directors and officers liability insurance

dandowhattoknowAfter attending the PLUS D&O Symposium  some years ago, several colleagues at Partner Re thought it might be worthwhile to provide D&O insurance professionals with historical overview of the evolution of Directors and Officers insurance (D&O) in the US marketplace.   As a result, Brian Sabia, SVP Senior Underwriter Specialty lines; Catherine Rudow, SVP Senior Underwriter Specialty Lines; and Nicholas DeMartini, AVP Senior Underwriter Specialty Lines, all of Partner Reinsurance Company, drafted the following article, which starts with the Securities Act of 1933 and progresses through the relevant Acts, key court rulings, and the ups and downs that have driven the D&O insurance market and the evolving features of the D&O insurance policy. Their complete paper can be found here.

I would like to thank Brian, Catherine and Nicholas for their willingness to publish their article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is the authors’ guest post.

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This paper provides an historical overview of the evolution of Directors and Officers insurance (D&O) in the U.S. market since 1933, taking you through the relevant acts, key court rulings, ups and downs of the market, as well as the evolving coverage features of D&O insurance. This paper is intended for the insurance professional as an additional introduction to this increasingly relevant and ever evolving management liability product. 
Continue Reading Guest Post: D&O What to Know: A Guide to the Evolution of Directors and Officers Insurance from 1933 to the Present

floridaIn a coverage dispute arising out of the long-running Rothstein Ponzi scheme scandal, a Southern District of Florida judge, applying Florida law, has held that the professional services exclusion in the Rothstein bank’s D&O insurance policy precluded coverage for claims brought against the bank and certain of its directors and officers by the Rothstein

insurancepolicyI make it my business on this blog to try to write about the latest developments and current trends in the world of D&O, but I think that every now and then it is a good idea to step back and take a look at the bigger picture. For example, let’s consider the standard D&O

GaThe Georgia Supreme Court has held that where a policyholder settled an underlying claim without its D&O insurer’s consent, the policyholder cannot sue the carrier for breach of contract or for bad-faith failure to settle. The Court, applying Georgia law, entered its opinion in the case based on questions certified from the United States Court

nystate3On June 19, 2014, in a case involving so many unusual coverage issues that it seems more like a law school exam question than an actual coverage dispute, New York (New York County) Supreme Court Judge Melvin Schweitzer, applying New York law, granted summary judgment for the former directors of the bankrupt Lyondell Chemical Company

D&O insurance policies often address a policyholder’s particular circumstances. One way that D&O insurers sometimes address the fact that a company has experienced adverse circumstances is to incorporate into its policy a “known circumstances exclusion” precluding coverage for those circumstances. In an October 23, 2013 opinion (here), the First Circuit affirmed the opinion

Many organizations purchase management liability insurance to provide liability and defense cost protection for their directors and officers. But the management liability insurance protects the individuals only for their actions undertaken in an “insured capacity.” The policies are not intended to not protect them for actions they undertake in a capacity other than as a

The modern public company D&O insurance policy provides coverage not only for the directors and officers of the company but also for the company itself – however, in the public company D&O insurance policy, the entity coverage applies only to securities claims, a limitation that sometimes leads to disputes whether or not a particular matter