch an app giving members access to curated content such as reports and research, she said.

Contingency market may see pandemic losses up to $6B

By Matthew Lerner

The contingency insurance market, which includes coverage for the cancellation of special events, could still see multibillion-dollar losses related to COVID-19, possibly as high as $6 billion, according to experts.

Peter Rossow, who handles commercial risk, health and benefits, retirement and reinsurance solutions for Aon PLC, and Ryan McGuinness, managing director, risk management, in Daytona Beach, Florida, for NASCAR, spoke about the elements of such insurance during the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s 2021 conference.

Contingency insurance can more broadly include things such as hole-in-one insurance, where an insurer covers the cost of the prize if the feat is achieved; or even a contract bonus for an athlete who makes the playoffs, Mr. Rossow said. Covered costs can range from damage to the event location and adverse weather to terrorism, he said.

The policies are usually short-term contacts that cover the days of the events but can be annual contracts covering multiple events, which is the type of policy NASCAR has in place, Mr. McGuinness said.

Event cancellation policies are typically all risk policies, Mr. Rossow said, for which underwriters want to know things like the location and timing of the event, among many other variables, including security. While usually associated with special events like sports, such policies can also cover trade functions such as RIMS, he said.

NASCAR’s Mr. McGuinness said underwriters also want to understand what emergency action plan exists, such as that which would cover evacuation.

Both speakers stressed the importance of contract clarity with all parties and vendors associated with an event and said underwriters may even wish to see those contracts as part of their review.

NASCAR’s first COVID-19-related cancellation was the March 2020 Atlanta Motor Speedway event, Mr. McGuinness said. Racing returned without fans at the end of April.

Marine cargo policies call for careful navigation

By Claire Wilkinson

Marine cargo policyholders should work with a knowledgeable broker to maximize their coverage and strengthen their hand in the event of a claim dispute, according to Joshua Gold, a New York-based partner at Anderson Kill P.C.

Anachronistic policy language, lack of uniformity across coverage forms and shorter statutes of limitations are key issues that marine cargo policyholders have to navigate, Mr. Gold said during a session of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s 2021 conference.

One of the oldest marine cargo insuring clauses refers to “touching the adventures and perils which this company is content to bear and take upon itself, they are of the seas, fires, assailing thieves, jettisons, barratry of the master and the mariners, and all other like perils, losses and misfortunes that have, or shall come to the hurt, detriment or damage of the goods insured or any part thereof,” he said.

Even if this kind of language persists, marine cargo policyholders should insist that insuring forms have all risk language akin to what one would see in a commercial property policy, Mr. Gold said.

“Get into the details of what the fine print may mean. It’s good to work with your broker to get the most comprehensive language you can,” he said.

Other important insuring clauses to watch for are sue and labor coverage, demurrage coverage and fraudulent bills of lading. 

Policyholders should work with a seasoned broker to uncover variations in language that might narrow the scope of coverage, Mr. Gold said. 

“Get the broadest version you can. Often, it’s worth the additional premium money and legwork to comparison shop and find the best coverage form you can,” he said.

Many marine cargo insurance policies have a shortened statute of limitations, Mr. Gold said.

“Lots of insurance policies in the first party realm will try and limit the amount of time a policyholder has to start coverage litigation in the event there’s a dispute and the insurer refuses to pay the claim,” he said.

These time limitations can be much shorter than the six-year suit limitation clause under New York law, he said.

Under a marine insurance doctrine known as “uberrimae fidei” — the duty of utmost good faith — insurers will argue that the policyholder must disclose all information that may be material to their underwriting decision, but which wasn’t necessarily inquired about, Mr. Gold said.

“It’s an area where some insurers may take a very aggressive approach to an otherwise covered claim and try and rescind the insurance policy to avoid paying a claim,” he said.

Moving data  to cloud helps underwriters assess cyber liability risk

By Judy Greenwald

The increased amount of data cloud providers can offer as more information moves to the cloud will help underwriters write cyber risk and their policyholders in turn, say insurers and a cloud provider.

“From an insurance perspective, we like as much certainty as we can get our hands on,” said Robert Parisi, New York-based head of cyber-North America for Munich Re’s facultative and corporate unit. With organizations migrating to the cloud, “that process becomes simpler.”

Mr. Parisi spoke during a session of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s 2021 virtual annual conference.

In March, Munich Re and Allianz SE units were offering a program that combined a new cyber policy with up to $50 million in limits, with cloud data provided by a Google LLC unit.

By 2024, more than 45% of IT spending will shift from traditional solutions to the cloud, said panel moderator Monica Shokrai, risk consulting lead and actuary, business risk and insurance, for Google LLC in Mountain View, California. She was citing data from risk consultancy Gartner Inc., based in Stamford, Connecticut.

Mr. Parisi said that while risk aggregation is a concern the insurance industry must be aware of and evaluate, “we really want to get our noses under the tent to see what’s going on,” which is why cloud migration is exciting to the extent data about an organization can be shared.

Jody Yee, New York-based managing director, alternative risk transfer, at Allianz SE unit Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, said insurers have to deal with a fast-changing risk landscape. “It’s complex,” and many companies are still migrating, or planning to migrate, to the cloud, he said. 

Mr. Yee said clients have traditionally struggled with managing the risk, as insurers have struggled to identify which vendors the insureds are using, the extent of their engagement, and the criticality of the services they provide.

Obtaining these data resources from cloud providers offers greater insight, so that insurers can prospectively manage their portfolios, Mr. Yee said, adding it can create a sustainable risk transfer.

Investigate comp claimants on social media: Experts 

By Angela Childers

From extreme sports competitions to amateur football and twerking, workers compensation investigators have uncovered many instances of workers fabricating injuries and pain. 

Employers must commit to helping workers suffering from legitimate work-related injuries, but they also need to take steps to validate questionable injuries and vet social media to uncover fraudsters, experts said during a session of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s 2021 conference.

While the “best claim is the claim that never exists … (employers) have to have a key vision — pay the claims that are owed and defend the claims that are not,” said Steve Figliuolo, Atlanta-based principal program lead, enterprise risk management, at Chick-fil-A Inc. “If you’re an employer, but stories just aren’t adding up, it’s important to really look at things and see what are the actual objective findings that are coinciding with any subjective complaints.”

When it comes to investigating injuries, the wealth of information available on social media has made it easier to scrutinize and surveil those claims, said Kevin Lederer, regional account manager for Command Investigations LLC in Orlando, Florida.

“Over 90% of millennials are using social media. … Half of the baby boomer population are on social media in some sort of fashion,” he said. 

For example, one woman who claimed she was unable to drive or bend at the waist was not an avid social media user, but through her husband’s social media accounts — and public pages from an extreme sports race — investigators learned that she was participating and obtained surveillance in just one day of her crawling through the mud and engaged in other activities that directly contradicted her claimed abilities, according to Mr. Lederer’s presentation. That surveillance saved the company more than $80,000 on her claim, he said.

Another claimant who said his pain was so severe he couldn’t sleep at night was caught playing football on an amateur team, and another who said he was unable to work was caught spinning and twerking with a group in a dance studio. Both surveillance leads were gleaned from social media, Mr. Lederer said. 

“There are times you are going to have claimants that are legitimate,” he said. “But when you find someone that is being untruthful with you ... doing a social media investigation on someone who is active (on sites) or has links that are active and monitoring those — it’s going to save everybody money in the long run.” 

COVID-19 presumptions create claims challenge for workers comp sector

By Louise Esola

The trend of workers compensation presumptions could be a turning point for the industry, according to a panel of workers comp experts. 

Dozens of states have in place presumptions for certain workers — mostly first responders — who suffer from various cancers, heart disease or post-traumatic stress disorder. And now COVID-19 is compensable in some cases, with employers on the hook to cover infections that have been presumably contracted at the workplace. 

Sixteen states currently have such COVID-19 presumptions in place and several more are considering them, retroactive to the start of the pandemic in March 2020. 

Presumptions present challenges for employers in part because “COVID-19 is something you can be exposed to anywhere,” said Max Koonce, chief claims officer for third-party administrator Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc., during a session of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s 2021 conference

“The risks of COVID-19 are simply associated with the risks of daily living,” he said. “If you are at an employer for eight hours a day you have sixteen other hours a day that you are out there in the environment when you can be exposed to it just carrying on with your life.” 

He spoke briefly about similar challenges regarding cancer presumptions and the inherent risk that about one-third of adults will get cancer in their lifetime. 

Such presumptions are problematic in that they are a “broad brush” for compensability, said Joan Vincenz, managing director of operations risk for United Airlines Inc., which has implemented COVID-19 safety precautions for workers as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced them. 

“As every recommendation has rolled out we implemented it,” she said. 

Most COVID-19 presumption laws are rebuttable, meaning if an employer can prove the worker was infected elsewhere it can deny the claim. Under some state laws if an employer is taking all safety precautions the claim is rebuttable, Ms. Vincenz said, adding that this “intent” — ensuring employers take safety precautions seriously — is understandable. 

Ms. Vincenz said it’s the things employers can’t control that make her “uncomfortable with the presumptions.” She noted that living environments or off-duty activities can expose someone to COVID-19 and that “sometimes it’s safer” for an employee to be at work because of the safety measures in place. 

“We are doing everything we can. … We can’t control the home environment. That’s where I don’t think presumptions are meeting the intent,” she said. “Similar to flu, it’s hard to tell where you got it.”

The trend toward presumptions could change the dynamic within  workers compensation, Ms. Vincenz said. 

“It is always dangerous to use a broad brush; it is all about the details” of an injury, she said. “We need to be ready to investigate each (claim) and make sure that you are deciding on the merits. … That’s what I think presumptions are in danger of taking away.”