Brokers can’t market what they don’t understand.
That’s why award-winning Emergence Insurance, which specialises in cyber cover, is fully focused on educating brokers so they understand why their clients need protection against cyber attacks.
While the vast majority of businesses insure their physical property assets against a raft of risks, including fire, many don’t recognise the value of insuring their digital assets. In many cases, these are more valuable to a business.
Emergence trademarked the term digital fire™ to help brokers realise that cyber cover is an important component in their clients’ risk management strategies.
Businesses need a portfolio of coverage to protect tangible and intangible assets. A physical fire can destroy their premises. A digital fire to their intangible assets can destroy their business.
Emergence founder and Managing Director Troy Filipcevic explained the concept in an interview with the eNewsletter Insurance Business.
“One of the best things we’ve done at Emergence is trademark the term digital fire because we’re trying to draw the analogy to property insurance, which people have been buying for years,” Troy said.
If an insured’s building burns down, property insurance will cover the rebuild and getting the business back to its pre-loss status. Cyber insurance works the same way. If a client’s IT system is hacked or they suffer a major data breach, a comprehensive cyber policy will cover IT forensics and restoration costs, lost revenue, and assist in repairing reputation damage caused by the cyber event.
Emergence has been educating the market that cyber risk is primarily a first-party cover. “It basically works exactly the same way as property insurance,” Troy told Insurance Business. “We’re trying to draw an analogy to something that’s common and easy to understand for more people.”
Some brokers get pushback because clients insist they’re safe because they have the latest anti-virus software and put too much trust in IT consultants.
But Troy relates that back to property. Businesses install fire extinguishers, alarms and have fire-retardant doors and floors as risk mitigation measures, but they still buy property insurance.
“All those things help mitigate the risk but don’t stop it happening. It’s the same with cyber – you can have back-ups, anti-virus software and IT geniuses, but things can still go wrong,” he said.
Digital fire helps brokers explain the concept to clients more easily.
To read the full Insurance Business article, click here.
Emergence helps brokers and their clients mitigate cyber risk through awareness, education and market-leading product solutions.
Regular policy wording upgrades reflect ever-changing cyber market dynamics, including coverage offered by few other Australian cyber underwriters, for example, contingent business interruption and tangible property cover.
Emergence’s strong focus on broker education includes hosting quarterly webinars for 1,000+ brokers; face-to-face meetings with brokers and their clients to explain cyber risks, particularly emerging risks, for example, the notifiable data breach scheme; and key executives presenting at seminars and conferences.
The agency is a pioneer of cyber cover in Australia and provides protection for SMEs through to ASX-listed entities.
Emergence has won the Insurance Business Cyber Product of the Year award in three of the last four years, including 2018.
Its cyber product includes instant access to an Australian-based incident response team of experts who understand the importance of immediately mitigating potential threats to insureds’ businesses.
Brokers can obtain Emergence cyber quotations for clients by accessing the broker portal.
This blog is another cyber education initiative from Emergence.