The Insurer

📽 NEWS IN FOCUS: Protecdiv is launching FormLogic, an insurance application platform that collapses multicarrier PDF submissions into a single master form, is targeting a Series B fundraise to double its team and sees municipalities as disproportionate social inflation targets, co-founder and CEO Kael Coleman said. 📰 Watch the full interview from RIMS RISKWORLD 2026 in Philadelphia >> https://lnkd.in/gVSFKDPP 🏷 Protecdiv | T. Kael Coleman | James Thaler | The Insurer TV | Thomson Reuters 🔓 Only paying subscribers of The Insurer have access to News in Focus content. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3OmPl0N 🔍 HIGHLIGHTS: ✅ FormLogic collapses multicarrier PDF submissions into a single master form, cutting renewal cycle workload for public entity clients ✅ Municipal verdicts scaling from $50,000 to $250,000 and from $250,000 to $6 million as cities become disproportionate social inflation targets ✅ Active assailant, police liability and public E&O driving highest concern among local risk managers ahead of World Cup and US 250th anniversary ✅ Minority business enterprise certification remains a meaningful differentiator in public sector procurement ✅ Series B fundraise targets team doubling with headcount investment preceding the revenue it generates ✅ Protecdiv co-brokers with larger firms to bring technology capability and advisory perspective alongside major firm scale #publicentity #socialinflation #insurtech #Protecdiv #RIMS #TheInsurer

📽 NEWS IN FOCUS: An obscure 1960s California wiretap statute is being weaponized against small businesses fully compliant with the state's modern privacy law, forcing them to choose between expensive litigation and paying to make claims disappear, Coalition head of regulatory policy Sezaneh Seymour said. 📷 Watch the full interview from Coalition Activate, New York >> https://lnkd.in/efZ-FJVH 🏷 Coalition, Inc. | Sezaneh Seymour | James Thaler | The Insurer TV | Thomson Reuters 🔓 Only paying subscribers of The Insurer have access to News in Focus content. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3OmPl0N 🔎 Key takeaways: ✅ A 1960s California wiretap statute is being industrialized by plaintiffs' attorneys against small family-owned businesses, restaurants, plumbing shops and daycares that are fully compliant with the modern CCPA but exposed to a separate older law ✅ The practical choice for small businesses is between tens of thousands of dollars in legal defense or paying settlements that started at $5,000 and have climbed to $20,000 or more as the plaintiff bar has grown more sophisticated ✅ Coalition launched a wrongful collection endorsement at Activate to help cover businesses facing these claims ✅ Active California legislation could close the gap between the 1960s statute and modern internet tools but Seymour warns it only has a few months left to move and is not moving quickly enough ✅ Federal action is not coming in the near term, making state-level reform the only near-term path ✅ Nation states are openly discussing targeting private sector assets as fair game in geopolitical conflicts, with hacktivism rising alongside state-sponsored threat activity, and insurers playing a first-responder role connecting affected businesses with incident response and legal counsel #Coalition #CyberInsurance #PrivacyLaw #California #Wiretap #Regulation #TheInsurer #CoalitionActivate

💼 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝘁 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗗𝗼 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 Tuesday I'm moderating a fireside chat with Kelly Galanis, Partner at Goldman Sachs, at the Federato Insurance Leadership Summit in Midtown. Kelly spent the first half of her career in insurance before moving into fintech. She now covers banking software at Goldman. What banks learned the hard way, insurers don't have to repeat. The session is off the record. 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺. 𝗖-𝘀𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲. 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆. If you're going to be there, come find me. 📍 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮 | Lavan Midtown, New York 𝗛𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 Federato Apply: https://lnkd.in/eMWJ5XZd #Insurance #Insurtech #Fintech #GoldmanSachs #Federato #TheInsurer #Reuters

📽 NEWS IN FOCUS: Digital trading platforms are reducing cyber insurance to a price comparison just as the risks carriers face grow harder to model, Coalition head of cyber portfolio underwriting Michael Phillips warned. 📷 Watch the full interview from Coalition Activate, New York >> https://lnkd.in/eb_zQ2nN 🏷 Coalition, Inc. | Michael Phillips | James Thaler | The Insurer TV | Thomson Reuters 🔓 Only paying subscribers of The Insurer have access to News in Focus content. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3OmPl0N 🔎 Key takeaways: ✅ Third-party digital trading platforms are collapsing complex policy comparisons to price comparisons at the exact moment cyber risks are becoming harder to model, with Coalition building broker portal tools to keep policy structure in the conversation ✅ Business interruption remains the loudest broker complaint: too friction-filled, too slow, too unpredictable, with cash crunches hitting small businesses unable to pay employees and suppliers while a ransomware crisis is still live ✅ The Enhanced Business Recovery Suite includes a Cash Flow Lifeline for accelerated emergency payment and a Rapid Review mechanism with a neutral forensic accountant under an accelerated timeline ✅ A new key customer endorsement extends BI coverage to scenarios where a policyholder's named large client suffers a cyber event, directly addressing the Jaguar Land Rover-style supplier ripple effect ✅ Coalition only expands coverage where it has a genuine technology or underwriting edge, with privacy scanning tools already informing underwriting on wrongful collection risk driving the surge in ad tech demand letters ✅ AI liability gaps will be narrow and largely contained within existing cyber and tech products: if an AI drives a cybersecurity event it is a cyber claim, if it generates errors in a product it is a tech E&O claim ✅ The Claude Mythos vulnerability discovery drew attention across the industry but Phillips reads it as confirmation rather than disruption: the question is not how many vulnerabilities exist but which ones correlate to loss #Coalition #CyberInsurance #AIliability #BusinessInterruption #Underwriting #TheInsurer #CoalitionActivate

📰 EXCLUSIVE: Hub International's Specialty Program Group is selling Specialty Comp Insurance Solutions, its Dallas-based workers' compensation MGA, to ANV Group Holdings, the Blackstone-backed MGA platform spun out of AmTrust Financial Services last year, according to people familiar with the matter, with the transaction expected to close within the next week. 🟢 Read the full story >>> https://lnkd.in/eE-K3i4P 🏷️ HUB International | SPG - Specialty Program Group | Specialty Comp Insurance Solutions | ANV | AmTrust Financial Services, Inc. | Blackstone | Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies | Thomson Reuters 🔒 Not a subscriber yet? Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3OmPl0N 🔎 Key takeaways: ✅ Hub's SPG is selling Specialty Comp Insurance Solutions to ANV Group Holdings, a Blackstone-backed MGA platform spun out of AmTrust, with the deal expected to close within the next week ✅ The program wrote approximately $250 million in gross written premium in 2025 before premium volume came under pressure in the first quarter of 2026 ✅ The sale follows the collapse of a fronting arrangement with Berkshire Hathaway GUARD, which exited within approximately two months despite the deal having been agreed at senior levels of both organizations ✅ SPG appealed the decision, reaching Ajit Jain, Berkshire Hathaway's vice chairman of insurance operations, but did not prevail ✅ AmTrust stepped in as interim fronting carrier but two successive carrier changes created significant customer disruption, driving the decision to sell to an AmTrust-affiliated entity ✅ Hub characterized the sale as an unusual circumstance, having long positioned itself as a buyer rather than a seller that acquires businesses to hold permanently ✅ ANV was formed in late 2025 through the spin-off of seven AmTrust subsidiaries, with AmTrust retaining a significant equity stake and entering a 10-year capacity agreement #insurance #workerscomp #MGA #programs #Hub #AmTrust #Blackstone #ANV #TheInsurer

📽 NEWS IN FOCUS: Buyers have never gotten more value from cyber insurance than they are getting right now amid soft market conditions, and the window will not stay open, Coalition chief revenue officer Shawn Ram warned at Activate in New York, urging clients to act before AI-driven frequency and rate adequacy pressure force the cycle to turn. 📷 Watch the full interview from Coalition Activate, New York >> https://lnkd.in/eRd_Xtyi 🏷 Coalition, Inc. | Shawn Ram | James Thaler | The Insurer TV | Thomson Reuters 🔓 Only paying subscribers of The Insurer have access to News in Focus content. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3OmPl0N 🔎 Key takeaways: ✅ Rate adequacy concerns are getting louder as AI accelerates business email compromise, compresses exploit timelines and drives frequency higher across the market ✅ Nearly 60% of Coalition policyholders who report an incident never pay a dime toward their retention because Coalition resolves the issue before it becomes a claim ✅ Policyholders are 73% less likely to have a claim than with other insurers, based on publicly stated insurance commissioner data ✅ React2Shell demonstrated the active insurance model in real time, with Coalition alerting policyholders not just to vulnerabilities but in some cases that they had already been breached ✅ Exploit timelines have compressed from years in 2018 to milliseconds today, making Wirespeed's automated machine-speed detection and response a strategic necessity ✅ Wirespeed makes enterprise-grade MDR available to smaller insureds that historically could not afford it ✅ Coalition's expanded Allianz capacity arrangement provides the committed long-term capacity and international distribution infrastructure Ram described as the next phase of the business #Coalition #CyberInsurance #AI #Wirespeed #ActiveInsurance #TheInsurer #CoalitionActivate

📽 FIRESIDE: General liability carriers are writing AI exposure they cannot explain to their reinsurers or shareholders and will push significant exclusionary language before year-end, with a standalone AI market emerging within 18 months, H.W. Kaufman Group's Paul Smith said at the E&S Insurer Conference 2026. 📷 Watch the full fireside from the E&S Insurer Conference 2026 >> https://lnkd.in/eEx6b587 🏷 H.W. Kaufman Group | Burns & Wilcox | Paul G. Smith | James Thaler | The Insurer TV | Thomson Reuters 🔓 Only paying subscribers of The Insurer have access to News in Focus content. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3OmPl0N 🔎 Key takeaways: ✅ Most GL policies lack AI exclusions, leaving BI and PD exposures effectively covered in the absence of explicit language — Smith said that changes before year-end ✅ ISO has drafted broad AI exclusionary language and large carriers are developing their own, following the same sequence as EPLI, D&O and cyber ✅ Testudo, a standalone AI product from Lloyd's Lab spinout Pluto, is already in market covering BI, PD and E&O-type exposures, with Smith expecting a wave of standalone AI products within 12 to 18 months ✅ E&S carrier consolidation is coming before year-end, with A8 and A9 AM Best-rated carriers likely absorbed by larger full-stack platforms as E&S approaches one-third of P&C ✅ H.W. Kaufman now sends a formal technology questionnaire to new carriers evaluating API capability and electronic trading capacity ✅ Loss costs are still outpacing rates in the liability market, with the sector showing the same short-term memory that characterized property #insurance #ENS #excessandsurplus #AI #artificialintelligence #generalliability #MGA #insurancenews #TheInsurer #Reuters

📽 FIRESIDE: AI is already letting two underwriters do the work of three in MGA underwriting, and Euclid Program Managers has a live FurtherAI deployment five months in to prove it, but chief program officer Nick Colis said the harder question is whether the industry trains the next generation to underwrite before it trains them on the tools. 📷 Watch the full panel from the Program Manager Conference 2026 >> https://lnkd.in/ginchNa6 🏷 FurtherAI | Euclid Program Managers | Euclid Security Programs LLC | Aman Gour | Nick Colis | Ed LaFramboise | The Insurer TV | Thomson Reuters 🔓 Only paying subscribers of The Insurer have access to News in Focus content. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3OmPl0N 🔎 Key takeaways: ✅ Euclid Program Managers selected FurtherAI after a multi-month process evaluating three insurance-focused AI vendors, starting the deployment at one of its 10 MGAs as a test case ✅ The efficiency thesis runs from 10% to 50%, with Colis framing the goal as an underwriter taking a $10 million book to $15 million ✅ Loss runs remain the tool's persistent gap, with document format inconsistency and prompt reliability requiring underwriters to verify every output ✅ The workflow changed materially after FurtherAI added a product specialist with an insurance background ✅ Colis on AI and competitive positioning: "It enhances our moats. It doesn't create the moat" ✅ La Framboise and Colis said the next generation of underwriters must learn traditional underwriting before relying on the tools, with Gour closing: "You can delegate your thinking but you cannot delegate your understanding" #MGAs #insurtech #AI #ProgramManagers #insurance #underwriting #FurtherAI #EuclidProgramManagers #TheInsurer

📽️ NEWS IN FOCUS: CAC clients are using soft conditions to restore cyber limits cut during the hard market, keeping incumbent carriers in place rather than swapping in new capacity, and doubling down on tabletop exercises as the operational defense matures, SVP for professional cyber solutions Vanessa Stuckey said. 📰 Watch the full interview from RIMS Riskworld, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia >> https://lnkd.in/ghnkfn5z 🏷 CAC Specialty | The Baldwin Group | Vannessa Stuckey | @James Thaler | The Insurer TV | Thomson Reuters | RIMS (Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc.) 🔓 Only paying subscribers of The Insurer have access to News in Focus content. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3OmPl0N 🔍 HIGHLIGHTS: ✅ Clients using soft conditions to restore cyber limits cut during the hard market rather than swap incumbents ✅ Tabletop exercises have surged over the past 2 years, with carriers offering them as value-added services ✅ The 2-day debrief after the tabletop is where infosec, operational and financial stakeholders genuinely align ✅ Vendor pre-engagement gaining traction: breach counsel, forensics and credit monitoring walked through operations in advance ✅ Threat actor pivot from encryption to data exfiltration reshaping client questions to be specific and named ✅ Silent cyber exclusions on property, casualty and pollution policies opening creative cyber gap-fill opportunities #CAC #BaldwinGroup #Cyber #IncidentResponse #RiskManagement #TheInsurer #RIMSRiskworld