On any given day, it is hard not to read an article or report on some type of cyber topic. Cyber insurance is one of the key concerns within the insurance industry today and possibly one of the most misunderstood. Executive SummaryIt turns out that P/C customers are not terribly satisfied about their cyber insurance products. There are many reasons why, including confusion among agents and insureds, as well as a lack of communication and clarity about what the options are. To avoid this, carriers should stay away from piecemeal cyber strategies, writes David Pieffer, the Property & Casualty Insurance Practice Lead for J.D. Power.
In late 2017, Advisen in partnership with Partner Re reported that 62 percent of the agents and brokers they surveyed felt cyber coverage was becoming more consistent but that it still was hard to compare policies between carriers. The report also noted that the industry was split on whether cyber property damage should be covered by the property policy (44 percent) or the cyber policy (40 percent). The takeaway: Agents not understanding the exposures and coverages is the main obstacle to selling cyber insurance. (Advisen-Partner Re: 2017 Survey of Cyber Insurance Market Trends) Further exacerbating the situation is the fact that cyber liability, business interruption and property coverage all potentially apply, in some degree, to cyber-related claims. Knowledge of the cyber-related particulars of these coverages is particularly important when determining which policy is triggered depending on how the incident occurred and relative to the other policies.