Aon | Professional Services Practice
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April 2025 - Fiduciaries for employee benefit plans are often concerned about fiduciary liability. One way to think about this risk is to ask insurance companies providing fiduciary liability insurance coverage about what drives their pricing. See the results of Aon’s survey of top fiduciary liabili...
April 2025 - The Aon Professional Services Practice Loss Prevention team is delighted to share with you some of our insights that continue to attract readership and address issues of enduring relevance in 2025.
March 2025 - Market stability prevails in management liability lines as insurers continue to seek market share. However, expanding technologies, increased litigation and macroeconomic factors are causing growing uncertainty and underwriting concerns.
March 2025 - Securities class action filings increased year-over-year for the second consecutive year despite a continued drop in filings under the Securities Act of 1933. In 2024, overall core filing volume increased to 225 – an increase from 2023’s 215. 1933 Act filings fell to 21, likely due to f...
March 2025 - The February Bybit breach marks one of the largest crypto-related security incidents in history. It underscores how digital asset custody remains a major concern to the continued growth of crypto markets.
March 2025 - Watch Aon’s February Quarterly Insights Series webinar on Navigating Artificial Intelligence with panelists from Aon, IBM, Microsoft and Greenberg Traurig sharing insights into the current state AI risk management and the ability of AI to transform employee talent within organizations.
March 2025 - Insurance captives are an important risk financing tool for professional service firms. Once an insurance captive is formed, it is crucial for long-term success to have a clear purpose and strategy around its investment portfolio. This Insight reviews the high level investment considera...
March 2025 - “We’re All in This Together: The Case for Purple Teaming” reviews available cyber security testing strategies and the benefits of ‘purple team’ testing.
February 2025 - On February 3rd, Aon Commercial Risk Solutions (U.S.) reported the public Directors’ & Officers’ (D&O) liability pricing for the three months ended December 31, 2024.
February 2025 - This edition of the Quarterly Review reflects on the SEC’s involvement in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity matters with case discussions centering on several exclusions often found in management liability policies, including the contract exclusion and the insured v. insured ...
February 2025 - The cryptocurrency industry has witnessed a disturbing trend of high-profile kidnappings targeting its leaders.
February 2025 - Johannes S. Kingma (Joe), who specializes in defending accounting firms against professional liability claims and advises on pertinent risk management issues, shares insights on how firms can best leverage resources to prepare for, address, manage and conclude claims efficiently.
February 2025 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon is pleased to bring relevant and timely Insights to professional service firms. Our Archive contains over 200 Insights.
January 2025 - The risk management community is considering the threats posed by new and emerging risks. One potential solution being discussed is deploying captive underwriting capacity.
January 2025 - In this report, our placement team shares their thoughts on market conditions and renewal results in the professional indemnity insurance market for law firms and accounting firms across EMEA.
January 2025 - As the cyber threat landscape changes due the introduction of new threat surfaces from AI-driven solutions, ever-increasing sophistication of attacks, and pressure from regulatory bodies, increased collaboration is required within organizations to prioritize the most critical security...
December 2024 - The Legal & Claims practice within the Financial Services Group at Aon has published the Q3 2024 Quarterly Review.
December 2024 - As the Loss Prevention Team of the Professional Service Practice at Aon (PSP) looks ahead to 2025, we have been reflecting on current market and risk trends identified through Aon’s extensive data and relationships in the professional services and insurance sectors, as well as our la...
December 2024 - In February 2024, Professional Services Practice’s Loss Prevention team launched a survey of general counsels of large and sophisticated law firms across the United States to explore their policies and practices relating to a number of important professional responsibility and liabil...
December 2024 - As healthcare costs continue to rise and become less predictable, benefits and finance leaders at U.S. professional service firms are increasingly looking to fine-tune risk transfer strategies for their self-insured medical plans. This renewed attention is driven by a confluence of f...
December 2024 - The Professional Services Practice (PSP) at Aon is pleased to bring together subject matter specialists to review the risk and human capital environment that faced professional service firms in 2024 and make some predictions for 2025.
November 2024 - It was a great privilege to attend and participate in “A World in Disarray?”, Swiss Re’s 15th Conference for Large Accounting Firms held in October 2024. Here are some personal thoughts that were inspired by the dialogue and that appear relevant to the worlds of uncertainty, risk, an...
November 2024 - Aon’s Professional Services Practice held its 21st annual Law Firm Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona, from October 23-25, 2024. The Symposium is the premier risk management event for large and sophisticated law firms and the insurers that serve them.
November 2024 - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced an increased scrutiny around AI washing, including a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) disclosures related to financial institutions.
October 2024 - On October 28th, Aon Commercial Risk Solutions (U.S.) reported the public Directors’ & Officers’ (D&O) liability pricing for the three months ended September 30, 2024.
October 2024 - For firms that provide consulting services, Professional Liability (PL) insurance provides broad financial protection against third party E&O claims for advice and services rendered to clients. The risks of not carrying this type of insurance are high, as it can adversely affect the f...
Best Practices
October 2024 - On October 15th, 2024, Nick Reider, Amy Jennings, and Brian Lichter joined guest thought leaders, Dominique Shelton Leipzig and Avi Gesser, for a discussion around evolving risks related to artificial intelligence.
October 2024 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon’s Keith Tracey uses Aon’s Business Decision Maker Survey to further discuss Megatrends and how professional service firms can extend their approach to risk management to help their organizations adapt.
October 2024 - Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is rapidly evolving along with the associated risks. The evolving AI regulatory landscape and the uptick in litigation arising out of AI disclosures underscore the importance of managing these risks with directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance....
October 2024 - October’s Cyber Awareness Month is a time to consider the cyber landscape and how professional service firms can build resilience, plan and practice responses to attacks and make their contribution to securing our world.
September 2024 - The Loss Prevention team is pleased to share with you our Law Firm Advisory for Q3 2024, featuring some recent insights from our Professional Services Practice colleagues on risk transfer and risk management issues, from the question of what level of professional indemnity insurance...
September 2024 - Aon analyzes employee perception about return to office policies following the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as recent actions one organization took for alleged lack of remote employee productivity.
September 2024 - Graeme Hudson and Ghonche Alavi from Crisis24 discuss Crisis24’s approach to Political Evacuation and Threat Management with Cara LaTorre from the Financial Services Group at Aon.
September 2024 - Aon’s Third Quarter 2024 Employment Practices Liability (EPL) Advisor includes insights on notable court cases and employment practices risk issues, focusing on legal trends and law changes, the evolving insurance marketplace, and claims examples.
September 2024 - The Legal & Claims practice within the Financial Services Group at Aon has published the Q2 2024 Quarterly Review.
August 2024 - Join us for a discussion around practical points and pitfalls in cyber governance against the backdrop of increasingly sophisticated threat actors, new cyber disclosure requirements, and heightened scrutiny from regulators, shareholders, consumers, and others.
August 2024 - Aon’s D&O Risk Analyzer helps brokers guide public companies as they discuss how this crucial coverage integrates into their strategic risk management and into optimizing capital.
August 2024 - U.S. law firms often ask how much Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance limit is enough? What does the firm really need to protect itself?.
July 2024 - Aon Cyber Solutions issued an alert on July 19 that provides an overview of the current global IT outage related to a CrowdStrike update. Cyber Solutions comments on CrowdStrike’s response and guidance and gives recommendations for affected firms.
July 2024 - The Professional Services Practice’s Loss Prevention team discusses important professional responsibility considerations for law firms considering sharing office space with other lawyers, including the duty of confidentiality to clients, clearly communicating the relationship between the...
July 2024 - Competition for top talent has always been intense, but the stakes are particularly high for professional services firms because human capital is their most crucial asset and a key source of growth and innovation.
July 2024 - Tom Ricketts, Cyber Practice Leader of the Professional Services Practice at Aon, discusses how indispensable tabletop simulations are in allowing professional service firms to better prepare and respond to cyber-attacks.
June 2024 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon’s Keith Tracey discusses the Aon 2024 Client Trends Report, its relevance to professional service firms and some possible responses.
June 2024 - To merge or demerge? Sometimes the deal gets done, sometimes it’s all just talk. A dynamic law firm deal landscape has recently featured a big transatlantic merger and a notable decoupling of big firms.
June 2024 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon recently deployed a pulse survey of our law firm clients to gather data about how large law firms are thinking about a variety of human capital topics.
June 2024 - In 2022 and 2023, the potential impact of economic and claims inflation was a worry for insurers, reinsurers, and professional service firms.
June 2024 - 2024 Accountants’ Liability Risk: Global Trends and Issues provides insights into current global trends and risk issues facing the accounting industry and is produced by the Risk Management Information team of the Professional Services Practice at Aon.
June 2024 - In April 2024, by a vote of 3-2, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its final noncompete rule, banning employers from using such agreements in the workplace.
May 2024 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon’s Keith Tracey considers an increasingly complex risk environment and questions how risks can be categorized so that they are properly owned within the risk function of a professional service firm.
May 2024 - The only thing worse than being hit by a cyber-attack is finding that your cyber program limits are insufficient to pay the full amount of the loss. Cyber insurance is no longer cheap and nobody wants to pay for insurance limits that may never be used. In a dynamic threat environment wher...
May 2024 - Aon’s Financial Services Group’s Adam Furmansky and Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Kevin Small and Alice Weeks discuss the evolving nature of social engineering claims and the importance of understanding the breadth of coverage under a crime policy.
May 2024 - In Muldrow v. St. Louis, 2020 WL 5505113, a female police sergeant filed a discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after losing nonmonetary benefits when being involuntarily transferred to another position. The Muldrow decision resolved a circuit split over wh...
May 2024 - In April, the Illinois Senate passed SB 2979, a bill that aims to reform the statutory damages component of the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The proposed changes to Illinois’s biometric law could prove favorable for companies and insureds by significantly reducing financial l...
May 2024 - Today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape extends beyond digital risks. Physical security is essential to managing overall risk and ensuring safety and protection for your most vital resources – people, property, and assets. Workplace violence poses significant risks if firms fail to adeq...
May 2024 - The Art & Collections Practice at Aon Private Risk Management discusses how professionals can take steps to protect their high value personal items, with a focus on jewelry.
April 2024 - On April 29th, the Financial Services Group at Aon published the Pricing Index for Public D&O insurance for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The pricing index tracks premium changes relative to the base year of 2001.
April 2024 - Cyber Attacks or Data Breaches are the number one risk facing organizations globally and is predicted to remain in this position in 2026, according to Aon’s Global Risk Management Survey.
April 2024 - Dramatic changes in the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape over the past year could have a material impact on directors’ and officers’ (D&O) liability.
March 2024 - On March 6th, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted final rules to require public companies (including foreign private issuers) to disclose climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports filed with the SEC.
March 2024 - Aon’s Design and Construction Team reviews global market trends for Architects & Engineers and Contractors in Sentinel Issue 22: Q1 2024 Design and Construction Professional Liability.
February 2024 - In late 2023, the Professional Services Practice at Aon deployed a pulse survey designed to gather data about how large law firms are thinking about a variety of employee and partner benefit topics.
February 2024 - The Professional Services Practice’s Keith Tracey summarizes the Aon’s GRMS 2024 results, compares them to the GRMS 2021 and other surveys and comments on the value of surveys and how professional service firms can use them to make better decisions about enterprise risk management.
February 2024 - On February 5th, the Financial Services Group at Aon published the Pricing Index for Public D&O insurance for the three months ended December 31, 2023. The pricing index tracks premium changes relative to the base year of 2001.
February 2024 - In recent years, companies have experienced a continued escalation in the risk and impact of cyber events. As a result, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recognized in its recent rulemaking the importance of company transparency with investors and regulators around cyb...
January 2024 - Following the release of Aon’s Using a Captive Insurance Company to Drive Positive ESG Outcomes, the Professional Services Practice shares further insights on how captive insurance companies can help support the sustainability strategies of their professional service firm parents.
January 2024 - In December 2023, the Financial Services Group at Aon, based on insights from an insurer outlook survey, provided a recap of the directors and officers (D&O) market in 2023 and a look at what is ahead in 2024 for capacity, coverage, rates and underwriter market sentiment.
January 2024 - The Legal & Claims practice within the Financial Services Group at Aon discusses several cases of interest in executive liability and insurance in the latest edition of the Legal & Claims Quarterly Review.
January 2024 - As 2024 begins, the Professional Services Practice’s Keith Tracey reflects on the upheavals of 2023 and solutions that may be useful in the current professional service firm risk environment.
December 2023 - It is now clear that lawyers’ mental health is a major concern for law firms. Lawyers experience disturbing rates of anxiety, depression, and stress; numerous lawyers qualify as problem drinkers; substance abuse plagues our profession; and a distressing number of lawyers have contemp...
December 2023 - The importance of information privacy has been highlighted by key developments over the last few years. One of the most important has been the growth in oversight. The data privacy sphere is vitally important to professional service firms as they handle vast amounts of confidential c...
December 2023 - The failures of some significant financial institutions in 2023 has increased challenges to the sector. The regional bank stress events sharpened fidelity/crime underwriters’ awareness of internal and external controls related to their insured’s risks and their fraud threat environme...
November 2023 - The Professional Services Practice (PSP) at Aon is pleased to present its first end-of-year review of the risk landscape for professional service firms. The review provides risk and human capital insights to aid professional service firms in their planning and decision making.
November 2023 - Professional service firms are facing an increasing number of challenges. Rapidly evolving client needs, changing legal and regulatory requirements, changes in service lines, accelerated technology evolution and the need to attract and retain high-quality talent in an environment of ...
November 2023 - As technological tools continue to advance, many design professionals are emerging as technology product designers and technology service providers. This creates new risk profiles not all of which are protected by traditional professional risks insurance policies. Designers must unde...
November 2023 - Information security professionals are facing unprecedented levels of stress due to a sustained increase in cybercrime, a shortage of qualified information security personnel, regulatory actions and AI-driven changes to the threat environment.
November 2023 - The global mobile biometric market is expected to grow over 20 percent by 2028 according to a recent report. What are biometric identifiers? How are they used in the employment context?
November 2023 - In July 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted new cyber-related disclosure rules, and the Financial Services Group at Aon discussed the increasing cybersecurity risks that companies and their directors and officers (D&Os) face. Many of these risks have mater...
October 2023 - The Financial Services Group at Aon’s Fall 2023 EPL and Wage & Hour advisor includes insights on notable Supreme Court cases, artificial intelligence usage, and employment practices risk issues, focusing on legal trends and law changes, the evolving marketplace, and class action claim...
October 2023 - On October 30th, the Financial Services Group at Aon published the Pricing Index for Public D&O insurance for the three months ended September 30, 2023. The pricing index tracks premium changes relative to the base year of 2001.
May 2023 - In a September bulletin, the Professional Services Practice’s Loss Prevention team discusses risk considerations for lawyers who form business entities for clients in light of new reporting requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act that go into effect on January 1, 2024.
October 2023 - A drug class known as GLP-1 receptor agonists or simply “GLP-1s” (e.g., Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic) has been used for several years to help control type 2 diabetes. Weight loss associated with its use was considered nothing more than a positive side effect until 2021, when the U.S. FDA ap...
October 2023 - Companies running defined benefit (DB) pension schemes often aim to discharge pensions risk by insuring through bulk annuities. An alternative approach, which avoids this external insurance cost and allows surplus pension assets to be paid back to the sponsoring employer, is to self-i...
October 2023 - The Financial Services Group at Aon’s Fall 2023 EPL and Wage & Hour advisor includes insights on notable Supreme Court cases, artificial intelligence usage, and employment practices risk issues, focusing on legal trends and law changes, the evolving marketplace, and class action claim...
October 2023 - Following a tradition started in 2004, when the federal government of the U.S. designated October as Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Professional Service Practice of Aon is highlighting...
October 2023 - In January I boldly made some predictions on the anticipated major cyber security challenges for professional service firms in 2023. Cyber October seemed like the ideal opportunity to review whether I was badly wrong or depressingly right.
October 2023 - A ransomware group most commonly referred to as “Scattered Spider” has been highlighted in the cyber security media as a troublesome threat actor.
September 2023 - Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agendas challenge corporate boards of directors and leadership with an intricate web of expectations. Many boards have embraced ESG to align with sustainable practices and address ESG concerns.
September 2023 - Matthew A. Taylor, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Duane Morris LLP, shares insights on overcoming today’s challenge of developing a strategy for success while building upon a culture that places client and colleague relationships first.
(BEC)
August 2023 - Law firms have long been among the more frequent and lucrative targets for social engineering fraud. In 2013 a fraudster was indicted for stealing over $70 million from US and Canadian law firms, using variations on the “debt collection” scam. This form of scam has never gone away and ...
August 2023 - In this edition we highlight several developments, including special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) litigation and an opinion whereby the court dismissed litigation over pre-merger statements.
August 2023 - Aon’s 2023 Cyber Resilience Report is a guide that company leaders can use to help benchmark their organization’s risk maturity against peer companies and build their cyber resilience.
August 2023 - Our previous article discussed the skills required of a Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at a professional service firm. Much of the broader discussion of the role’s required qualities focuses on the commonly attributed qualities of leadership.
Practices
August 2023 - In two recent decisions, the United State Supreme Court ruled that the use of race as a factor in the college admissions process is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
August 2023 - Marielle van de Weijenberg, Managing Director of Aon Professional Services in Amsterdam discusses the inescapable need for Dutch firms to be serious about risk management.
August 2023 - How will Artificial Intelligence (AI) create risk in the context of employment contracts? AI is defined by the United States Congress as a “machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or vir...
August 2023 - In recent years, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors have emerged as key considerations for boards of directors. As businesses face mounting pressure to address societal and environmental challenges, many boards have embraced ESG principles to align their organizations ...
July 2023 - On July 31st, the Financial Services Group at Aon published the Pricing Index for Public D&O insurance for the three months ended June 30, 2023. The pricing index tracks premium changes relative to the base year of 2001.
July 2023 - The Legal & Claims practice within the Financial Services Group at Aon discusses several cases of interest in executive liability and insurance in the latest edition of the Legal & Claims Quarterly Review.
July 2023 - Our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) series has emphasized the connection between resilience and risk management. The recent evolution in the risk landscape has suggested that the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) role is a valuable tool for professional service firms.
July 2023 - The deal landscape for professional service firms is being shaped by factors new and old – as firms navigate this space, it is crucial to consider the relevant risk trends and requisite due diligence processes.
June 2023 - Enterprise risk management is important to professional service firms in building resilience. However, even firms with well-established and monitored risk controls will experience losses. This article will examine some reasons these losses are occurring.
June 2023 - On May 31, 2023, Aon hosted a live webinar featuring United States Congressman Bill Foster, Physics PhD and immediate past chair of the House Financial Services Committee Task Force on AI. The webinar focused on use cases for artificial intelligence (AI), the potential risks and benefits...
June 2023 - In a May bulletin, Professional Services Practice’s Loss Prevention team discusses the risks of lawyers’ use of ChatGPT and other publicly available generative AI tools and provides a prototype law firm policy on the use of ChatGPT and similar generative AI platforms.
June 2023 - The Financial Services Group at Aon has published the nineteenth edition of the Year in Review, which covers notable legal and claims developments in 2022, as well as trends to watch in 2023. This edition includes case summaries of decisions involving executive liability lines of coverag...
May 2023 - Long-term care (LTC) services are expensive and many Americans don’t have enough savings to cover the growing costs. Some U.S. states are responding by establishing payroll taxes to fund public benefit pools.
May 2023 - The Financial Services Group at Aon’sQ2 2023 EPL advisor includes insights on employment practices risk issues, with particular focus on legal trends and law changes, the evolving marketplace, and claims.
May 2023 - Aon’s Design and Construction Team review market trends for Architects & Engineers and Contractors in Sentinel Issue 21: Q2 2023 Design and Construction Professional Liability.
May 2023 - On May 1st, the Financial Services Group at Aon published the Pricing Index for Public D&O insurance for the three months ended March 31, 2023. The pricing index tracks premium changes relative to the base year of 2001.
May 2023 - Professional Services Practice’s Loss Prevention team reports on a recent opinion by the Illinois State Bar Association that highlights the limits of the temporary practice safe harbors under Illinois’ version of ABA Model Rule 5.5(c).
April 2023 - Professional Services Practice at Aon’s Risk Management Information team’s annual Accountants’ Liability Risk: Global Trends and Issues provides insights into current global trends and risk issues facing the accounting industry.
April 2023 - January 2023’s new IFRS 17 standards increased the attention and engagement required from insurers when undertaking the process of risk assessment and quantification.
March 2023 - The Legal & Claims practice within the Financial Services Group at Aon discusses several cases of interest in executive liability and insurance in the latest edition of the Legal & Claims Quarterly Review.
March 2023 - The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and the banking crisis that has ensued is causing considerable fear, uncertainty and doubt throughout the technology, finance and related sectors. The impact that this has on cyber risk may not be everyone’s first thought, but hackers regard this ...
March 2023 - In an article from the Quality Assurance Review, Winter 2023, Doug Richmond, who leads Professional Services Practice’s Loss Prevention team, addresses the potential legal malpractice and statutory liability lawyers may face in the wake of a breach of their duties of confidenti...
March 2023 - In 2022 Year in Review, Professional Services Practice’s Risk Management Information team reviews the English language press to provide the accounting profession with a curated selection of significant events impacting the risk landscape. This article summarizes the highlights of that r...
March 2023 - On March 10, 2023, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of the assets of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 16th largest bank in the U.S. The collapse has been dominating headlines.
March 2023 - Professional Service firms performed well during the past three difficult years, demonstrating resilience. What are the lessons for enterprise risk management from this performance?
March 2023 - The practicality and implications of a broad ransomware payment prohibition has been much discussed by politicians at the state and federal level over the past few years.
February 2023 - Tom Ricketts, Professional Services Practice’s Cyber Leader, discusses seven cyber challenges that professional service firms will face in 2023 on Aon North American Insights.
February 2023 - Matt Boynton, Edward Johnson and Nicola Willison from the Kidnap, Extortion and Threat Response Team for Control Risks discuss the evolving nature of kidnap and ransom risk and provide useful tips for loss prevention with Cara LaTorre from the Financial Services Group at Aon.
February 2023 - On February 6th, the Financial Services Group at Aon published the Pricing Index for Public D&O insurance for the three months ended December 31, 2022. The pricing index tracks premium changes relative to the base year of 2001.
Ahead to 2023
January 2023 - In The Management Liability Market in 2022 and a look ahead to 2023 the Financial Services Group at Aon recaps the public and private and nonprofit management liability marketplace in 2022. The discussion includes directors and officers (D&O), fiduciary, employment practices liability...
January 2023 - An important issue has emerged in the London Market relating to the treatment of cyber risk within Professional Indemnity (E&O policy) and other non-cyber policies.
January 2023 - After two years of significant revenue growth, many law firms are evaluating strategies to balance an economic slowdown with an increase in compensation and other expenses.
January 2023 - Law firms engage a variety of vendors and third parties in their practices, including document review services, e-discovery providers, temporary staff and lawyer services, cloud storage providers, recruiters and placement services, and more.
December 2022 - Globally, the directors and officers (D&O) insurance market is experiencing clear and consistent signs of softening, with flat to decreasing premiums and significant increases in capacity, after three years of a hard market. This trend is expected to continue into 2023.
December 2022 - It was a great privilege to attend Swiss Re’s 14th Conference for Large Accounting Firms in October 2022, where many of the major risk trends facing the world today were discussed. Here are some takeaways from the event.
December 2022 - The Legal & Claims practice within the Financial Services Group at Aon discusses several cases of interest in executive liability and insurance in the latest edition of the Legal & Claims Quarterly Review.
November 2022 - More than 24 months after COVID-19 closed offices around the world and suspended almost all business travel, we are starting to witness a sustained and meaningful return to office-based work and other pre-pandemic professional activities.
November 2022 - Topics in Risk Retention discusses the determination of the “right” self-insured retention, the possible use of captives and actuarial considerations in discussions of risk retention. PSP hopes that this resource will remain a real-time guide for insurance negotiations and a...
November 2022 - Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is an organization wide framework employing a range of resources with full executive participation and support. Commonly used adjectives to describe the approach are structured, continuous, and consistent. It avoids internal silos and looks at the ful...
November 2022 - On October 31st, the Financial Services Group at Aon published the Pricing Index for Public D&O insurance for the three months ended September 30, 2022. The pricing index tracks premium changes relative to the base year of 2001.
October 2022 - Public company directors and officers are facing increasing pressure from stakeholders – investors, shareholders, employees, customers, and regulators – to take a more proactive stance on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues.
October 2022 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon’s Design and Construction Team review market trends for Architects & Engineers and Contractors in Sentinel Issue 20: Q4 2022 Design and Construction Professional Liability.
October 2022 - In an article from the Quality Assurance Review, Fall 2022, Professional Services Practice’s Loss Prevention team addresses the standards that courts apply and the facts and circumstances they consider in deciding whether data breach consultants’ reports and related communications are...
October 2022 - The Aon Loss Prevention team reports on the results of its comprehensive survey of law firm general counsels, managing partners, and chief information security officers about their firms’ cybersecurity infrastructure and the top cyber challenges they face, from data privacy law compli...
Retirement
October 2022 - Corporations have been using life insurance to finance executive benefit plans for at least 40 years. Why? The unique tax attributes of life insurance make it a vehicle that can provide above market returns on an after-tax basis.
October 2022 - Since 2004 the President and Congress have declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month. In support of this tradition, the Professional Services Practice at Aon is highlighting the cyber risk faced by professional services firms and bringing you thought leadership and solution...
September 2022 - The COVID world has stimulated thinking around the nature of risk and the significance of unexpected and severe external shocks. This has coincided with the firming of the insurance market after a long soft market cycle. There has consequently been a renewed focus on the role of cap...
September 2022 - As discussed in the Professional Services Practice’s “Looking Ahead: Top Risks Facing Professional Service Firms in 2022 and Beyond” Cyber-attack/data breach was the top rated risk facing firms in 2022. Business interruption was rated 4th in the same Global Risk Management Survey. A...
September 2022 - On September 15, 2022, the Professional Services Practice at Aon joined forces with Krill Strategies to host the Work/Life Benefits and Wellbeing at U.S. Law Firms webinar.
September 2022 - With design and build contracts on the rise in the U.S., we look at what lessons contractors are learning from experiences in the U.K., particularly around fitness for purpose provisions and professional liability (called ‘professional indemnity’ outside of U.S. and Canada) insuranc...
September 2022 - The Construction Professional Liability team at Aon hosted a two day in-person event on June 1st and 2nd, 2022 at The Chicago Fairmont Millennium Park Hotel.
September 2022 - The Legal & Claims practice within the Financial Services Group at Aon discusses several cases of interest in executive liability and insurance in the latest edition of the Legal & Claims Quarterly Review.
August 2022 - As awareness over corporate social responsibility continues to grow, professional service firms may need to review and revise their risk appetite and strengthen due diligence protocols. This article will provide an overview of some notable stories from recent years involving due dilige...
August 2022 - The Legal & Claims practice within the Financial Services Group at Aon has published the eighteenth edition of the Year in Review. This edition includes case summaries of decisions involving executive liability lines of coverage, including professional liability, cyber-related matters,...
August 2022 - On August 1st, the Financial Services Group at Aon published the Pricing Index for Public D&O insurance for the for the three months ended June 30, 2022. The pricing index tracks premium changes relative to the base year of 2001.
August 2022 - In our September 2021 article “Ensuring your firm’s DE&I strategy includes employee benefits”, we explored how professional service firms might go about weaving organizational DE&I commitments into their employee benefit plans. In this article, we plan to focus on a specific solution t...
July 2022 - Conditions in the global insurance market have changed quite dramatically since 2020. The trends were underway for several years previously but were accelerated by COVID-19, which has triggered losses in several insurance lines and the market correction.
July 2022 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon shares further insights to help firms make better decisions about risk retention and which risks to cover in a captive.
June 2022 - The role of professional service firms in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is continuing to evolve. Firms need to address ESG issues on many fronts – from their own policies and practices to their role in ESG reporting and consulting. It is essential for professional service fi...
June 2022 - In a follow-up to Looking ahead: how can an effective succession plan help law firms prepare for an uncertain future?, Robert (Bobby) Gerber, Managing Partner, and Scott Fisher, Partner and former Managing Partner, of US law firm Neal Gerber Eisenberg discuss the challenges and successes...
June 2022 - Insurers are increasingly asking for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Personal Health Information (PHI) record counts as part of the underwriting process and it is important for insureds to have made a good faith effort to identify the number of records and provide a reasone...
June 2022 - The evolving data privacy landscape continues to hold the attention of professional service firms. Below is a selection of high-profile data privacy stories from 2021 and early 2022, involving regulatory enforcement, cybersecurity and other issue.
May 2022 - On May 2nd, the Financial Services Group at Aon published the Pricing Index for Public D&O insurance for the three months ended March 31, 2022. The pricing index tracks premium changes relative to the base year of 2001.
May 2022 - On 31 March 2022, Dominic Christian, Global Chairman Reinsurance Solutions at Aon, member of the Aon Global Executive and Deputy Chairman of Lloyd’s, hosted a webinar that reviewed the complex topic of ESG through the lens of socially ethical business practices.
May 2022 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon’s Design and Construction Team review North American market trends for Architects & Engineers and Contractors in Sentinel Issue 19: Q2 2022 Design and Construction Professional Liability.
May 2022 - In February 2022, the Professional Services Practice at Aon’s Health and Benefits team conducted a survey focused on four key areas: Time Away, Family Building, Wellbeing Programs, and the Future of Work.
April 2022 - We previously discussed what learning can be taken from Aon’s risk survey. Now we will discuss the response and consider if COVID has changed risk management.
April 2022 - The Financial Services Group at Aon discusses the evolution of cyber risk to include business interruption and ransomware in January 2022’s Cyber Risk is Directors’ and Officers’ Risk.
April 2022 - In 2021 Year in Review, Professional Services Practice’s Risk Management Information team reviews the English language press to provide the accounting profession with a curated selection of significant events impacting the risk landscape. This article summarizes the highlights of that r...
April 2022 - Expand Upon a Culture of Caring: How Law Firms’ Long-Term Sustainability Depends on DE&I.
March 2022 - The Financial Services Group at Aon discusses excessive fee litigation trends and some best practices for Risk and Benefit Plan managers in 2022’s Fiduciary Liability: Excessive Fee Risk.
March 2022 - The Financial Services Group at Aon discusses January 2022 Delaware legislation permitting captives to provide D&O insurance.
March 2022 - Firms continue to expand their legal and advisory services, as well as make technological advancements in both their operations, and client products and service offerings. For example, the Big 4 are active in advising on the digitization of healthcare, enhancing remote and data-driven c...
March 2022 - How are we to use the results of surveys to assess and prepare for the major risks affecting professional service firms?
February 2022 - Jared Bartie, a nationally recognized sports attorney and chair of the Sports Transactions Practice at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, shares his experiences of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and discusses the value of representation.
February 2022 - Black Swan events are sudden shocks that could not have been foreseen or predicted. Grey Swan events are predictable but unlikely surprises. Like Black Swans, their impact can be severe.
February 2022 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon share insights to help firms navigate the insurance market in the tenth article in a series exploring risk retention.
February 2022 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon share insights to help firms navigate the insurance market in the ninth article in a series exploring risk retention.
January 2022 - As one of the most targeted industry sectors, professional service firms must carefully consider the implications of responding to ransomware demands.
January 2022 - The Financial Services Group and the ESG Council at Aon discusses climate-related risk and D&O litigation in 2021’s Directors’ and Officer’s Liability Update - The “E” in ESG
2022
January 2022 - The Financial Services Group at Aon discusses an insurance sector of importance to professional services firms in December 2021’s Management Liability Market Insights: 2021 Reflections and 2022 Outlook
Captives
January 2022 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon share insights to help firms navigate a hardening insurance market in the eighth article in a series exploring risk retention.
January 2022 - The Professional Services Practice at Aon share insights to help firms navigate a hardening insurance market in the seventh article in a series exploring risk retention.
December 2021 - Looking ahead at the key risks facing professional service firms, experienced professionals from the Professional Service Practice at Aon provide qualitative insights and commentary on results of the Aon Global Risk Management Survey.
December 2021 - Even before the pandemic, discussions around well-being in the legal profession had taken center stage with the 2016 landmark study published by the American Bar Association and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being’s release of
November 2021 - In its latest white paper, Aon Cyber Solutions explores “how doing business with the U.S. government can cost millions under the False Claims Act,” and offers proactive steps that professional services firms can take to manage these risks when working with the federal government, its...
November 2021 - The global markets for both annual corporate policies and project specific insurance for architects/engineers (A&E) and contractors have continued to experience capacity deterioration alongside rate increases. And these restrictions come at a time when the demand for project specific...
October 2021 - Aon’s Professional Services Practice share insights to help firms navigate a hardening insurance market in the sixth article in a series exploring risk retention.
October 2021 - Aon’s Professional Services Practice share insights to help firms navigate a hardening insurance market in the fifth article in a series exploring risk retention.
October 2021 - As demonstrated by the ABA Wellbeing Pledge, firms are taking action to support a healthy workplace and the mental health of their employees. The COVID-19 pandemic has exponentially increased levels of employee stress, burnout and anxiety over the last 18 months. This has highlighted ...
September 2021 - The global pandemic and the wide ranging social justice protests of 2020 (such as Black Lives Matter) have highlighted material disparities (as well as instances of institutionalized racism) in healthcare access, treatment, and outcomes across race and gender. These events have push...
September 2021 - Liliana Chang, a partner in the corporate department at the U.S. based law firm of Herrick, Feinstein LLP shares her experiences of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and discusses how law firms must work to create and maintain a culture of caring to build long-term su...
September 2021 - Aon’s Professional Services Practice share insights to help firms navigate a hardening insurance market in the fourth article in a series exploring risk retention.
September 2021 - Aon’s Professional Services Practice share insights to help firms navigate a hardening insurance market in the third article in a series exploring risk retention.
August 2021 - Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are increasingly important to global companies, and professional service firms are not exempt.
August 2021 - Aon’s Professional Services Practice share insights to help firms navigate a hardening insurance market in the second article in a series exploring risk retention.
August 2021 - Aon’s Professional Services Practice share insights to help firms navigate a hardening insurance market in the first article in a series exploring risk retention.
August 2021 - Aon’s Professional Services Practice share a series of articles exploring risk retention to help professional service firms navigate a hardening insurance market.
July 2021 - Three years after its enactment, enforcement of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been successfully challenged in some cases, with regulators also reducing a number of significant fines that they originally imposed.
June 2021 - Aon’s Construction Professional Liability team hosted a four-part webinar series on June 10th and 11th, 2021. Recordings of the sessions are available upon request to our clients, prospects and insurer partners.
June 2021 - The ransomware epidemic is growing exponentially and is assuming geopolitical importance. The research company Cybersecurity Ventures predicts the global cost of cybercrime will reach $6 trillion in 2021.
June 2021 - Suzanne Jakstavich, Chief Human Resources Officer at the national law firm, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, discusses the people challenges faced by law and other professional service firms as they respond to the critical issues driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, and prepare for the rapidly chan...
June 2021 - The COVID-19 pandemic has created sustained economic uncertainty in both the construction and global insurance industries. And professional liability coverage for constructors and designers has indeed been swept up in this insecurity.
June 2021 - Leaders and risk managers have been tested over the last fifteen months. The challenges facing both have been characterized by uncertainty and complexity. Leadership is of course about deployment of resources and therefore about choices, which today often involve ambiguity.
May 2021 - “Trusted advisor” has become a much-discussed term in the business press. The Professional Services Practice at Aon provides some thoughts on what constitutes a trusted advisor and value that they bring to a law firm.
May 2021 - Ransomware is a leading risk for professional service firms in 2021 – Aon’s Cyber Solutions Group statistics show that ransomware attacks have increased 486% in two years. A recent report from Coveware, a leading extortion negotiator, shows that professional services is now...
remotely?
May 2021 - Since the outbreak of COVID-19, global immobility and social distancing measures have triggered a radical shift in working practices for professional service firms. Remote working has enabled firms to remain operational, but prolonged social isolation is impacting employee wellbeing.
April 2021 - Starting approximately in 2005, the fiduciary liability insurance market has borne the extraordinary costs of settling “excessive fee” class action lawsuits against insured corporations. Excessive fee litigation generally alleges that fiduciaries of employer-sponsored retirement...
April 2021 - The events of 2020 have heightened focus on human capital risk. Not only are firms concerned with the ability to attract and retain talent, they are also increasingly concerned about the health and wellbeing of employees. The accounting profession is dependent on human...
April 2021 - Actuarial models can be powerful quantification tools to assist professional service firms in making informed decisions about their insurance risk strategy. The costs associated with alternative insurance program structures (retentions and limits) can be estimated by using actuarial...
March 2021 - Across the world, businesses are operating amid a global economic downturn, geopolitical instability, trade embargos and sanctions and rapidly changing commercial demands. Accelerated by the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, debts now represent 40% of current assets...
firms
February 2021 - As professional service firms continue to respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, employee wellbeing remains an absolute priority. The pandemic has created several significant safety challenges for risk managers, including the enhanced risks around air travel.
February 2021 - Lawyers working remotely from a jurisdiction where they are not licensed to practice likely do not need to be concerned about the unauthorized practice of law (“UPL”) if they are temporarily practicing there due to the pandemic. But temporary remote work locations may ultimately beco...
February 2021 - What lessons can professional service firms draw from recent events to enhance the practice of risk management? Daniel Defoe’s, A Journal of the Plague Year, concerning the Great Plague of 1665, illustrates that history has many lessons to teach us about pandemics.
February 2021 - Amid the ongoing economic and global health crises, Aon’s latest Law Firm Health Trends and Data Insights – 2020 Plan Year report finds that most law firms’ benefit packages remained relatively stable during 2020. Only a few firms adopted aggressive changes in plan design or structur...
January 2021 - Law firms must plan carefully to provide sufficient retirement benefits to key partners. As senior partners look to retire and give up their equity, younger partners must ensure the firm has a viable plan in place to fund partner retirement benefits.
January 2021 - Scott Fisher, Managing Partner of US law firm Neal Gerber Eisenberg, shares his experiences of his leadership transition and advice for effective succession planning in a rapidly changing commercial environment.
January 2021 - Since the publication of our last global Design and Construction Professional Liability outlook, a few short months ago, the professional liability insurance market in most territories has continued to harden. A firming insurance market is challenging during...
November 2020 - Since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in May 2018, it has had a powerful impact on the international privacy landscape. In July 2019, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced fines of £183 million...
November 2020 - After encountering this year’s highest ransomware demand of USD 80 million, Aon’s experts are acutely aware of the rapidly rising threat of ransomware attacks and the resultant risks faced by professional service firms. Alongside the multimillion dollar ransom demands...
November 2020 - In September 2020, our article entitled Addressing the Challenge of Affordability in 2021 and Beyond discussed the cost and affordability challenges facing many professional service firms and their participants. For professional service firms looking...
October 2020 - Please click here to access US Mid-Year Market Overview – Design and Construction Professional Liability. Aon’s recent review of the Current Global Insurance Market Conditions for Design and Construction Professional Liability (PL)…
October 2020 - In March of 2010, a Houston-based lawyer fell victim to a scam asking the individual to represent a Hong Kong corporation to pursue debtors in the US that owed the company over USD 4 million. Engagement letters were signed, but before the law firm...
October 2020 - Ransomware has emerged as the major cyber threat affecting professional service firms in 2020. As we approach Q4, several studies have been published by insurers and cybersecurity specialists that have highlighted the dramatic increases in these attacks since 2019...
October 2020 - "It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future" physicist Niels Bohr famously opined, but it is becoming apparent that certain changes in the way we work may be irreversible. Consensus appears to be building that the world may be quite different for some...
September 2020 - REvil is a known hacking group that has been active for some time and has been named in several ransomware attacks on a variety of targets including financial institutions, recently hitting a major travel exchange entity and a South American bank. The group has not been...
September 2020 - Over the last five months, law firms and their clients have successfully transitioned to remote working arrangements for most, if not all, of their employees due to COVID-19. While there has been a slow return to the office environment for some, most law firms and companies...
September 2020 - Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic upending health care delivery systems in the United States and around the world, the affordability of health care for individual consumers was one of the biggest issues facing benefits decision-makers at law firms...
September 2020 - For contractors and designers, the effect of a recession comes on top of other recent professional liability challenges. The market has seen some insurers adjusting their appetite for risks, as well as twelve carriers withdrawing from the market altogether...
April 2020 - A number of notable risk trends continue to cause concern in 2020. High-profile scandals receive widespread media attention and focus attention on reputation. Regulators remain active and are increasingly enforcing sanctions in addition to fines.
April 2020 - In February 2020, a major vendor to the legal profession suffered a ransomware attack that forced it to take its legal services platform offline for over two weeks. In addition to the inconvenience of having to reschedule matters, law firms were left with the uncertainty...
April 2020 - Reputation is now listed routinely in surveys of major risks facing organisations. This is particularly true for professional firms. It is also regularly included amongst the lists of emerging risks. Brand and trust have always been important, but clearly there...
March 2020 - Accounting firms continued to grow and diversify their practices throughout 2019, with many transforming into multi-disciplinary professional services and product firms. At the same time, risks associated with conduct and compliance were put under...
March 2020 - Professional service firms’ risk profiles are changing due to the increased use of technology and tools such as artificial intelligence. Firms may encounter significant impacts on business models and client needs. While the additional complexity will reduce...
February 2020 - Aon expert David Christensen discusses how law firms are using different types of captives as a risk management solution. Captive usage is evolving. Since early 2018, several law firms have developed their use of single parent captives for PI risk programs, and these trends are...
December 2019 - Access to sensitive data and commitments to client confidentiality put professional service firms at particular risk from cyber-related exposures. While safety measures and risk management strategies can eliminate a substantial portion of cyber risks...
December 2019 - In the past, professional service firms faced limited intellectual property risk. This exposure primarily centered around the creation and dissemination of publications as well as and branding and advertising activity. Today, professional service firms are becoming ...
COVID-19 Employee Impact Model - Estimate the short-term impact of COVID-19 on your employee population
COVID-19 is prompting insurance coverage questions. Because each insurance buyer maintains its own combination of coverages and policies, we have prepared this high-level guide to how different types of coverage may respond.
Concern about the spread of COVID-19 has triggered the largest "work-from-home" mobilization in history. In this Risk Alert, Aon outlines the practical steps organisations can take to remain cyber resilient amid the crisis.