Thousands gather in Atlanta for RIMS RISKWORLD 2023

It may be easy to forget that RIMS RISKWORLD was cancelled three years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic, because it was business as usual at this year's conference.

The annual gathering of insurance and risk professionals took place April 30 through May 3 in Atlanta. It was the second year of in-person meetings and educational sessions since the cancellation of 2020 conference (the 2021 event was online).

More than 150 Zurich employees attended the event. Zurich had an information booth in the RISKWORLD Marketplace, hosted some private events, including a customer dinner at the College Football Hall of Fame, and met with customers and distributors throughout four days.

According to RIMS, the 2023 event featured the largest exhibition dedicated to risk management in the world, as well as a four-day conference with more than 300 speakers presenting on a wide range of risk management topics, including claims management, cyber and technology, loss control, diversity, equity and inclusion, and much more.

Zurich led seven educational sessions and participated in another session led by Marsh.

After her 20-minute presentation on event-driven securities litigation, Japhet Boutin, Claims Handling Director, Financial & Professional Lines, Zurich North America, talked about why the topic is critical to RISKWORLD attendees.

“It’s a different way of plaintiffs bringing securities class actions that I don’t think [corporate] boards are fully aware of,” she said. “The standards are much lower than they used to be. Because it potentially impacts different lines, not just the D&O [Directors & Officers] line, that risk managers and boards should be aware of that and be prepared to elevate operation risk to the board.”

Boutin said several issues came up in her conversations with RISKWORLD attendees, like insurance rates, social inflation and volatility in the banking world. “It’s a good time for us to be talking to our risk managers and our customers about these issues.”

Elise White, Project Leader, Claims Strategy & Innovation, Zurich North America, co-presented with Daniel Maxson, Corporate Safety Director, New South Construction. The title of their educational session was, “The Missing Link in Workers’ Compensation: How Inclusion and Belonging Affect Recovery from Injury.”

“The employer engagement throughout the beginning of an employee’s journey all the way to the end is really important,” White said after the session. “Before and after, that support from onboarding to after an accident happens is the ultimate goal to injured worker recovery.”

Joe McLean, Technical Underwriting Manager, Zurich North America, talked to RISKWORLD attendees about the pros and cons of autonomous technology.

“There are some great, resounding benefits of autonomous technology,” he said. “There’s definitely a sustainability benefit, because it’s going to lead to decreased emissions and increased benefit for everything that we see within our transactional time and daily lives. But one of the biggest things that we’ve got to be mindful of is, what does it mean from a liability perspective? Liability is going to shift to where it’s going to be very difficult to assign who exactly was liable for some damage or loss that results from autonomous technologies. But the big thing is, we’ve got to be able to create insurance products that can deliver on our customers’ needs that are active in this space.

“Autonomous technology is going to be a game-changer. It’s going to greatly revolutionize our daily lives and going to make life so much easier for us. Along with those benefits, there comes some risks. And we’ve got to be able to properly and adequately address those risks in order to help our customers thrive in the autonomous space.”

Andrea Blair, Director of Business Resilience, Zurich Resilience Solutions, presented on ways that businesses can play a pivotal role in how consumers receive goods by understanding their warehouse and logistics pipeline.

The key is to help customers “find the best fit for their organization to utilize the tools for a dynamic look at their supply chain, as well as buttoning up the risks in their internal processes and procurement procedures,” Blair said.

Robin A. Kemper, Senior Risk Engineer, Zurich Resilience Solutions, was on stage twice Tuesday at RIMS RISKWORLD. A 20-minute presentation in the morning focused on the findings of the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risks Report. In the afternoon, she joined a panel led by Marsh on global risks. Kemper summarized the WEF report as “a call to action.”

“We have to get to work on it,” she said. “We cannot wait until we’re in the middle of, let’s say, the climate crisis. It may be several years out before it becomes so impactful that we may not be able to do anything about it. So, we have to start now, even if it’s small bites.”

Yohei Miyamoto, West Regional Manager for Property, Zurich North America, led a 60-minute session with Michael Crowley, Risk Manager, Meta Platforms, about the “New Normal of the Property Insurance Market.”

“As difficult as this marketplace is, I do think there are ways to navigate through this marketplace and end up with pretty decent results,” Miyamoto said.

Allen Kirsh, Head of Claims Judicial and Legislative Affairs, Zurich North America, led one of the final sessions of RISKWORLD with Jeff Strege, Senior Director, Risk Management, Academy Sports + Outdoors. Kirsh and Strege spoke about how social trends are leading to large civil awards that go far beyond the expected payout. Kirsh said the RISKWORLD presentation was part of an ongoing campaign to inform the insurance industry and the business community about social inflation.

“Social inflation is really the biggest issue we’re seeing in liability-based claims,” he said. “Nuclear verdicts, those over $10 million, are on the rise. The trend is very clear. We’re seeing more and more of these cases, and even at larger values. So, it’s important that our insurance colleagues and business partners understand what those drivers are and know what they can do to help mitigate the risk.”

Zurich leaders also took time to meet with several members of the media in attendance, resulting in news articles and video interviews:

• Zurich North America CEO Kristof Terryn spoke with AM Best TV for its CEO panel, where he discussed the state of the insurance market and the industry’s struggles to attract talent.
• Zurich North America Chief Claims Officer Keith Daly spoke with AM Best TV for its Claims Trends panel about how some insurers have introduced apprenticeship-type programs to help develop new claims professionals.

The 2024 RIMS RISKWORLD is scheduled for May 5-9 in San Diego, California.