Distinguished Blog - Market Insights
Market insights and industry news.
Fine Art & Collectibles Insurance: Q&A For Brokers
Ready to expand your market with Distinguished? If you missed our recent webinar, “Fine Art & Collectibles Insurance: Q&A for Brokers,” don’t worry. You have the opportunity to gain valuable insights that will help your business thrive. Hear directly from our underwriters on how Distinguished can help you win business and deliver superior service to…
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Cyber Rates Are Going Up, but Purchasing Coverage Is More Important Than Ever
While many of the cyberattacks that get press are against high-profile entities or organizations, all types and sizes of business, including hotels and restaurants, are vulnerable to the sophisticated methods utilized by today’s cybercriminals – from phishing to ransomware and scareware tactics. Additionally, cybercriminals have upped their game with attacks rising consistently over the last…
Say Goodbye to Pandemic Rental Deals
For most of the pandemic, we saw house prices rise and urban rents fall as city dwellers traded the apartment for a single-family home. Rents dropped as much as 25% in some cities, but the days of apartment steals have come to an end. Rental site, Apartment List, reports that the median apartment rent rose…
The Case for the Four Day Workweek
Americans have historically prided themselves on how much they work, treating burnout and exhaustion as a badge of honor, but employees and employers alike are beginning to see the mental and physical toll long hours take on an individual. The disruption to office life, brought on by Covid, has many companies, legislators, and employers rethinking…
Restaurant Insurance Market Update 2021
The restaurant sector, no doubt, has been through a lot in the last 18 months. But recent statistics show that through July 2021, the industry has had steady growth each month since February, with sales volume reaching close to pre-pandemic levels. Although it’s still unclear how the delta variant will impact the industry, we’ve seen…
Cannabis Industry Putting More Tax Revenue in State Coffers
As the legal use of marijuana continues to grow, the tax revenue generated by the cannabis industry has other states wanting in. In fact, according to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), tax revenue for the 10 states where the legal sale of adult-use cannabis exists exceeded $3 billion in 2020.
Insurers Backing Away from Coal Industry Amid Climate Change
Last year we looked at the impact of climate change on severe weather patterns and what insurers are doing to understand, assess and better manage natural catastrophe risks. It’s in our industry’s best interest to better understand the role of climate change on wildfires, flooding, and other events to develop better modeling and risk management…
Social Inflation and the Hard Market
In understanding and analyzing the “hard insurance market” – characterized by higher premiums, diminished capacity, new sub-limits, additional policy exclusions, changes to coverage forms, and tighter underwriting guidelines – you have to look at the impact that social inflation has had on our industry. Social inflation refers to recent growth over the last several years…
Adopting New Liability Risk-Mitigation Approach to Stem Mega Verdicts
Our litigious environment has been exacerbated over the last several years due to several factors including the rise of nuclear liability verdicts that run into the tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars. Contributing to these mega verdicts is anti-business sentiment and corporate mistrust by jurors. Juries feel more sympathetic toward injured plaintiffs and…
Why Participate In/Host Webinars
Before COVID was part of our vernacular and impacting our everyday lives, including the move to remote work, learning, conferences, and events, webinars already played a pivotal role in the insurance industry. Now, in a world still struggling to combat coronavirus, they have become even more relevant.
COVID Construction Spike Leads to Lumber Shortages
Note: Distinguished Programs no longer offers Builder’s Risk or Vacant Building insurance. Explore our other programs for tailored solutions. In March of 2020, American lumber mills curtailed operations, citing both employee health and safety concerns and an expected plunge in demand. As months-long quarantines kept Americans locked in their homes, however, home improvement projects and…