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INSIGHTS


Contingent Liability Insurance: Converting Financial Uncertainty into Financial Security
In the early 1980s, corporate risk management had a significant blind spot. Traditional insurance addressed risks such as fires, automobile accidents, and professional malpractice. But what about a multimillion dollar lawsuit already pending against a company, with an uncertain financial outcome hanging over its head? That was the challenge I set out to address at AIG in the early to mid-1980s, helping pioneer transactional insurance solutions, including tax liability, repres

Mike Mitrovic
7 days ago4 min read


R&W Insurance: A Victim of Oversaturation, Expanded Coverage, and Underpricing
I pioneered the representation and warranty (“R&W”) insurance business in the early 1980’s by responding to private equity asset sellers and their large law firm counsel, seeking an insurance solution to eliminate the seller escrow holdbacks required by acquirers to assure cash was available to compensate for breaches of seller R&W in the sale transaction, thus preventing a full cash distribution of sale proceeds. The alternative was a deep buyer discount to the cash purchase

Mike Mitrovic
Oct 63 min read


Moving From Corporate to Capital: The Axcelera Formation Story
What drives the need for capital? Sometimes it is a fortuitous event—a weather-related catastrophe, a business crisis or a change in law. Other times, it is something entirely different: a new product and the opportunity it creates. Axcelera was the latter. My search for capital for a start up was predicated on our success at AIG in the specialty lines space and transactional liability space. We identified a business broker/intermediary in mid-1999 who worked with us to put

Mike Mitrovic
Sep 294 min read


AIG Was King of Innovation During the Hank Greenberg Eras
Finite insurance is an insurance contract lasting several years in which the insured pays a premium into a fund managed by the insurer. If losses are low at the end of the term, the insured gets a refund. If losses exceed the limit, the insured pays an additional premium or the deal ends. In essence, it is a combination of self insurance and capped, limited risk transfer. AIG wrote a finite risk policy for Phil Ritson, a well known South African golf professional, instructor,

Mike Mitrovic
Sep 224 min read


The Origins of Public Company D&O Panel Counsel: How and Why It Developed
In the late 70’s and early 80’s, the public company Directors and Officers (“D&O”) policy was still very much a developing product. It was never intended to be an airtight contract replete with exclusions, nor was it a model of clarity or a poster child for litigation certainty. It had a D&O Side A coverage part that covered alleged wrongful acts of directors and officers not indemnifiable under the corporate by-laws of the company that employed them. Where the alleged wrong

Mike Mitrovic
Sep 73 min read


Monitoring Counsel: The Value of a Second Opinion in Coverage Disputes
How many times have you found yourself in a compromising coverage dispute because of advice from counsel that causes huge reputational damage, gives competitors something to market against you, and ultimately impacts market penetration in a book of business, the way policies are priced, and the scope of coverage? For example, Directors & Officers (“D&O”) public company insurance has gone through an evolution since 1990 that has led to unfavorable results for the public compan

Mike Mitrovic
Aug 182 min read
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