Opportunity for brokers in creative, innovative sectors: CFC

Emerging technology is creating new liability exposures not being adequately served by an insurance industry that has failed to keep up – creating an opportunity for brokers, CFC Underwriting says.

While cyber hogs attention, the majority of claims that the CFC team see arise out of intellectual property (IP) and contractual disputes. Head of Tech, Media and IP Michael Brunero says the industry should be focusing more on the “real exposures of today”.

“As tech starts to infiltrate traditional media sectors, the IP exposure is going to rise. When it is quite new and novel you tend to find a lot of IP litigation buzzing around,” he tells insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“The idea of IP property as a coverage is going to become more and more important and it is a huge opportunity for the insurance market.”

CFC has revised its wordings for media company cover to reflect these new exposures, removing the need for multiple policies.

“Hardware, software, installation advice causing someone financial loss, bodily injury, property damage – we are covering it all in there together,” Mr Brunero said.

“We are trying to make it so simple that a broker is not trying to figure out which policy is responding. It is right there upfront in one place, because the technology products themselves now overlap.

“Having an understanding of these kind of creative, innovative sectors for a broker will put you in good stead, because it is only growing exponentially,” Mr Brunero said. “There is no real industry that is not going to be revolutionised by technology – factories, healthcare, financial services. The opportunity right now in that is unbelievable.”

Technology has changed how information is shared and consumed, and many new businesses are emerging, from online influencers and vloggers to digital content creators. This creates cross jurisdictional risk, as well as bodily injury/property damage and copyright issues.

The majority of policies use wordings “written back in the 1980s,” he says, and don’t meet the needs of this new breed of tech and media companies, often leaving holes in cover or requiring different covers.

“The industry has been squeezing these companies into their product buckets, rather than really looking at the exposures that they face,” Mr Brunero said. “The world has moved on so far past that.”

He advises traditional brokers to access modern segments of sectors, such as digital health.

“The opportunities are really endless. There are tons of these new businesses coming through every day, there is plenty of opportunity there as they have never had insurance before.”