Berkley Select has enhanced its lawyers professional liability offerings, adding new coverages, more flexible policy forms and expanded capacity.

Berkley Select’s lawyers professional liability coverage enhancements include coverage for losses associated with social engineering acts, a withheld fee assistance endorsement of up to $25,000 to cover unpaid legal fees, and a partner departure extended reporting period for law firm mergers and acquisitions.

To help reduce law firms’ exposure to malpractice claims, Berkley Select has enhanced its tailored risk management services to include risk assessments for individual law firms.

The Berkley Select lawyers professional liability team is led by Vice President of Underwriting Albert Roberts, who joined the company in 2021. Roberts has more than 23 years of experience in the insurance industry, working with multiple carriers and a managing general agency. He is a former practicing attorney licensed in Illinois and with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Working alongside Roberts is Ashley Fredricksen, assistant vice president of underwriting for LPL, who recently was promoted to lead the LPL middle market and excess products. Fredricksen is focused on the department’s product development and growth strategy.

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ZestyAI, an artificial intelligence property risk analytics company, announced the launch of CA Compliance Pre-Fill.

CA Compliance Pre-Fill is a way for insurance carriers to comply with recently approved regulations from the California Department of Insurance aimed at mitigating the impact of wildfires on insurance policies. It builds upon the regulatory success of Z-FIRE, an artificial intelligence climate risk model to be used in an approved rate filing by CDI, and helps admitted carriers achieve a revenue-neutral filing by substantiating a base-rate adjustment.

The CDI regulations — Mitigation in Rating Plans and Wildfire Risk Models — was signed into law on Oct. 14, 2022, and gave carriers 180 days to refile. The regulation requires insurers to provide discounts based on 12 mitigation factors to consumers who take steps to protect their homes and businesses from wildfires.

ZestyAI leverages AI technology to scan a carrier’s portfolio and quantify the impact pertaining to each of the factors mandated by the CDI for every property. This data helps insurance carriers comply with these regulations.

To determine the appropriate discount, insurers must consider 12 mandatory risk factors. These factors include the clearing of vegetation and debris from under decks and within five feet of the building, as well as the use of only noncombustible materials for fences and gates within five feet of the building. Having a Class-A Fire Rated Roof, enclosed eaves, fire-resistant vents, multi-pane windows, and at least six inches of noncombustible vertical clearance at the bottom of the exterior surface must also be taken into account.

The regulations also factor in the removal or absence of combustible structures, such as sheds and other outbuildings, within 30 feet of the building and compliance with Section 4291 of the Public Resources Code, which requires homeowners in some areas to develop defensible space by removing nearby ladder fuels. Finally, insurers must factor in whether the structure is included in a Firewise USA site or listed as a Fire Risk Reduction Community by the Board of Forestry.

CA Compliance Pre-Fill can be used independently, or in conjunction with Z-FIRE, ZestyAI’s predictive, property-specific wildfire risk model. Z-FIRE uses AI algorithms trained on more than 1,500 wildfire events across 20 years of historical loss data. The model considers features such as topography and historical climate data in combination with factors extracted from high-resolution imagery of the property itself and its surroundings, including homeowner and community mitigation efforts, to provide both neighborhood and property-specific risk scores.

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Coalition, an active insurance provider designed to prevent digital risk, introduced CoalitionAI, a new initiative to deploy generative artificial intelligence and large language models to help brokers and businesses protect themselves from cyber risk.

U.S.-based brokers and businesses can now access new AI-powered education and chat features. Appointed brokers in the U.S. now have access to the Broker Copilot, a generative AI chatbot embedded into the Coalition broker dashboard that can answer questions about cybersecurity best practices, cyber policy coverage options, and more. The Broker Copilot is trained on publicly available documents and resources published by Coalition for broker inquiries and education. Businesses using Coalition Control – Coalition’s cyber risk assessment and monitoring platform – can now gain details on cybersecurity vulnerabilities, understand coverage contingencies, and learn about ways to resolve cyber security issues using the new Security Copilot as well.

The CoalitionAI features use a combination of proprietary technology, large language modeling, and generative pre-trained transformers. Coalition plans to introduce additional AI capabilities to support its active insurance offerings, including active risk assessment, active protection, and active response, according to a company press release. In the coming months, Coalition brokers and Coalition Control users will gain access to additional AI-driven tools, the release added.

Sources: Berkley Select, ZestyAI, Coalition