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Industry Awards & Events, Industry Financials, Insurance Industry, Insurers and the Economy

JIF 2022: Combined Ratio Takes Center Stage

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Photo credit: Don Pollard

By Max Dorfman, Research Writer, Triple-I

Insurers are expected to post an underwriting loss in 2022, following four years of modest underwriting profits, according to a panel at the Triple-I’s Joint Industry Forum.

The panel was introduced by Paul Lavelle, head of U.S. national accounts for Zurich North America, who noted that the insurance landscape has dramatically changed over the past year.

“The biggest concerns for the world economy are rapid inflation, debt crisis, and the cost of living,” Lavelle said in his opening remarks. “I think that’s why, we as an industry, need to pull this together, and deal with all the variables.”

The panel consisted of Dr. Michel Léonard, Triple-I chief economist and data scientist; Dale Porfilio, Triple-I chief insurance officer; and Jason Kurtz, principal and consulting actuary for actuarial consultant Milliman Inc.

“Inflation overall has gone up and replacement costs have come down,” Léonard said in his initial remarks. “Growth has been challenging because of federal reserve policy that has brought the economy to a halt. Most growth has been disappearing in homeowners, a bit on the commercial real estate side, and on the auto side.”

Porfilio said the rise in loss trends across the insurance industry reveals an underwriting loss, with a projected combined ratio of approximately 105 in 2022. The combined ratio represents the difference between claims and expenses paid and premiums collected by insurers. A combined ratio below 100 represents an underwriting profit, and a ratio above 100 represents a loss.

The 2022 underwriting loss comes after a small underwriting profit from 2018 through 2021, at 99. However, underwriting results are expected to improve as the industry moves forward.

“The results don’t look like the prior years,” Porfilio said. “The core underwriting fundamentals are concerning. However, after a poor result in 2022, we do expect some improvement in 2023 and 2024.”

Still, commercial lines remain relatively successful.

“In the aggregate, commercial lines are relatively outperforming personal lines,” said Kurtz. “That was the case in 2021 and we expect that to be the case in 2022 and through our forecast period of 2024.”

This includes workers compensation, which is closing in on eight years of underwriting profits, according to Kurtz.

On the personal auto line, gains from 2020 have been changed to the biggest losses in two decades.

“Personal auto is very sensitive to supply and demand,” Léonard said. “In the last 24 months, there’s been a historic swing in prices, and particularly the used auto side. It’s all about supply and demand. Those prices increased 30 to 40 percent year-over-year. Recently, though, prices have come down a bit.”

“The industry lived through high profitability in 2020 due to less drivers,” Porfilio added. “Fourteen billion was returned to customers that year.”

However, due to increased driving and reckless driving, the loss ratios have gone up.

The combined ratio in 2021 stood at 101, and in excess of 108 in 2022, according to Porfilio. Still, loss trends are expected to return to normal in 2023 and 2024.

Interest rates have also affected homeowners lines.

“The federal policies have been punishing growth,” Léonard said.

“Underlying loss pressure and Hurricane Ian have created challenging results,” Porfilio added.

However, the hard market has caused growth of 10 percent in 2022, partially due to exposure agreements, as well as rate increases.

The combined ratio for 2022 is expected to be around 115, dropping to approximately 106 in 2023, before an expected decrease to around 104 percent in 2024.

On the commercial auto side, the panelists predict an underwriting profit with a combined ratio of 99 in 2021, but there was a four-point loss in 2022. This is expected to improve in 2023, with a forecast ratio of 102, and 101 in 2024.

On the commercial property lines, the markets are facing shortages of steel, glass, and copper, according to Leonard, with labor challenges contributing to low-to-mid-double-digit percentage time increases to some tasks.

“One of the most important factors in this is labor. It’s very unlikely that labor will go back to where it was,” Léonard said. “We’ve estimated that it will take 30 percent longer for repairs, rebuild, and construction, and five percent in terms of cost.”

However, Kurtz said that the net combined ratio for commercial property markets is projected to be approximately 99.1 in 2022, a small underwriting profit in spite of losses tied to Hurricane Ian. For 2023, the combined ratio is expected to be roughly 94 and 92 in 2024.

“We are anticipating further rate increases and further premium growth,” Kurtz added.

Indeed, insurers continue to adapt to these new challenges. Although 2022 is predicted to result in small losses, the industry continues to evolve.

As Lavelle said in his introduction, “Insurance companies are no longer able just to assess the risk, collect the premium, and pay the loss. We’re being looked at to come up with answers.”

Cyber Risk, Industry Awards & Events, Insurance Industry

JIF 2022: Cyber Criminals Shift to Softer Targets And Reputation Threats

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Photo credit: Don Pollard

Cyber criminals continued to shift their tactics and adapt their techniques in 2022, according to experts speaking at the Triple-I Joint Industry Forum (JIF) last week.

“Ransomware as a business model” remains alive and well, said Michael Menapace, an insurance attorney with the law firm Wiggin and Dana LLP and a Triple-I Non-resident Scholar. What has changed in recent years is that “where the bad actors would encrypt your systems and extract a ransom to give you back your data, now they will exfiltrate your data and threaten to go public with it.”

The types of targets also have changed, Menapace said, with an increased focus on “softer targets – in particular, municipalities” that often don’t have the personnel or finances to maintain the same cyber hygiene as large corporate entities.

Theresa Le, Chief Claims Officer for Cowbell Cyber, concurred with Menapace’s assessment, noting an increased tendency of cyber criminals to contact organizations’ customers or leaders as “a pressure point” for the organization to pay the ransom in order to avoid reputational harm.  

“Threat actors are focusing on the quality of the data that they can extract while they’re ‘in the house’,” Le said, “so it’s not just stealing Social Security numbers or other information they can sell on the Dark Web, as it was a few years ago. It’s really much more thoughtful and focused.”

Scott Shackelford, professor of Business Law and Ethics at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, reinforced Menapace’s and Le’s observations about the increased sophistication and adaptability of cyber criminals by talking about state-sponsored incursions.

“It’s not just the North Koreas of the world,” he said, adding that “a growing cadre of nation-states” are launching attacks “not just on large corporations but increasingly small and medium-sized businesses, even local governments.”

“We founded a cyber security clinic two years ago,” Schackelford said, “and the number one request we get from local government and small utilities has to do with insurance coverage. There’s a lot of need out there for better information.”

Shackelford emphasized the continuing evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) as an “attack surface.” In the new pandemic-driven work-from-home environment, he said, “What counts as a covered computer device for some of these policies has led to litigation and remains a big vulnerability that we’ve only just begun to wrap our minds around.”

The conversation, moderated by Frank Tomasello, executive director for The Institutes Griffith Insurance Education Foundation, ranged across topics that included:

  • Deep-fake technology;
  • The importance aligning insurance pricing with the risk – and educating policyholders on how to get a better price by becoming a better risk;
  • How threats differ for different-sized organizations and for individuals; and
  • The need for better data and information sharing around cyberattacks and trends.

Learn More:

Triple-I “State of Cyber Risk” Issues Brief

Industry Awards & Events, Insurance Industry

JIF 2022: Leaning Forward into a Changed World

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By Deena Snell, Director of Research Operations & Membership, Triple-I

Insurance industry decision makers and thought leaders gathered yesterday for the day-long Triple-I Joint Industry Forum (JIF) in New York City to discuss opportunities and challenges across the insurance landscape.

“The world is getting more risky,” Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan said in his opening remarks, “and when the world gets more risky people want answers and solutions.”

A recurring theme throughout the event – which featured panels on climate and cyber risk; legal system abuse; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and the impact of current economic conditions on insurers and policyholders – was the importance of moving from a focus on assessing and repairing damage to one of predicting and preventing losses and promoting policyholder resilience.

Kevelighan and State Farm CEO Michael Tipsord had a one-on-one conversation about how the events of recent years – from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent supply-chain disruptions to international conflict and inflation levels not seen since the 1970s – have contributed to shifting customer and employee behavior and expectations.

Watch this space next week for blogs featuring the panel discussions.

Insurance Industry

Insurance Is Human

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Almost a year ago, I felt impelled to bust the cliché that insurance is boring. In that blog post, I called out the idea that any industry that touches every imaginable peril individuals, families, businesses, and communities face could reasonably be considered dull.

Today – as I dig back into work after spending two days at the Society of Insurance Research (SIR) annual conference in Las Vegas – I feel similarly impelled to take on a different myth: That, because of its focus on statistical analysis and the dollars-and-cents aspects of risk, the insurance industry is out of touch with day-to-day human concerns.

I get it. I’m no one’s quant. Until becoming immersed in this big-numbers industry, I probably shared this perspective. I might even slip back into it from time to time, when the conversations become a bit too actuarial for my all-too-verbal nature.

In his opening remarks, Mike Meyers, SIR president and lead competitive analyst at USAA, used a phrase that the cynic in me thought a bit hokey. He referred to the conference – the first major in-person event for SIR since the pandemic – as a “family reunion.” As the event proceeded, though, it really did feel that way. This was my first in-person SIR event, but it quickly became clear that wasn’t the case for most of the attendees.  The warmth and familiarity among the 200-plus participants was palpable.

Now, this was a gathering of insurance industry researchers, so, of course, there was going to be a lot of “numbers talk” and discussion about “leveraging technology to improve loss experience,” and so forth. But the human dimension was never far from any of the panels or one-on-one conversations. Whether the topic was online life and health insurance shopping; the challenges of researching diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in insurance; or how COVID-19 has affected the risk profiles of small businesses, nothing was abstract or soulless about these conversations.

Two bits that particularly struck me:

  • In a discussion of automobile safety data, a correlation was drawn between driving-safety and fuel-consumption stats. It was just one chart underscoring the fact that safer drivers use less fuel, which, in turn, has a positive impact on the environment. It’s not a big jump from there to the fact that automobile telematics technology – which helps insurers more accurately price coverage and creates financial incentives to drive more safely – also helps reduce emissions. Who doesn’t want to save money AND the planet?
  • If you’ve ever had to replace an entire ceiling (I have!) because of a long, slow, undetected leak upstairs, the presentation on smart plumbing would have excited you as much as it did me. More inspiring, though, was the win-win strategy implemented by the insurer, which provides the easy-to-use technology to the policyholder for free and pays for a plumbing inspection if the diagnostic app flags a possible leak. Future big claim deterred for the insurer, massive headaches prevented for the homeowner!

I may not be an actuary or a data scientist or an economist – or possess any of the extraordinary quantitative skills insurance is known for – but I’m glad the industry marshals and rigorously applies these resources to such homey challenges, at scale.

Insurance Industry

CISA releases long-awaited plan for national cyber resilience

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The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in September released its 2023-2025 Strategic Plan, a response to the increasing vulnerability of U.S. infrastructure to cyberattacks. 

Key Takeaways

  • The plan proposes a framework for defining and managing the federal government’s role in mitigating cyber threats to national security. 
  • CISA aims to foster a cross-agency and “whole-of-nation” approach to risk management and resilience.  
  •  Implementation and outcomes can have implications for cyber insurance markets. 
  •  Two federal engagement requests have been issued to get feedback on creating a regulatory path forward. 

Cyber resilience in the current digital ecosystem requires a new mindset.

CISA’s plan arrives in a rapidly transforming threat landscape in which the cybersecurity mindset is duly shifting from “Are we vulnerable to attack?” to “When a breach happens, how can we spot it, contain the damage, and recover as fast as possible?”  

Businesses across all sectors have seen a rise in the frequency of breaches. Hackers are using sophisticated tactics to expand the reach of ransomware to third or fourth parties, such as supply-chain partners. Estimates of organizations attacked in the last year range from 60 percent to as high as 86 percent, probably because dormant ransomware can remain undetected for a while and many organizations are hesitant to publicize or div incidents. 

Organizations involved in critical infrastructure–such as the military, hospitals, financial institutions, and the supply chains providers–can be enticing targets for bad actors. The 2021 Internet Crime Report from the FBI reveals at least one organization in 14 of 16 critical infrastructure sectors experienced a ransomware attack that year. Data indicates that cyberattacks against US ports and terminals are increasing. 

In response to the rising threats, CISA Director Jen Easterly announced earlier this year, “We live at a time when every government, every business, every person must focus on the threat of ransomware and take action to mitigate the risk of becoming a victim.”  

The “whole of nation” strategy – the agency’s first plan since its creation in 2018 – proposes a unity of effort framework, while drawing upon the CISA Strategic Intent from August 2019, to lay a foundation for the agency’s work ahead and incorporate four core goals:  

  • “Cyber defense against threats to National Critical Functions;  
  • Risk reduction and resilience; 
  • Operational collaboration using a “whole-of-nation” approach; and 
  • Agency unification.” 

Loss ratios for cyber insurance are down, but challenges are still mounting. 

Cost-effectiveness remains elusive, despite the growing demand for cyber risk coverage. Data from S&P Global indicates that after three years of steady climb, loss ratios decreased from 75% in 2020 to 65% in 2021. However, contributing factors continue to wreak havoc, including increased frequency and severity of cyber-attacks, rising associated breach costs and liabilities, and the lack of historical incident data necessary to assess and price risk. As liability coverage for critical infrastructure sectors poses further challenges to risk mitigation, some insurers opt out of providing coverage to these entities. 

To build a foundation for risk assessment, CISA aims to create a regulatory path for the data collection mandate of the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (CIRCIA). The legislation prescribes reporting of major cybersecurity incidents (within 72 hours) and ransomware payments (within 24 hours of payment). However, not every organization in a critical sector will automatically be required to report, and a formal enforcement framework for those expected to comply appears to be yet undefined.  

CISA and FIO solicits feedback on forging a path towards national cyber resilience. 

To foster collaboration between the government and private sectors while facilitating the implementation of CIRCIA, CISA recently issued a Request for Information. The list of reporting parameters up for public commentary includes how organizations may be defined as a “covered entity” (thus required to report incidents) and constraints and best practices around sharing of incident information.  

Another example of the cross-agency and “whole-of-nation” effort outlined in CISA’s plan can be seen in a request for comment recently issued by the Department of the Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO). This public engagement sprang from a June 2022 GAO report recommendation. The FIO is asking for feedback on “the extent to which risks to critical infrastructure from catastrophic cyber incidents and potential financial exposures warrant a federal insurance response.” The agency welcomes information on gaps in other federal cyber risk initiatives, such as the SEC’s proposed cyber incident reporting rules, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (TRIP), and the CISA’s cyber incident reporting RFI. 

Triple-I remains committed to advancing Cyber Awareness and supporting conversation about pertinent insurance trends and issues. For further reading, see our Issues Brief and stay tuned to our blog. 

Insurance Industry

Thousands of Claims Experts Headed to Florida

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Rohit Verma, Chief Executive Officer, Crawford & Company

By Rohit Verma, Chief Executive Officer, Crawford & Company

Hurricane Ian inflicted more damage in Florida and the Carolinas than last year’s Hurricane Ida did in Louisiana, in terms of the number of buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure affected. It is the main reason Ian’s insured losses are likely to exceed Ida’s $36 billion.

Ian’s flood-damage claims are expected to exceed claims for Ian-caused wind damage as a percentage of this $40 billion to $60 billion event, even though only about 18 percent of Florida homes carried flood insurance. Crawford & Company anticipates we will be handling a significant percentage of these flood claims. Dealing with both insured and uninsured losses is going to be especially challenging.

As routes are cleared to the communities of Fort Myers and Florida’s southwest coast, Crawford continues to evaluate the impact of the hurricane and to assist with the recovery. In our fastest ever ramp-up, thousands of Crawford’s adjusters are already deployed – our largest deployment in history at such an early stage – and we expect this number to increase in coming weeks.

This adjuster engagement is spread across our U.S. CAT team: managed repair network Contractor Connection, our loss-adjusting business; Crawford’s on-demand inspection service WeGoLook; and edjuster, the technology-driven field and desktop contents claims handling solutions provider Crawford acquired in August 2021.

Crawford Global Technical Services also is engaged with several clients who are still assessing the damage from Hurricane Ian, and we expect the volume of commercial claims to rise as they get reported.  Moreover, Crawford has fully operational support rooms in Gainesville, Tampa, Sunrise and Orlando, Florida.

Access remains challenging during the early stages of the response due to damaged infrastructure, but we have prioritized emergency mitigation services, board-up activities, and tree removal to help mitigate further damage and return homes and commercial buildings to a usable condition as quickly as possible.

As we get further into the restoration process, claims inflation and supply chain issues are likely to impact the industry’s response to Hurricane Ian. There will be intense demand for building materials.

Our immediate focus now is to help those who experienced devastating losses and restore lives, businesses, and communities affected by the hurricane.

Insurance Industry

Report: Traditional Reinsurance Capital Declining

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Report: Traditional Reinsurance Capital Declining

By Max Dorfman, Research Writer, Triple-I

A recent AM Best report finds that traditional reinsurance capital will decrease by approximately $40 billion by the end of 2022, lowering the total to $435 billion. This 8.4 percent decline comes after substantial increases of 15.5 percent for 2019, 8.9 percent for 2020, and 10.7 percent in 2021. The figure incorporates the upturn of the underwriting market and the downturn of the capital and investment markets, with continued geopolitical unrest and the possible decline in global GDP also considered. 

“With interest rates on the rise and equity markets declining, we do anticipate a rather substantial mark-to-market loss in traditional reinsurance capital levels,” said Dan Hofmeister, Senior Financial Analyst at AM Best. Reinsurance capital, working in the opposite direction, has been boosted by underwriting results in spite of heightened catastrophe loss activity in the first half of the year, he said.

Additionally, the report includes a 10-year record of third-party reinsurance capital levels and a prediction that overall third-party capital will remain stable at approximately $95 billion for 2022 compared to $94 billion in 2021.

With traditional and third-party capital together, the report predicts a 6.7 percent decrease in reinsurance capital from both sources, which would constitute the first decline in a decade, as recorded by AM Best.

Florida is emblematic of these struggles

Declines in the U.S. equity market have created capital supply challenges for some insurance-linked securities funds. However, the AM Best report stated that the pullback of traditional reinsurance in catastrophe-exposed markets like Florida could create opportunities for Insurance-Linked Security (ILS) funds. The report states that ILS funds can take advantage of significant price increases and tighter terms and conditions, if traditional capacity is restricted.

Still, Florida continues to be a hotspot for property/casualty losses, with the Triple-I finding that the state’s insurance marketplace has been beset by severe levels of fraud and litigation, driving the homeowner’s insurance market’s crisis in the state. The analysis concluded that the annual cost of an average Florida homeowners insurance policy could increase to $4,231 in 2022.

Reinsurance capital then provides a significant proportion of these costs that are directed to attorney fees and adjusting firms. Additionally, fraud related to roof replacement claims and other construction related matters continue to increase the reinsurance bill in Florida.

“Floridians pay the highest homeowners insurance premiums in the nation for reasons having little to do with their exposure to hurricanes,” said Sean Kevelighan, CEO of Triple-I.

With the threat of decreased capital for reinsurers and the markets in places like Florida experiencing turmoil, reinsurers are actively reviewing their strategy.

Corporate Social Responsibility, Insurance Industry

Insurers Step Upto Bring Reliefto Ukraine Refugees

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As more people — urgently in need of humanitarian support — flee Ukraine daily, funding continues to grow within the insurance industry.  

The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), a nonprofit dedicated to helping communities and enriching lives, has opened a humanitarian relief fund to help refugees in response to the crisis in Ukraine.

“The insurance industry has a longstanding legacy of philanthropic giving, locally and globally, in times of acute need. Throughout the pandemic – and now, as we raise funds in support of Ukrainian refugees – our industry strives to respond quickly and with impact,” said Hank Watkins, regional director and president of Lloyd’s, Americas and chair of the IICF International Board of Governors. “As an industry founded with the purpose of facilitating progress and responding during times of need, we appreciate the opportunity IICF provides for collaborating on philanthropic and volunteering initiatives, enabling us to continue sharing the very best of our industry with the world.”

Betsy Myatt, vice president and chief program officer, executive director of the IICF’s Northeast Division, noted that the organization “stands with the world and our industry in calling for peace in Ukraine.

With humanitarian efforts underway to address the needs of millions of refugees fleeing the violence – mostly women, children, and the elderly – IICF will join with our industry and many other companies and individuals throughout the world in this support through the IICF: Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief Fund.”

“Proceeds will benefit BeHumanKindness, CARE (Ukrainian Crisis Fund), Red Cross and Save the Children (Children’s Emergency Fund),” she said. “These nonprofit organizations are delivering immediate assistance in the region to the women, children, and families made refugees by the war. “

Insurers and foundations have already contributed millions of dollars toward Ukraine emergency response. The private sector is demonstrating its generosity and solidarity through direct contributions, while also launching creative initiatives to help engage stakeholders, such as employee match funding.

The Allstate Foundation, for example, created a $1 million dedicated Ukrainian Relief Fund that will support the American Red Cross, Razom, UNICEF and World Central Kitchen. Employee donations to the fund will receive a 100 percent match. “Allstate stands with the people of Ukraine and against Russia’s morally reprehensible attacks,” their statement read. “We set up a $1 million Ukrainian Relief fund and are matching employee donations as we support freedom, civility, and compassion for victims of this war.”

Allianz SE announced that it would make available 10 million euros to support humanitarian efforts along with up to 2.5 million euros to match employee donations. RLI Insurance Co. is matching its employees’ donations to the IICF: Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief Fund.

The American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation and companies of American Family Insurance group have made a collective commitment of $50,000 for Ukrainian humanitarian aid.  The Dreams Foundation is donating $10,000 to UNICEF CONNECT, and The General are providing $10,000 each to the International Committee of the Red Cross; Homesite is donating $10,000 to Save the Children; and Main Street America is pledging $10,000 to CARE Ukraine Crisis Fund.

AXA has taken several initiatives to support the humanitarian crisis triggered by the war, with a donation of 6 million euros to NGOs working in Ukraine and the neighboring countries to support civil populations and refugees.  AXA’s global philanthropic employee volunteering initiative, AXA Hearts in Action, initiated multiple local projects that will be supported by a group donation.

The Hartford signals solidarity by lighting their tower in the colors of the Ukraine flag.

The Hartford is matching employee donations to the US Association for UNHR, UNICEF and International Medical Corps at 100 percent. Lloyd’s has donated to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal to support humanitarian relief efforts in the region. 

Munich Re said it is contributing to alleviate the hardship of the hundreds of thousands of war refugees. “As people are now primarily fleeing the battle zone via the Polish border, Munich Re is currently concentrating its aid on this region.”

Zurich Insurance Group CEO Mario Greco said, “Zurich is strongly committed to helping alleviate suffering in Ukraine. To that end, the Z Zurich Foundation announced a major fundraising effort to mobilize support across our businesses globally for humanitarian relief efforts. The safety and well-being of people across the region are a key concern in these sad times.”

Insurance Industry

Study: Insurers Suspect Rise in Fraudulent Claims Since Start of Pandemic

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By Max Dorfman, Research Writer

Insurance professionals’ suspicions about fraudulent claims have increased during the pandemic as fraudsters have become more creative, according to a recent survey.

The survey by FRISS, a provider of fraud and risk detection solutions for property/casualty insurers, found that its 420 respondents in 2022 believe 20 percent of claims filed might contain fraud. That’s up from 18 percent in 2020.

“Innovation and digitization are disrupting the insurance industry in good ways, setting a new norm that’s enabling the industry to be even more responsive to customers’ needs,” said Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan in an introduction to the report. “Unfortunately, the acceleration of digital processes that began well before the pandemic also provides opportunities for fraud.”

In 2022, the top challenge reported by respondents was “Keeping up with fraudsters’ modus operandi” – a change from both the 2020 and 2018 surveys, in which “Internal data quality” was deemed the biggest challenge.

Insurance fraud costs U.S. consumers at least $80 billion every year, according to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. The FBI says the cost of non-health insurance fraud hovers at about $40 billion a year.  As a result, the average U.S. family incurs between $400 and $700 per year in losses due to increased premiums.

Respondents to the survey say fraud detection software has proven to be generally effective. This includes improving loss ratio (59 percent), staying ahead of developing fraud schemes (53 percent), and increasing investigator efficiency (52 percent).

Business Insurance, Business Risk, Insurance Industry, Workers Compensation

Pandemic Fuels Growth in Captive Insurance

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By Max Dorfman, Research Writer

The coronavirus pandemic and the financial challenges it presents have fueled growth in captive insurance – a form of self-insurance in which one or more entities establish their own insurance company. They also may insure the risks of organizations other than their major owners. 

“Wholly owned” captives are set up by large corporations to finance or administer their risk financing needs. If such a captive insures only the risks of its parent or subsidiaries, it is called a “pure” captive.  Multiple companies may also form a “group captive.”

Captive formations nearly doubled in 2020, according to a recent survey by Marsh. The global insurance broker and risk advisor’s survey of more than 1,300 captives also shows that gross written premiums in this area grew from $54 billion in 2019 to nearly $61 billion in 2020.

 In January 2022, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) board of governors unanimously approved a $175 million fund to create a captive for event cancellation. With insurers unable to cover risks related to the coronavirus pandemic – which falls under the umbrella of communicable diseases policies – because of the potential for unsustainable costs, the captive structure has become a more popular method to protect from losses.

The NCAA formed its captive after the 2020 NCAA basketball tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19, resulting in a $270 million payout – or about 40 percent of what the 1,200 participating schools would have earned for the tournament. In 2021, the NCAA limited the number of fans at the tournament, with the organization’s coverage allowing it to pay the total $613 million to members last year. However, their coverage for 2022 had expired, and communicable disease coverage was now difficult to find.

“When the NCAA looked to renew coverage for the 2022 tournament, a lot of it was going to look similar,” said John Beam, a broker for Willis Towers Watson, “but there is not coverage for communicable disease right now.”

The sports and entertainment industry experienced losses between $6 billion and $10 billion as the coronavirus pandemic raged on, with premiums in event insurance increasing between 25 percent and 50 percent. For many organizations, captive insurance provides a viable alternative for these risks.

Workers’ comp and captives

The coronavirus pandemic has also affected captive owners in the workers’ compensation field. Indeed, the pandemic, alongside the ensuing “Great Resignation,” during which employers have struggled to retain staff, has made many captive owners potentially more willing to pay workers’ comp claims, according to a panel at the recently held Captive Insurance Companies Association international conference.

Amy O’Brien, vice president of third-party administer sales at Gallagher Bassett Services Inc., a claims service provider, said the initial phases of the pandemic saw many insurers denying COVID-19-related claims. Claims asserting exposure at work were difficult to prove, and many captives questioned if the claims were associated with claimants’ work. Additionally, there were possible regulatory changes that these captives were concerned about.

“With medical costs continuing to rise, the most significant dynamic in terms of any company controlling their workers’ compensation costs and claims is ensuring that there are adequate tools in place to help mitigate medical costs for claimants under their workers’ compensation,” said Dustin Partlow, senior vice president at Caitlin Morgan Insurance Services and an expert in captive insurance solutions.

“But with omicron and the Great Resignation, we’re seeing a change where employers are saying, ‘What can I do to get this person back to work sooner?’” Gallagher’s O’Brien said.

Approximately 90,000 claims were processed by Gallagher Bassett that covered a COVID-19 issue, with over 60 percent of cases closed without payment, frequently due to the fact that there were no related medical expenses, O’Brien said. But the 40 percent that did result in a payment averaged $4,000 per case.

“The employee is more valuable now – so they are being treated right. The employer is saying: ‘What can I do to keep this person?’,” O’Brien added.