Published: November 2020

Who was Prepared for This?

AM Best Research & Commentary: COVID-19 Exposed Insurers’ ERM Shortcomings: AM Best also comments on the UK High Court’s ruling in the Financial Conduct Authority’s test case on business interruption insurance.

AM Best TV & Audio: Captives Continue to Draw More New Business: A hardening market is driving an increased interest in captives, reinsurance deals are becoming harder to complete, and enrollment growth is driving U.S. Medicare Advantage earnings. ^AMBestTV and ^AMBestAudio report on stories from a number of sectors within the insurance industry.

AM Best Webinars: Rising Cost of Claims, Catastrophe Modeling, Pandemic and the P/C Market: Experts examine social inflation and the types of claims affected, the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. P/C market, AM Best’s COVID-19 stress test and technical advances of U.S. peril models.

At Large: Compare and Contrast: While similar in impact, COVID-19 and 9/11 differ significantly in terms of losses and reserve deficiency.

Best's Rankings: Top 50 Workers' Compensation Insurers: Ranked by 2019 direct premiums written.

Best's Rankings: Top Homeowners Insurers: Ranked by 2019 direct premiums written.

Best's Rankings: U.S. Property/Casualty - 2019 Asset Distribution: Ranked by 2019 total admitted assets.

Books: Coping With Disruption: In their new paperback edition of Mastering Catastrophic Risk; How Companies Are Coping With Disruption, the authors suggest several courses of action for decision-makers as they face the current pandemic.

Civil Unrest: Who Was Prepared for This?: With civil unrest on the rise globally, insurers are rethinking how they underwrite risks of riots and civil commotion and looking closely at aggregation risk. Record losses this year in the U.S. and last year in Chile illustrate the growing severity of events.

Corporate Changes: State Actions, Name Changes, New Companies, Acquisitions and Ownership Changes: Time, Empire and Spinnaker insurance companies are among the life/health and property/casualty insurers in the United States that have had a merger, a change in name or another corporate change.

Executive Changes: Megan Thomas Is New CEO of Hamilton Re: Bermuda Monetary Authority names director, Marsh executive named president of Guy Carpenter, and Lockton names chief financial officer and chief people officer.

From the Editor's Desk: Season of Discontent: Riots that erupted across the country after the death of George Floyd raise new questions and concerns for underwriters. Best’s Review also looks at workers’ comp presumption rules and coverage for COVID claims.

In the News: IUA: Brexit Bites Into London Market Premium Income: Reorganization and the impending loss of financial services passporting rules has meant that a large amount of business written in Europe is no longer overseen and managed in London.

In the News: Regulatory Update: NY acts on life insurance denials over Naloxone; Texas Insurance Department approves stamping fee reduction and SC governor signs flood law.

In the News: Report, Survey Lay Out Impact Of COVID-19’s Disruptions : The World Economic Forum’s survey and Lloyd’s report focus on global systemic risk concerns.

Insurance Marketing: Teaming Up: The Aflac Duck teams up with a legendary football coach to help Americans facing out-of-pocket medical bills, and Progressive rides into a new national motorcycle racing championship sponsorship.

Insurtechs: Mixed Results: Health insurtechs posted varied outcomes in the first half amid rising premiums and fundraising.

Life Insurance: To Buy or to Sell?: Mergers and acquisitions pick back up in a life insurance space that saw the beginning of 2020 marked by the uncertainty of the COVID-19 economic shock.

Next Wave: Rooting Out Inequities: Taking a stand on social issues and removing bias from processes will help insurers attract young talent.

Property/Casualty Reserves: Effective Governance: Property/casualty reserving is one of the top considerations for boards and audit committees, but often technical complexity prevents enough depth of understanding and inhibits effective oversight. Senior and seasoned reserving professionals offer a “how-to guide” for directors.

Technology: Mission Critical: The structured settlement industry is ripe for digital disruption.

Technology: Security Blanket: Defending technology systems against cyberattacks requires comprehensive risk management and insurance coverage.

The Last Word: All in the Family: Pet insurance observers say able ‘parents’ drive five-year, annual 22.1% growth rate.

What AM Best Says: A Crop of Problems: AM Best: Storms, floods, fires drive up losses for U.S. crop insurers.

Workers' Compensation: On the Front Line: Presumption rules for essential workers and front-line employees with COVID-19 in some states shift the burden of proof to employers, but are they also driving up workers’ compensation claims and costs?