AM Best


A.M. BestTV at RIMS: Most Effective Catastrophe Work Occurs Pre-Storm, Say Insurance Leaders


CONTACTS:

Lee McDonald
Group Vice President, Publication and News Services
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5561
lee.mcdonald@ambest.com


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OLDWICK - APRIL 19, 2018 11:07 AM (EDT)
In this A.M.BestTV episode at the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc.’s (RIMS) conference in San Antonio, TX, a panel of property/casualty leaders said the series of catastrophe losses in 2017 highlight the need to invest in loss prevention, better engineering and clear explanations of deductibles. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=rims4418 to view the entire program.

Swiss Re estimates $144 billion in natural catastrophe insured losses for the year 2017, the highest ever.

“An element of surprise was the sheer magnitude of the events and the compressed timeframe in which these hurricanes took place,” said George Stratts, president/chief executive officer, Lexington Insurance Company. “All of these catastrophes really taxed the infrastructure of the insurance industry. … From an underwriting perspective, some lessons learned were some of the lessons that, unfortunately, you learn again and again.”

Bret Ahnell, executive vice president, staff operations, FM Global highlighted the need for pre-emergency or business continuity planning.

“The catastrophes also really emphasized the importance of pre-loss planning from a loss prevention perspective. People need to know what to do. Going though that and having some type of a procedure to go through so you’re not doing it for the very first time hours before the storm hits is really important.”

Other people that appear in this episode:


  • Devin McGoldrick, chief broking officer, Aon; and

  • Tom Varney, regional manager of Americas, Allianz Risk Consulting.

For full video coverage of RIMS, including exclusive executive interviews, visit http://www.ambest.tv/rims18 .

Recent episodes of A.M.BestTV include:


  • Data and Analytics Leaders Reveal Their Biggest Challenge: Show Me the ROI: At the RIMS conference, experts in risk-focused data and analytics said tools and availability are advancing rapidly, but their biggest hurdle remains converting data into useful, actionable information: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=rims3418 .

  • As Insurers’ Range of Competitors Widens, Leaders Say Scaling Up Matters: At the RIMS conference, a panel of property/casualty and reinsurance leaders said the industry may be in for additional mergers and acquisitions as insurers respond to escalating customer needs and new forms of competition, including from capital markets: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=rims1418 .

  • No Company Will Ever be Done With Enterprise Risk Management, Says A.M. Best Managing Director: Jim Gillard, managing director, criteria, research and analytics, A.M. Best, talks about how enterprise risk management is evolving for insurers and how that affects insurers’ financial strength: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=rimswalkup418 .

A.M.BestTV covers exclusive A.M. Best information and reports, targeted topics and key developments in the (re)insurance industry every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Sign up for alerts of episodes at http://www.ambest.com/multimedia/ambtvsignup.html . View A.M.BestTV episodes at http://www.ambest.tv.

A.M. Best is the world’s oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source.