The annual PLUS D&O Symposium is the one and only experience throughout the year that brings together D&O professional liability insurance thought-leaders to learn about the current status of the market, trends moving forward, and to garner insights from the many industry experts.
This year, the event will be held in a virtual platform to accommodate COVID-19 safety measures. Don’t miss out – register today!
What to Expect on a Virtual Platform
Your registration provides full access to the entire event on one platform. A log-in will be provided in the days prior to the event and you will be able to view all sessions, find other attendees, meet with event sponsors and ask the speakers questions through chat.
Most sessions are live with premier video conferencing visuals. Speakers and panels will be discussing D&O topics while on video and showing slides during the presentation. A live chat Q&A will be available for many of the sessions.
The D&O Symposium sessions run consecutively, giving you the opportunity to watch every session. Breaks in between sessions are a chance to get up and move around.
After the event has concluded, all session recordings will be available directly on the D&O Symposium event platform for three months. You can watch sessions and download any additional media even after the event.
Senior executives will share perspective on the market outlook after 2020, the year like no other, and entering 2021 where IPO/SPACs have exploded, new entrants continue to enter the market, and innovation and quick thinking are required. This panel will share guidance for underwriters in decisions about transferring, retaining or mitigating risk amid market conditions unique to this year.
This session will be a candid discussion with two senior industry leaders about their company’s move into the professional lines space and what it takes to participate in the market in 2021. Your pre-submitted questions will help shape this conversation.
Securities class action outcomes are improving for plaintiffs and worsening for public companies and their directors, officers, and insurers. Most cases that survive a motion to dismiss settle before any significant defense on the merits, through class certification, summary judgment, or trial. The key reason for this lack of litigation is defendants' financial inability to defend the litigation vigorously and win while preserving sufficient D&O insurance proceeds to settle later or satisfy a judgment. The ability of defendants to defend litigation through trial, if necessary, is therefore critical for defendants and their insurers and brokers to more reliably predict and mitigate securities class action risk. Continent Liability (CL) insurance can help defendants defend SCAs more zealously, in the right cases. This session -- comprised of experts in securities class action defense, D&O claims, insurance broking, and CL insurance -- will explore these problems and potential solutions, including a discussion of three hypothetical SCAs.
Special Purpose Acquisition Corporations (SPACs) were a significant phenomenon in the financial markets in 2020, as a majority of 2020 Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) were SPAC transactions. The SPAC phenomenon has continued into 2021 as well. But despite the investor enthusiasm for SPACs, regulators and others have raised questions about SPAC structures, and there has already been SPAC-related D&O litigation, with more likely in the future. These developments have left the D&O insurance marketplace for SPACs roiled, presenting a difficult environment for insurers, brokers, and buyers. This session will discuss an overview of the current liability environment and insurance marketplace for SPACs and provide the background and context to understand and address the current landscape.
PLUS is pleased to announce a special interview with one of the industry's biggest leaders. Please join us for interesting conversation with John Doyle, President and CEO at Marsh to learn his perspectives on the current market conditions, COVID and its impact on business and the workforce, diversity and inclusion, and so much more.
To round out the first day of the D&O Symposium, a mixologist will walk us through making a signature cocktail before trivia kicks off. Join us for drinks, trivia, and fun!
A few weeks ago, PLUS reached out to gather questions related to Fiduciary Liability and these will be addressed in this Ask Me Anything type session. Tune in to hear the response to these questions and the discussion on recent trends in Fiduciary Liability.
Over the past couple of years, the London market for D&O has become very challenged – prices skyrocketing, carriers/capacity leaving the market, some insureds unable to find sufficient or any renewal capacity. This session will review and consider the current state of the international market for D&O insurance and whether that market is sustainable, given the large losses and hardening market.
PLUS is pleased to announce a special interview with one of the industry's biggest leaders. Please join us for interesting conversation with Christine Williams, Chief Executive Officer, Financial Services Group at AON to learn her perspectives on the current market conditions, COVID and its impact on business and the workforce, diversity and inclusion, and so much more.
A key issue for D&O carriers is to what extent an underlying carrier’s coverage or claim handling decisions are binding on them both legally and as a practical matter. A recent case from the Ninth Circuit issued in September 2020, AXIS Reinsurance Company v. Northrop Grumman Corporation, substantially limits an excess insurer’s ability to challenge the erosion of underlying limits by payments for uncovered amounts. The law generally is clear that excess carriers may challenge improper erosion of underlying limits by payments of uncovered amounts where their policies provided that the underlying limits could only be exhausted through payment of covered Loss. The Northrop Grumman decision, however, held that an excess carrier can only contest the improper erosion of underlying limits if its policy specifically reserves the right to challenge the underlying carriers’ decision to pay or if the excess carrier proves bad faith/fraud by the underlying carriers. This session will discuss the current landscape of exhaustion law across the county and whether the Ninth Circuit got the issues right as well as the impact of the Northrup Grumman court’s holding on policyholders’ and insurers’ efforts to settle underlying litigation and possible underwriting responses to the decision.
This session will offer insight into how the traditionally broad entity cover in private and nonprofit D&O is being impacted by developing and evolving exposures. Join this session for a discussion on the nature of the cover, some of the more prominent developing and evolving exposures, and how underwriters and brokers are thinking about and addressing these risks and exposures.
Registration for the 2021 PLUS D&O Symposium is now open. PLUS Members save $200 on the registration fee. Become a PLUS member prior to registering for the D&O Symposium and save on the rest of your PLUS purchases throughout the year!
| Description | Amount |
|---|---|
| Member Registration | $395.00 |
| Non-Member Registration | $595.00 |