Welcome !
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
For the 13th consecutive quarter ,
insurance premium rates have increased , and for the third consecutive quarter , rates have increased for all lines . According to the most recent Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers ( CIAB ) Commercial P / C market survey , pricing in Q4 2020 increased by an average of 10.7 percent across all-sized accounts . The good news ( I guess ) is that the rate of increase has slowed compared to the 11.7 percent increases we saw in Q3 2020 . Clearly , we are in the midst of a full-blown hard market for insurance premiums .
The umbrella market and the directors and officers liability market have seen the largest increases , 21.3 percent and 14.7 percent respectively . In addition to the high-double-digit rate increases for these lines , we continue to see an erosion of higher limits being available come renewal time . Respondents to the survey reported that 88 percent saw a reduction in umbrella liability limits and 64 percent saw a reduction in directors and officers liability limits .
What was new in the most recent survey was the tightening of the cyber liability market . Cybercoverage saw an average premium increase of 11 percent in Q4 2020 . This was the first time since CIAB started tracking rates in this coverage area that they experienced double-digit increases . Cyber is also seeing a retraction of limits , with nearly 50 percent of all respondents indicating increased premiums and reduced limits for cyber liability .
You will be hearing a lot about cyber liability coverage in 2021 due to the exponential increase in ransomware attacks . The estimated cost of ransomware attacks has increased from $ 8 billion in 2018 to $ 11.5 billion in 2019 to a staggering $ 20 billion in 2020 !
Ransomware attacks are no longer just happening to large corporations . Nearly 43 percent of all cyberattacks affected small businesses . Small businesses have become an easy target due to their lack of investment in necessary network security . In 2021 , it is projected that a ransomware attack will take place every 11 seconds .
It ’ s extremely important that you take a look at your cyber insurance policy if you have purchased this coverage . Many carriers will offer a cyber endorsement to their existing policies that offer limited coverage and limited limits . This may have been adequate a number of years ago ; however , with the proliferation of ransomware attacks and phishing attacks , this type of policy is now inadequate . Most of these endorsements do not cover phishing or ransomware attacks . There are a number of specialty carriers out there that offer stand-alone , robust policies with many of these types of enhancements and limits that cannot be found in simple cyber endorsements to existing policies .
In addition to the enhanced coverage and increase limits , these policies have contracted with specialized companies who have vast experience in facilitating these types of claims . Specialists that can not only negotiate on your behalf with the attackers but also provide resources to investigate what happened and help you not only recover your data but rebuild your systems . Often times , the data is not “ clean ” or complete and needs to be scrubbed in order to be functional again . These enhancements are incredibly valuable , especially after the claim happens . You will find these types of enhancements and value-added benefits mostly in stand-alone policies . They may be a bit more costly up front , but they will certainly more than pay for themselves after you have a claim .
If you have not purchased cyber liability as a part of your insurance program , you need to go out and add this today ! As I said , almost half of these types of attacks are happening to small businesses . It ’ s not a matter of if but when you experience one of these types of attacks . The costs of these claims can run from a few hundred thousand dollars to over a million dollars .
A cybersecurity specialist once told me , “ There are only two types of companies out there . Those that have been breached , and those that don ’ t realize they ’ ve been breached .” It ’ s time to take cybersecurity and liability protection seriously .
Vinnie Hager , President JGS Insurance est . 1919 JGSINSURANCE . COM
CONTENTS
2 INSURANCE 101
3 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
4 BUSINESS RISKS AROUND THE WORLD - Gwenyth P . Luu
6 CREATING A NEW TEAM CULTURE Dr . Marshall Goldsmith
8 HOW TO FIND YOUR PERSONAL WHY - John Dijulius
10 7 ESSENTIALS STEPS TO STREAMLINE YOUR BUSINESS - Grant Cardone
12 NO JAB – NO JOB ? - Eric P . Wokas
13 HOW LONG IS LONG ENOUGH ? Ken Hager
14 TRENDS IN 2021 : EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES LIABILITY Gwenyth P . Luu
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