There are increasing numbers of new building materials being developed for sustainable construction projects such as new forms of low carbon cement. Insurance exists for traditional building products but the novel materials and processes involved in producing new cement products are likely to be considered by insurers as untested and therefore challenging to insure.

Our role is to work with our clients to identify the technical material and process barriers to insurability and with the alternative risk transfer markets to create an insurance solution.

Sharing of any product or service amongst multiple users brings with it complexities of risk and legal liability. Each sharing economy has a unique hazard and risk profile, and insurers will need to understand its properties and the complexities that are foreseeable in the determination of responsibility for loss or damage arising to its users.

Our role is to create risk management plans (including operation redesign to improve risk compatibility), helping to more clearly delineate the Community of Interest amongst the people typically contributing to the design and process and shaping the membership and leasing contract. We will then also advise on the breadth and terms of an insurance product that will serve the client’s needs. Following the analysis and design of an insurance programme we can facilitate to the implementation of the cover.

Insurance is required for both the technology and the storage involved in carbon capture, for example CO2 leakage due to seal failure, well integrity problems, and geological faults that cause unforeseen environmental impacts.

Our role is to understand our clients’ technical specifications and controls and match them to insurable events against which an insurance policy can be arranged.

The ongoing development of new medicines, biotechnologies and related products poses new problems for the management and insurance of risks.

This necessitates a deep understanding of the composition of new ingredients for such products and how the developers, producers and distributors identify and manage the inherent risks. While the clinical trials insurance market is well developed, insurers will require access to data that currently might not exist to help them develop the required breadth and quantum of protection.

Our role is to assist our clients to understand and collate data around the technical specifications and controls they use in their product development and translate these into usable data for insurers.

These are defects discovered in materials, usually many years after their first introduction and use, that pose a potential for future loss or damage. Very often they cannot be easily remedied in anticipation of their potential for causing damage or collapse.

Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) is a contemporary example along with combustible cladding such as identified in the several tower-block fires of recent years. 

The term ‘Inherited defects’ is a reference to the liability and responsibility of the party in ownership/control of the property/material at the time the defect is discovered. Very often the original designer, producer, builder or installer of the defective material is long gone and the legacy falls upon the present owner to resolve.

Our role is to identify the foreseeable loss or damage arising from the defective product and using our expertise in insurance and transfer of foreseeable risks to assist our clients in designing an insurance vehicle that can provide protection against the consequences of loss or damage arising in pre-determined circumstances.

Re-used materials have a built-in history. Their previous use has utilised some of the inherent properties of the material which can imply some degree of wear, tear and gradual deterioration in the material. The second-hand user of any property or material will appreciate that the exposure of that material to good, poor or indifferent care and maintenance, and how it is removed, reconditioned, stored and transported will to some extent influence its condition, reliability, future value and the hazards and risks to the new owner. This also impacts third parties coming into contact with it.

New, unused materials and products typically carry an expectation of ‘fitness for purpose’, longevity of working life and sometimes a guarantee or warranty. Law relating to ‘fitness for purpose’ and liability for loss or damage is principally based on new and first-user property and materials. Therefore, risks inherent in the reuse of materials must take into account their history and provenance because these will influence any remedial outcome.

Our role is to advise on the gathering of relevant information, data, testing and quality control protocols that will be of interest to an insurance underwriter and to define the breadth and terms of one or more types of insurance products covering the relevant stages of the reuse pathway that will serve the client’s needs. Following the analysis and design of an insurance solution we are able to facilitate the implementation of the cover.

Energy and fuel products, materials and resources are intended for use in vast quantities and in an infinite variety of locations. The Oil and Energy insurance sector has specialist insurance products. These are based upon the traditional sources of energy and fuel and the history of claims in that sector is the principal basis upon which breadth of insurance cover and its pricing are founded. This market is well catered for.

Our focus is on alternative energy technology development, production, distribution and storage, i.e. renewables, green power, sustainable fuels etc.

​Our role is to ensure that the insurance available to renewables and new fuel sources is of equal reliability and effectiveness to the insurance available to traditional energy/fuel products. We are able to advise on the breadth and terms of an insurance product that will serve the renewable client’s needs. We can also advise on creation of Communities of Interest to assist in the development and delivery of joint solutions, alternative risk transfer and alternative risk finance vehicles, and loss and design of claims’ remedial pathways, all of which also serve to unlock further pioneering R&D work in the field.

Manufacturers of traditional meat products are looking to expand into laboratory grown meat products . There is a possibility that they might find insurers are unwilling to offer the same cover they currently enjoy for their traditional product ingredients and processing. This is because these are as yet unknown and unquantifiable risks meaning that insurers have limited data by which to quantify the exposure.

Our role would be to advise on the gathering of relevant information, data, quality protocols and testing that will either satisfy the insurer of the risk or to advise on the creation of a new solution from the Alternative Risk Transfer markets.

The ongoing development of geoengineering, technologies and related products such as solar radiation modification/management or ocean geoengineering poses new problems for the management and insurance of risks emanating from them, such as warranties for products, and public/product liability insurance.

Our role includes the assessment of the existing insurance markets and jurisdiction cost implications that determine the feasibility and pricing of the warranty and public/product liability cover and to advise on the need for the creation of a new solution from the Alternative Risk Transfer markets.