Beazley is a leading insurer of traditional professions, such as lawyers and architects and engineers, as well as other businesses that face growing professional liability exposures, such as software companies, consultants, media companies, and retailers. We provide our services principally through four integrated teams of underwriters and claims experts. In addition, we use our experience and expertise in these classes to reinsure other companies that focus on professional liability insurance.
Particularly in light of the recent global pandemic, we’ve seen the professional liability market harden over the past 18 months. Changes in insurers’ appetite, rate hikes and reduction in capacity based on multiple interconnected risk factors that emerged pre-COVID have been solidified by the additional PL risks that recession conditions- as we are currently seeing around the world- tend to trigger. This means we see no indication that conditions will soften in the near future.
The rise of remote working and proliferation of technology as a means to conduct business mean that data protection systems and privacy policies need to be reviewed and updated in order to manage risk.
Regarding the pandemic and the impact it will have on the Professional Liability space, the extent remains to be seen. There is a high probability that businesses who suffer losses during this period will attempt to recoup costs from affiliated professional service providers where possible and the aforementioned market conditions may harden further as insurers’ are obliged to tighten wordings and further enhance their proposal forms.