Business News: Liberty Mutual, Lemonade, FM Global, QBE

Liberty Mutual Insurance launched two new excess casualty products: the Utility Follow Form Excess for the power and utility sectors, and the Integrated Occurrence Form for the large corporate sector. Both are available from Liberty Surplus Insurance Corp. on a surplus lines basis.

The Utility Follow Form Excess product for power generation and utility companies fits above lead excess casualty layers typically written by industry mutuals, providing critical excess coverage tailored to the specific needs of this sector. Liberty Surplus was able to build a comprehensive Follow Form solution by drawing on Liberty Mutual’s experience as a provider of primary property/casualty coverage to the power and utility sectors that understands the total risk exposures of this specialized industry, and how to effectively manage them.

The Integrated Occurrence Form allows a policyholder to aggregate like claims into a single “integrated occurrence” providing far greater flexibility in managing limits and coverage for the large liabilities often associated with long-tail claims.

Liberty Surplus is a surplus lines insurer that distributes its policies through licensed surplus lines brokers. Liberty Surplus is not licensed as an authorized insurer in any state. Surplus lines insurers do not generally participate in state guaranty funds, and insureds are not protected by such funds.

Lemonade, the world’s first peer to peer insurance company, announced it has been licensed as a full-stack insurance carrier by New York State. New York homeowners and renters can now get insured and settle claims instantly, anytime and from any device.

Lemonade treats premiums as the property of the insured, not the insurer, returning unclaimed money during its annual ‘Giveback’. Giveback is a unique feature of Lemonade, where each year leftover money (‘underwriting profit’) is donated on the customer’s behalf to a cause they choose. Cause-selection creates virtual groups of like-minded people, or ‘peers.’ Lemonade uses each group’s premiums to pay their claims, giving back leftover money to their common cause.

According to Daniel Schreiber, CEO and co-founder, “we architected Lemonade to avoid conflicts of interest. We take a flat 20 percent fee, and give unclaimed money to a cause of the policyholder’s choice. Since we don’t pocket unclaimed money, we can be trusted to pay claims fast and hassle-free. As for our customers, knowing fraud harms a cause they believe in, rather than an insurance company they don’t, brings out their better nature too.”

Lemonade is rated ‘A-Exceptional’ by Demotech, regulated by the State of NY, and is reinsured by Lloyd’s of London, Berkshire Hathaway (National Indemnity) and other leading companies.

FM Global, a commercial property insurer, announced the formation of integrated engineering and underwriting units dedicated to enhancing the company’s expertise in first-party cyber solutions for the benefit of its mutual policyholders.

Carmelina Borsellino, vice president and manager of cyber hazards, will lead the dedicated engineering unit. Her team will work with the company’s research and engineering units to develop location- and account-based assessment standards, tools and methodologies and to assist clients with cyber risk mitigation. Borsellino joined FM Global in 1986 as a field engineer in Montreal. She served in that role for more than 10 years before advancing to engineering field manager in 1997. In 2003, Borsellino was promoted to group manager, field engineering, a position she held until 2013 when she was named business process improvement (BPI) consultant.

Grace Ries, assistant vice president and manager of cyber risk insurance products, will lead a dedicated unit to develop an underwriting approach and coverage capabilities to meet clients’ needs for first-party cyber solutions. Prior to her current role, Ries was an account manager providing FM Global policyholders in the chemical industry with property insurance consulting and risk management support. She joined FM Global as a consultant engineer in San Francisco after graduating from the University of California, Davis.

QBE North America, an operating division of QBE Insurance Group Limited, announced its Commercial Insurance business has introduced a Manufacturing E&O endorsement to its Product Liability product offering.

The Manufacturing E&O endorsement is a Claims Made coverage form providing broad coverage on a simple rating basis. This endorsement closes a gap in the Commercial General Liability product by providing coverage when a manufacturing product fails due to a flaw in the design or manufacturing process and causes financial harm, even when there is no bodily injury or property damage. It includes a 60-day extended reporting period that can be increased to five years.