Perspective: The Illogic Of Reputational Risk

RIMS 2019 is behind us. Monte Carlo, its nominally more sophisticated and more business-like cousin, looms.

These twin schmoozefests dominate the insurance year — at a cost. Both can take employees away from actual work for a week or two. Both incur significant travel expense. Both can be a waste of time (I say ‘can be,’ not ‘are’).

So why bother? I once asked Jim Bryce, then CEO of IPC Re and among the most open insurance leaders I’ve ever met, that very question. He phrased his reply in the negative. “You can’t not go,” he explained. “You’d be noticeable by your absence.”

In insurance terms: Reputational risk.