As an integral part of the QBE Asia Pacific division, the Specialist Risks Unit team combines specialist product and claims expertise with local market knowledge.

Working as part of a cohesive network, team members apply their unique insights to benefit business and professional clients.

 

Defending litigation is time-consuming, emotionally draining and expensive and can present a huge distraction from the day-to-day running of your business.


Increasing Exposures
Today's businesses and professionals face increasing liability arising from:

  • Statutory exposures
  • Common law exposures
  • Contractual law exposures
  • Litigious society

For directors and officers, these exposures can spill over from their professional lives and impact on their personal assets. Exposures arise from company roles and those on trusts and associations, whether as a representative of the company or through a personal commitment of the individual.

Professional negligence has come under increasing scrutiny through the codes of conduct established by government authorities and professional associations. These exposures are sometimes carved in stone through legislation or contractual agreements.

As economies specialise production to gain the greatest utility from their resources, global trade will continue to increase. This increase in trade and a trend toward greater accountability have given marine liability exposures a higher priority for businesses.

Emerging Markets
Led by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and market globalisation, economic and political reform is moving ahead at a fast pace.

An increasing number of emerging economies are competing to attract overseas investment. In doing so, they impose regulations on local business that create a more stable and attractive investment environment for international business, but which also increase accountability and risk.

Unique Blend of Expertise
With a long commitment to the Asia Pacific markets, dating back to the late 1880s, QBE Insurance has amassed a wealth of local knowledge.

The company's experience in emerging as well as mature markets, combined with its specialist underwriting expertise, lets it provide a unique blend of market and product knowledge to benefit clients.

"We have product specialists and market specialists. The combination of their skills and experience is what makes the difference."

Teamwork is at the core of the QBE Specialist Risks Unit network. Each member of the network is an integral part of the local business as well as the regional team, which has created significant strength.

"It's a strength that goes beyond strategy and structure and into the culture of the organisation in a million and one practical ways. We're united by our very clear strategic intent and a healthy respect for the specialist knowledge of each member of the team, including that of our clients and intermediaries. "

 

Liability claims force companies to worry about immediate financial losses and ever more damaging long-term injuries to their reputations and future earning capacity.

Liability Claims Management
Liability claims force companies to worry about immediate financial losses and ever more damaging long-term injuries to their reputations and future earning capacity.

The ability to defend a claim, or settle when that is the right thing to do, is extremely important.

Not only does QBE meet the financial obligations set out in liability policies, we also manage the claim, enabling you to continue managing your business. This gives clients peace of mind during difficult times.

Costs of Defence
Because of the evolving litigious nature of our global village, claims are becoming more complex.

This has led to an escalation of defence costs. However, QBE seeks to use the best legal defence experts to obtain a successful result for clients.

QBE Specialist Risks policies provide cover for the costs of:

  • Investigation
  • Defence counsel
  • Damages awarded by the courts

The QBE Specialist Risks Unit brings together a network of specialist underwriting expertise across a range of insurance product categories including marine liability, information and communications liability, professional indemnity, directors & officers, trustees' liability, niche and customised liability.

Marine Liability Expertise
The QBE Specialist Risks Unit includes considerable expertise in the marine liability category. Most operations within the QBE Asia Pacific division offer marine cargo and hull products. This regional network provides a strong foundation of expertise on which to build our marine liability portfolio.

In line with this strategic intent, QBE Marine Risks Units have been established in Singapore, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Hong Kong. They offer marine liability products as well as traditional cargo and hull covers. The network continues to expand.

QBE expertise in the marine liability category includes marine professional negligence and protection and indemnity. The Specialist Risks Unit team is adding to its reputation with the development of innovative new products.

Specialist underwriters within the unit applied their expertise to develop a packaged marine liability policy for the transit sector.

"Through our product development and commitment to quality service, we are developing a reputation for service and technical expertise, attracting clients looking for a simple solution to a range of complex exposures in the marine liability category."

Drawing on its wide expertise in this area, the marine liability team has also developed a range of marine liability covers for various segments of the market, including ship repairers, charterers, small-craft owners and ship builders and owners. Clients appreciate the specialist expertise behind these tailored covers - and the security it offers.

Professional Indemnity Expertise
The Specialist Risks Unit network has a diversified portfolio of professional indemnity business. It offers a wide range of niche covers tailored to individual market segments.

The team has an entrepreneurial spirit and is dedicated to staying ahead of the constantly changing market.

"The team throughout the region has a lot of experience, and being a part of it is exhilarating. In today's market you have to be able to give your clients innovative alternatives to the insurance problems they face, and we can."

"We have a great depth of underwriting and business experience and are constantly coming up with insights into the changing market. It is important to develop fresh ideas that help protect clients from the increasing exposures they face."

Personal Liability Expertise (D&O)
 Today, directors, officers & trustees face increasing personal liability from their organisational roles. The Specialist Risks Unit team provides considerable expertise in this area and a range of specialist covers.

The team has helped the market evolve to include covers for trustees and officers of associations and trusts as well as the traditional covers for directors and officers of limited liability companies. It is an area of exposure of which many executives are completely unaware.

With the global nature of many Asian businesses, it is critical that directors and office bearers have protection for actions brought in significantly more litigious areas than what they are accustomed to in either their local market or the greater Asian market.

"It is scary to think that the personal assets of directors and senior executives are at risk. Some people don't realise that they could be personally liable for a something that happens in their organisational life."

"These days clients often hold multiple roles, and that means their exposures come from multiple fronts. But having one cover, say, for a company role, does not necessarily mean that you have cover for your role on the board of that charitable trust or as secretary of the local cricket club. It's vital to identity all the exposures and arrange specialist covers that will respond."

Information & Communications Technology
Liability Expertise
QBE attributes three factors to its growing success with specialist policies targeted to the information technology and communications sector:

  • insights into market issues and trends through segmentation
  • ability to really listen to customers and understand their problems
  • specialist expertise to develop innovative products tailored for the market

Our underwriting experts have developed a full range of policies, tailored to the needs of the information and communications sector. These include:

  • professional indemnity policies
  • product liability policies
  • products that combine professional indemnity covers under one policy
  • public liability policies

The underwriting specialists within QBE recognised that the communication and information sectors are now tightly inter-related and that traditional insurance policies were often not meeting the practical needs of clients.

If an IT professional designs and installs software or hardware that subsequently fails to meet expectations, is it a design error or installation error? Under competing policies, you may have to sue insurers to gain indemnity.

In the information & communications sector, product definition (into goods and services) is often a grey area, and with traditional policies it can represent the fine line on whether the policy will respond. QBE helps clients do away with this issue by offering a combined product liability and professional indemnity cover in a single policy.

Clearly, QBE believes it is essential to develop specialist products for different segments of the market.

"Software providers face different exposures to those encountered by hardware providers. Telecommunications providers face different problems again. This is a high stakes sector with complex exposures that need specialist insurance solutions - which is where we come in."

Niche Liability Expertise
The core areas of the Specialist Risks Unit business consist of directors & officers & trustees' personal liability, professional indemnity, information and communications liability and marine liability. But the expertise does not stop there.

As the exposures become more complex, it is increasingly important to develop a range of specialist covers that can be tailored to the individual client.

"We've developed solid experience in product liability, defamation liability and other niche areas. It is all about understanding the individual client's problem and using our local, regional and global expertise to provide a solution."

Tailoring is important, but sometimes it is not enough. International clients with very large exposures sometimes need policies that are completely customised to their organisation. It's an area that not only requires specialist expertise, but the ability to apply that expertise in a unique way for clients of considerable standing.

"When it comes to customised solutions, the QBE Specialist Risks Unit works hard to find a solution that works for both parties. We invest time with the client and their professional advisers to develop a customised policy that provides a long term solution, rather than just a quick fix."