Research from NASA points to several factors that support climate change from rising sea levels to warming oceans and glacial retreats. The effects of climate change have a significant impact on the insurance industry, which generates considerable premium, expense, and losses based on insured catastrophes. As these events become more unpredictable and severe, the industry must adapt.

AAIS continues to evolve its offerings in the Inland Marine (IM) space, where it has long been an industry leader. Our most recent product update includes a Defective Design and Construction Coverage endorsement to go with a Builders’ Risk policy. This enhancement is a result of input and engagement by Members who were looking for something similar to the LEG 3 (London Engineering Group) endorsement. Its intent is to narrow a policy’s automatic exclusion, providing broader coverage for materials, workmanship, and faulty design during construction, making it easier for insureds to be made whole. The Defective Design and Construction Coverage endorsement is available for large and mid-size construction projects when traditionally, it was available only for large projects.

In July 2020, consulting firm McKinsey & Company put out a report detailing the talent transformation within the insurance industry. The topline message: Talent strategy is as important as business strategy.

A Fast-Moving Auto Industry Presents Challenges and Opportunities

The automotive industry transformation continues to have significant repercussions in the insurance industry. With improving sophistication in car technology, telematics, and consumer behaviors, insurance carriers face new and unprecedented challenges spanning the entire lifecycle of the policy from research to claims. Still, personal and commercial auto insurance remain the industry bellwether as the largest product lines accounting for more than $300 billion in annual premiums.

A distributed workforce, also known as telecommuting or remote work, occurs when a business has employees that work in different locations (e.g., their home, satellite offices, etc.). This is an idea that AAIS has embraced successfully for nine years before the COVID-19 pandemic. The long-held belief that collaboration can only happen in person in a single location is no longer the case.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) continue to be a concern in our society, and the issues it presents extend beyond the communities where we live to the places and industries where we work. In 2021, AAIS Director of Government Relations Lori Dreaver Munn presented at the Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals (AICP) Annual Conference on a more nuanced concern – improving DEI in insurance products.

The AAIS Pulse newsmagazine recently featured a discussion with experts from Munich Re, Berkley Re Solutions, and AAIS hosted by AAIS Vice President of Products John Kadous on the emerging risks affecting policyholders in the homeowners market. The focus was on the evolving threats around cyber, fire and flood and how they’re being impacted by climate change, technology and more.

The AAIS Pulse newsmagazine recently featured a discussion between Maryland Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Birrane and AAIS VP of Government, Legal and Compliance Robin Westcott. They covered a range of topics, from careers in insurance and climate change to National Association of Insurance Commissioner Working Groups, technology, insurtechs and much more.

The AAIS Pulse newsmagazine recently featured Robert Hartwig, Ph.D., CPCU, industry expert and insurance professor at University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business. He spoke with AAIS CEO Ed Kelly on a range of topics facing the industry including COVID-19, climate change, cyber risk, year-end financials, and much more.

In August, AAIS Views detailed the results of our hugely successful Proof of Concept (POC) for openIDL (Open Insurance Data Link) that proved the blockchain technology can dramatically improve the insurance regulatory reporting proves for insurers and regulators. We also saw that insurer information could be correlated with data from other sources to reveal deeper insights, and that data could be leveraged by regulators, while remaining private, secure and in full control of participating carriers