The biggest news of this year’s Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting came during the last few minutes, when Chair Warren Buffett made a surprise announcement that he would recommend the CEO reins be turned over to Greg Abel, Vice Chair of the non-insurance operations.

But Buffett referred to some other big news during his opening remarks too.

“We and Zurich and Chubb have arranged a joint operation to be the writer of really large sums that very few people can do…..We can do that sort of thing without blinking.”

Read more about what Buffett was talking about—and about recently announced product launches and innovations from Verisk, FM, CLARA Analytics and QBE—below.

***

Excess Casualty: Chubb, Zurich, National Indemnity Launch Facility

On May 1, Berkshire’s National Indemnity, Chubb and Zurich announced an excess casualty facility that can offer up to $100 million in lead excess casualty insurance capacity on a claims-made basis for large national and multinational companies.

“The facility is unique in the industry and will deliver excess umbrella liability coverage underwritten by Chubb and Zurich and supported by National Indemnity Company, the lead reinsurer of Berkshire Hathaway,” Chubb and Zurich said in announcements posted on their websites.

The facility coverage solution will be available in the U.S. and will begin underwriting business immediately with coverage effective starting July 1, 2025, the statements said.

The new excess casualty facility streamlines insurance acquisition and administration for customers, brokers and agents, offering a single access point (Chubb or Zurich), administrative and cost efficiencies, consistency in coverage terms, as well as proactive and expert claims handling, the statements said.

***

Political Violence Risks: Verisk’s SRCC Cat Model Now Quantifies U.S. Risks

In late April, Verisk announced that Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk intelligence company, introduced a new catastrophe model to quantify the financial impacts of strikes, riots, and civil commotion in the United States.

Carrier Management has reported on Maplecroft’s SRCC modeling before, but what’s new is the launch of a U.S.-specific model, Verisk confirmed. “While prior versions did include a few landmark events from the U.S., this is the first model to specifically focused on the broader scope of the risk,” a Verisk representative told CM via email.

Related article: Predictive Model Delivers Insights as Insurers, Reinsurers Brace for More Civil Unrest

Addressing the increasing insurance losses from SRCC events, the Verisk SRCC Model for the U.S. has a 500,000-year stochastic catalog, capturing the frequency and severity across the spectrum of plausible loss-causing unrest across every ZIP Code in the country, Verisk said in a statement.

It predicts the severity of an event by evaluating the key drivers of risk, including social and economic trends, political factors and historical protest patterns.

The probabilistic model can provide enhanced insight for exposure management and catastrophe modeling teams, the statement said, noting that these teams have traditionally relied on historical, generic civil unrest data and subjective assessments.

This model aims to help insurers improve their underwriting strategies, balance risk and premium effectively, and meet regulatory requirements by stress testing extreme disaster scenarios, Verisk said.

More specifically, Verisk said the U.S. model will allow insurers and reinsurers to:

• Estimate potential insured losses from SRCC events and quantify the potential to financial impact of risk for individual locations and at the enterprise level.

• Create robust underwriting guidelines to specifically account for SRCC-related damage and associated business interruption.

• Assess tail risk through a catalog of stochastic events which feature scenarios that are inherently plausible, but far worse than anything that has been seen historically.

• Address risk management and regulatory requirements by stress testing extreme disaster scenarios to reveal potential vulnerabilities before real disasters occur.

The announcement noted that strikes, riots, and civil commotion events have led to more than $10 billion in insured losses globally since 2010, and $3 billion in the U.S.

The SRCC Model is available through Verisk’s Extreme Events Solutions’ Touchstone platform.

***

Data Center Industry: FM Launches Intellium Addresses Surging Risks

In early May, commercial property insurer FM announced the launch of the FM Intellium program, aimed at helping data center and power generation clients face a rapidly evolving risk environment associated with the artificial intelligence and cloud computing boom.

AI and other powerful computer-driven activities are stoking a rapid increase in data center development, FM said, noting that the power generation needs are also rising.

FM has been insuring data centers for more than 25 years, and currently protects roughly 1,100 data centers, representing $250 billion of insurable value.

FM is now “doubling down on investing in loss prevention engineering and research” to protect these clients, and has created a virtual on-demand resource unit, which can mobilize subject matter expert resources to quickly respond to any inquiry, anywhere in the world.

In addition, “FM can integrate data risk with all related power and infrastructure projects holistically, allowing it to offer solutions for all engineering interdependencies, whether operational or prior to construction.”

FM’s engineers already spend about 30,000 hours a year working with some of the world’s leading data center providers, and scientists at FM are conducting research that supports data center reliability—from power accessibility and cooling to lithium-ion battery systems and many other areas.

To support clients, FM brings unique solutions for the sector’s evolving risks, including site selection hazards, cooling and power challenges, and equipment protection.

With Intellium, FM said it is reinforcing its commitment to partnering with clients as they navigate intertwined challenges.

“With the continuing migration to cloud computing and expansion of AI, data centers demand complete operational confidence. FM has the expertise to ensure resilience and prevent losses for even more clients in these crucial sectors,” said Randy Hodge, chief operating officer of FM, in a media statement.

***

Missed Subrogation Recoveries? CLARA Analytics Unveils AI-Driven Detection

CLARA Analytics, a provider of artificial intelligence technology for casualty insurance claims optimization, announced AI-driven subrogation detection capabilities last week..

Enhancements to CLARA’s flagship CLARA Triage product automatically identify potential subrogation and risk transfer opportunities, providing narrative assessments and numeric scores that help claims adjusters to focus on cases that offer the greatest potential.

“The market has a significant gap in regard to subrogation opportunity identification,” said Heather H. Wilson, CEO at CLARA Analytics, in a media statement. “Our mission is to transform the way claims management teams work with their subrogation partners to deliver transformative financial results.”

CLARA Triage helps insurance companies, third-party administrators, and risk managers at self-insured enterprises to identify and prioritize high-risk claims continuously from first notice of loss until final settlement. To do this, CLARA leverages predictive and generative AI technology to assess the severity and complexity of each claim, and draws from the experience of multiple carriers in a large contributory database that provides a foundation for understanding medical and legal risk.

Describing the new subrogation detection capabilities as a major advancement for the Triage product, CLARA said it is leveraging the comprehensive insurance claims data with best-in-class GenAI and machine learning models to not just identify potential recoverable opportunities, but also score the opportunities based on likely financial returns.

***

Commercial Property: QBE Launches Product for Large Companies

In late April, QBE North America announced the launch of its new commercial property product, providing custom solutions for comprehensive coverage to large companies across the United States.

Combining deep, industry-leading expertise with a commitment to customer service excellence, the new commercial property product offers all-risks coverage on a shared and layered basis, including primary, quota-share, buffer or excess positions.

“QBE recognizes the complex risk landscape facing large corporations today,” said Ashley Irwin, head of commercial property at QBE North America. “That is why we are focused on offering insurance solutions tailored to their specific needs while building lasting relationships that support mutual, long-term growth and stability.”

The commercial property product is designed to serve a broad range of industries, including education, financial institutions, healthcare, hospitality, gaming, industrial, light manufacturing, mixed real estate, municipalities, offices, retail, technology and wholesale/industrial operations.

Sources : Company media statement; QBE writeup was previously published by Insurance Journal