It didn’t gain as much attention in the news, but the past year brought about a series of natural disasters around the world in addition to the pandemic. This continues a major trend we have been witnessing for the last two decades.

For organizations to ensure they can remain operational when disaster strikes, they must prepare their IT systems for potential disruptions before they ever arise. This year, states like New Jersey, Oregon and California saw their unemployment systems crash as a result of running on outdated mainframes, which are often over 60 years old and incapable of properly integrating with the internet and other modern technologies.

A number of insurance companies are among Fortune magazine’s 2021 ranking of the world’s most admired companies.

Multiple catastrophes, rising claims settlement costs, social unrest, a pandemic and lockdowns — 2020 was certainly one hell of a year!

There is something about Wednesdays in January this year. On January 6, the nation experienced an insurrection. A week later on Wednesday, January 12, Congress voted to approve the articles of impeachment. On Wednesday, January 20th, the U.S. witnessed an inauguration. Finally, on Wednesday, January 27, Wall Street felt the impact of coordinated retail investors.

In 2021, the increasing effects of climate change and the response from U.S. insurance regulators will create both challenges and opportunities for insurers.

Before COVID-19, few organizations would have considered prioritizing the remote risk of a pandemic over more common events. However, as the past year has demonstrated, dismissing such scenarios entirely is no longer a viable strategy.

Each year, I provide the absence and disability management trends I see shaping the workplace for the coming year.

Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, in partnership with experts from the Brookings Institution and AXIS Capital Holdings Limited, has released a report exploring how climate change may affect hurricane risk in the US by 2050. The report specifically focuses on financial losses to residential and commercial properties.

Most Canadian P&C insurance industry professionals would like to see more hybrid, flexible working arrangements once the health threat of the global COVID-19 pandemic has subsided.

AXIS Capital has confirmed in a letter to the Gwich’in Steering Committee – an organization formed by Alaska’s Gwich’in Indian Nation to preserve the environment – that it will not provide insurance coverage or investment support to projects related to exploration, drilling, or the production of oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

AXIS Capital is the third international insurance firm, after AXA and Swiss Re, to make such a commitment, and the first North American firm to commit to not supporting oil and gas exploitation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“We believe climate-related risks are among the most serious issues facing the world today,” Conrad Brooks, general counsel and corporate secretary for AXIS Capital, wrote in the letter. “We also recognize the importance of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the [Gwich’in] and your families, as well as our planet.”

Allianz has revealed concrete interim targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its investment portfolio of policyholder funds. This is the first time the global insurer has done so, and it is in support of its stated goal of climate neutrality by 2050.

It goes without saying that 2020 presented some unique challenges for all of us in the risk-control field. COVID-19 drove the narrative for much of the year. To top it off, the insurance industry experienced a brutal year in terms of natural disasters.

When Laura Langone, head of insurance operations at Airbnb, Inc., accepted the presidency of RIMS, the risk management society, for the 2020 term, she didn’t anticipate that the post would be primarily virtual or that she would be representing the society through one of the most challenging years ever for risk and insurance professionals.

It is hard to believe, even for insurance industry professionals, that first notice of loss (FNL) is the beginning of the P&C insurance claim management process. But that is too myopic a perspective.