As we count down the final days of 2021, we remain wholly committed to making all our Members successful by sharing the latest news and information impacting your business to deliver a modern advisory experience second to none. That is the theme of the 2021 installment of our eMagazine, AAIS Viewpoint, which is now available.

Severe weather, especially wildfire and flood, is increasing across the United States. This is exacerbated by climate change with no reduction in sight. At the same time, cyber criminals, not limited by geography, can invade our homes and businesses from anywhere in the world. Insurers facing this triple threat to homeowners are keenly aware of the trends:

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.

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.

Risk Management Service Inc. (RMS) estimates $25 billion to $35 billion in onshore and offshore insured losses in the Gulf of Mexico alone were caused by Hurricane Ida. This doesn’t include the damage to other parts of the country. While the fundamentals of hurricanes are widely understood these days, there remain several important nuances to hurricane losses that are essential to understand for insurers, regulators, and the general public alike. Here we will look at one less understood type of claim from hurricanes – slab claims.

In this edition of CEO Angles, AAIS President and CEO Ed Kelly speaks with Keith Wolfe, President of US Property & Casualty at Swiss Re and an AAIS board member, about lessons learned during the pandemic, the increasing value of data, the need to start looking at climate change, the troubling cyber risk trend, and the hot topic of social inflation.

While the U.S. economy slowly returns to normal following the COVID-19 pandemic, the insurance industry continues to grapple with business interruption claims, court battles and the future of pandemic-related insurance. In Part II of our two-part Advisory Report, Nicole Milos, Assistant Counsel at AAIS, explains the systemic risk global pandemics pose to the insurance industry and how we’re leveraging data gathered during the pandemic to meet customer demand for future pandemic-type coverage.