Webinar Recap: Risk Management 101 in 2021

Thank you to everyone who attended our recent webinar: “Concannon Webinar: Risk Management 101 in 2021”. 

Our President & CEO, Jim Concannon, led us through an engaging virtual discussion regarding macro trends, what a hardening market means, future trends and what it will mean for the consumer in 2021.

For those who missed it — or want to revisit some of the pearls of wisdom — please find a webinar recap and link to recording and slides below.

Macro Trends: The Market is Hardening 

In the insurance industry, a hard market is an upswing in a market cycle, when premiums increase and capacity for most types of insurance decreases. Capacity is the largest amount of insurance that a company or the market can write. 

What makes the market hard? Previously, higher interest rates yielded funds that would flow back into capital markets and benefit the insurance providers. The current lower interest rates drive more pressure on insurance providers to generate revenue to offset expenses which will lead to increased insurance premiums. 

On top of insurance rate fluctuations and rising provider expenses, there are other drivers that affect insurance premiums. 

• Natural Disasters:

  • California Wildfires 

  • Freezing temperatures and snow in the deep south

  • Hailstorms, tornados, and straight-line winds in the Midwest 

    • 2017 and 2018 were particularly bad years.

  • Hurricanes (we’ve gone through the alphabet -- and the Greek alphabet! -- in the hurricane names this past hurricane season)

• Uncertain political climate as well as social unrest (i.e. 2020 riots and looting) have a dramatic impact on premiums
  
  

• Pandemic (i.e. COVID-19)

  •  Will have a material effect on Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI), Directors & Officers (D&I), General Liability, and Property Insurance. 

Future Industry Trends

While Concannon is a longstanding firm with deep roots in the past, we keep our eye on future trends that will impact our clients.  

• Cyber Security 

  • Increasingly sophisticated ransomware and phishing emails and other cyber threats mean cybersecurity is a growing risk along with Cyber liability insurance. 

  • For example, the City of Baltimore was held for ransom via cyber attack

  • There will be more growth in this market and the product will keep evolving based on how the cybercriminals change their tactics. 

• Blockchain could create a distributed ledger that 

  • Fosters transparency, effectively tracks claims and transaction history and provides visibility into the legitimacy of a claim.

  • This technology will change dramatically the way consumers will purchase insurance, file a claim, and transact changes to the policy. 

• Self-Driving Cars

  • A future of driverless cars would greatly reduce the need for car insurance, reduce traffic fatalities up to 90%, reduce the number of accidents, reduce auto theft, and reduce the premium revenue from auto insurance. This would change many business models and industries. 

What Does All This Mean?

Forecasted Increases for 2021:

Directors & Officers Liability, Cyber Liability, Umbrella Liability, Auto Liability, and Property rates are forecasted to go up to double digits, except for workers compensation which will remain flat or maybe slightly decrease.

With these forecasted increasing premiums in almost every line of coverage, now is a good time to be proactive and begin the process of reviewing your risk tolerance & remarketing your insurance renewal 120 days before the effective date. 

Underwriters are scrutinizing insurance applications very carefully and doing onsite inspections. This will allow you enough time to complete the underwriting process, get approval for a quote and allow you to develop a narrative to present to the loss control represented.

For larger accounts in the catastrophe areas of the west, coastal regions, and the midwest:

• Your coverage might be a layered program with multiple providers to spread the risk for the underwriters which will take time so start early

• You may want to review and renew your commitment to a structured Loss Control program

If we can be of help to you or you know someone who you think could benefit from working with the Concannon Agency, please don’t hesitate to reach out.