The jobs of board members and executives are becoming more and more delicate.
The Allianz industrial insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) warns of increasing risks in manager liability insurance, or D&O ("Directors and Officers") for short.
According to an analysis by AGCS presented on Wednesday, managers increasingly fear liability and damages claims.
The most important reasons: volatile markets with the risk of asset bubbles, inflation, a wave of lawsuits in American courts and an increase in bankruptcies as a result of the corona pandemic.
Henning Peitsmeier
Business correspondent in Munich.
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The AGCS experts have identified the increasing number of legal disputes as the main driver of this development.
"Stakeholders are increasingly critical of what companies and their management are doing and what they stand for - and this often leads to lawsuits and lawsuits," said AGCS manager Shanil Williams.
"This is happening against the backdrop of a stabilizing D&O market, although capacities are still scarce in some segments and many companies would like to buy more coverage than the industry can currently offer."
The AGCS sees particular legal risks in the lawsuits filed by shareholders in the case of IPOs of new types of “shell companies”, the so-called Spacs, also known as “blank check companies”.
Manager liability has become so unattractive for some insurers that they have withdrawn from the D&O market or reduced the amounts insured because of the steadily increasing number of liability claims against managers and the associated high costs.
The AGCS wants to continue the business, as it announced.