For the Risk Manager or Chief Financial Officer of publicly-traded companies, buying Directors & Officers Insurance has changed over the past five to ten years. Many new insurers have entered the D&O marketplace, policy forms and endorsements have gotten more generous, and the pricing has come down.

This is a trick question. Investigative costs that are a necessary part of defending an officer, director or the Company that has been sued, are generally insured under Directors and Officers (D&O) policies, subject of course to the insurer’s agreement that such costs are reasonable and necessary for a proper defense of covered allegations.  However, when you are referring to internal investigations or governmental or regulatory investigations that occur prior to any charges being levied—the answer is less clear, and sometimes “no”.

Risk & Insurance magazine interviewed David Tweedy for its article on the advancements in business intelligence and analytics capabilities of RMIS systems.

We live in a world where leading U.S. manufacturers often manufacture very little. They remain masters of design, quality control and distribution.  However, to remain competitive, the actual manufacturing process is outsourced to offshore companies that can deliver at lower costs.

Today's risk managers face an array of legal, business, regulatory, political and environmental challenges, and they need robust yet flexible tools to assist them. A risk management information system that helps generate reports and analysis, manages a database and provides accurate tracking mechanisms offers all these services, but finding a RMIS that suits an organization's most important needs requires investigation...

Business Insurance magazine interviewed Joe Underwood for its article on ERM technology solutions. “It is important for risk managers to try to match the technology to their [program's] level of sophistication. You want the emphasis to be on risk, not on the systems,” he said.

Many international companies are not buying local Directors & Officers (D&O) insurance, but instead relying on the worldwide territory in their domestic D&O policy. This course of action can be risky without going through the appropriate analysis.

Joe Underwood and Chuck Soucy spoke at the Maine Water Utilities Association (MWUA) Business Symposium on October 27, 2010. Their topic was entitled "Demystifying Enterprise Risk Management".

Joe Underwood spoke at the Massachusetts Society of Healthcare Risk Managers (MSHRM) annual meeting on September 24, 2010. His topic was entitled "Moving from Risk Manager to Enterprise Risk Manager - An Overview"

We clearly live in a world where commerce transcends national borders. In this day and age, even smaller companies are expanding their operations to places outside of the United States for reasons such as lower costs of labor and materials and access to a larger customer base. From a business sense, pursuing cost efficiencies and expanding operations is the right thing to do, but how should you structure your insurance program to meet your global needs?