Over the last decade, third-party litigation funding (TPLF) has evolved into a $17 billion industry worldwide, and 52% of that money is being spent in the U.S., making TPLF a key contributor to social inflation, hiking up jury awards and claim settlements that may have a significant impact on insurance prices and coverage availability.

When faced with the promise of a new year, many people look ahead – leveraging lessons from the prior year to chart a path forward, overcome obstacles, and reach for a new goal. The best in the insurance industry often do the same thing as they examine market conditions and strive to meet client needs in an ever-evolving landscape.

Over the last few years, the rate of ransomware attacks and other cybercrimes have skyrocketed in both frequency and severity. As employees continue working from home due to the lingering pandemic, they create, access, and share more data remotely, causing the number of security blind spots to balloon and creating space for costly attacks.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) reports that there are around 1.3 million U.S. contractors with annual revenues of less than $5M. While virtually all are protecting their businesses with General Liability, Workers Compensation, and other insurance coverages, many have failed to consider purchasing professional/pollution liability insurance, even though both are not covered under a typical commercial general liability (CGL) policy.

Healthcare is a diverse industry, ranging from individual practitioners and home health nurses, to ambulatory care centers and integrated systems with revenues in the billions of dollars. The risks along that spectrum also vary widely, but the insurance marketplace for healthcare organizations has been almost uniformly tight. Several insurance companies that underwrote healthcare business for decades have withdrawn from some classes, citing high loss ratios. In their place, new sources of capacity have emerged. Historically, the presence of new entrants has signaled competition and a loosening of terms, conditions and rates. Unfortunately for insureds, that is not happening in the current marketplace. It's a challenging environment that requires retailers to approach the renewal process differently.