In the early months of the pandemic last year, brokers just couldn’t place insurance for the entertainment industry. In late February 2020, underwriters began excluding communicable disease from all of the underlying production insurance policies. No insurer wanted to touch the risk.
In stepped SpottedRisk, the Boston-based managing general agent, which saw an opportunity in the midst of this major market disruption to offer pandemic cover for film production companies.
“In the wake of a catastrophe or amidst changing market dynamics, the insurance industry will often just recede and exclude coverage, or limit the coverage and dramatically increase rates,” said Janet Comenos, co-founder and chief executive officer of SpottedRisk, in an interview with Insurance Journal.
In mid-March, Comenos and her team decided to build a product and fill this market need – to create what she calls “a live cat product.”
“I had a feeling that we could do it because we specialize in spotting insurance opportunities around emerging risks. When everyone else is running out of the burning building, we tend to be running in.” She then corrected herself, with a laugh: “Actually, it’s more like entering a smoldering building after a fire.”
