There are two ways for Insurance Companies, Banks, Private Equity firms, MGAs, and insurtechs to approach complex risk in 2025:

1. Rely on generic solutions, potentially overlooking critical gaps.
2. Partner with specialized expertise that delivers clarity and tailored protection.

Many sit in the first category, often underserved by mega-brokers.

Your institution has unique strengths and ambitions. 

But is your risk management truly aligned? 

Or are you unknowingly exposed due to:

–  Coverage gaps hidden in the fine print?

–  Lack of access to sophisticated global markets?

–  Decisions made without credible peer data or advanced analytics?

–  Impersonal service that doesn’t grasp your specific operational realities?

The bigger problem?

You're leaving strategic advantage on the table and potentially facing significant financial or reputational risk down the line.

The solution?

Transform your risk management from a necessary cost center into a strategic asset through a bespoke, expert-driven partnership.

That’s my focus at LION Specialty.

My approach combines:

– Penetrating technical analysis honed by deep experience (including handling complex Fortune 100 accounts) to uncover what others miss.

– Global market access (London, Bermuda) and perspective, crafting solutions beyond standard domestic offerings.

– Process mastery & advanced analytics delivering clarity and confidence, not complexity.

– Authentic human connection, building partnerships that thrive.

(informed partly by my wellness background as a Pilates instructor… sustainable success requires balance)

–  Are you serious about closing critical coverage gaps?

–  Are you ready for risk management bespoke to your institution's needs?

–  Is it time for a partner who brings both sophisticated expertise and a refreshingly collaborative approach?

Let's connect and explore how we can elevate your strategy together.

Natasha Kiemnec

The SEC doesn't always send a lawsuit.
Sometimes they just ask for a "voluntary" interview.


That "voluntary" interview cost my client $250,000 in legal fees.

They received a request for documents. Not a subpoena. Not a Wells Notice. Just a request.

They hired top-tier counsel to respond (as they should).

They sent the bill to their insurer.

The Denial:
"This is not a Claim. A Claim is defined as a written demand for monetary or non-monetary relief. This is just a request for information."

Technically, the carrier was right.
The standard policy was silent on "inquiries."
The client paid the $250k out of pocket.

The Architect Solution:
We don't use standard definitions.
We expanded the definition of "Claim" to include "Pre-Claim Inquiries."

Now, when the regulators "just have a few questions," the policy responds.
It pays for the lawyers to answer those questions correctly—before they turn into a lawsuit.

If you wait for the subpoena, you’ve waited too long.
Your coverage needs to start when the risk starts.

Does your policy cover "Pre-Claim Inquiries" or just "Claims"?

One definition is worth $250k.

DM me "INQUIRY" and I'll check your language.

P.S. Ever been to Mexico City? One of the coolest spots I’ve frequented the last few years! It’s a vibe.

Natasha I.  Kiemnec, ARM

Managing Partner & Co-founder of LION Specialty | Global Financial Institutions & Private Equity Broker | Classical Certified Pilates Instructor

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What makes someone great?


The book, Good to Great, would tell you it’s disciplined people making consistent, focused decisions over time. 

In light of the Olympics, Lindsey Vonn has said, you have to believe in yourself when no one else does. You can give up, give in, or give it all you’ve got. 

The themes are consistent
Discipline
Focus
Internal drive 

For me, these have always been where I found my success. 

The competition with myself to be the best. 

It’s amazing what you find in the hours of pushing yourself. 

In a marathon
Hours of studying
Early mornings at the gym 
Late nights at the office 

If you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about…

The one other thing I’ve unexpectedly found to bring that same drive in life, is love. 

In light of Valentine’s Day, a shout out to my fiancé taking his third bar exam coming up in a week. 

Not because he didn’t pass the first two but because he’s going to be barred in the whole country soon (except Louisiana - haha don’t worry I don’t want to move there next)

The drive, effort, dedication, commitment that he puts into his work makes me want to find the next level within…

So I’d add admiration and love for someone to that list of reasons to find a third or fourth gear in yourself. 

While it was yesterday, I thought I needed something more than insurance humor in celebration of the day. Happy Valentine’s!

So incredibly proud of you David Gutierrez ❤️

What’s your take on what makes people great?

Your $5M policy is not actually $5M.


Unless you structured it correctly.

Most D&O policies are "eroding limits."
Every dollar spent on lawyers reduces the limit available for the settlement.

If you spend $2M defending a frivolous lawsuit...
You only have $3M left to pay the judgment.

The lawyers get paid first. You get paid last.

We structure defense costs outside the limit, in addition to, or specific sub limits outside the limit. 

This means the insurance company pays for the defense or other limits in addition to the policy limit.

Your $5M limit remains fully intact for settlements and judgments.

Why this matters:
In a complex securities claim, defense costs can easily hit $500k-$1M before you even get to a motion to dismiss.

If that money comes out of your limit, you are underinsured.

If it sits outside, you have a dedicated war chest for the fight.

Don't let your legal bills eat your protection.

Check your declarations page. Does it say "Defense Costs Included" or "Defense Costs in Addition"?

What other sublimits are included, if any?

If it says "Included," you have less coverage than you think.

DM me "LIMITS" and I'll review it for you.

The easiest way for a carrier to deny a $10M claim is not a coverage exclusion.


It is a calendar error.

"Late Notice" is the silent killer of D&O claims.
Most policies require you to notify the carrier "as soon as practicable" or within a specific window (30-60 days).

But what counts as a claim?
Is it a lawsuit? A demand letter? A verbal threat?

If your General Counsel gets a letter on January 1st, handles it internally, and then notifies the broker on March 1st...
You might be denied. Entirely.
Not because the claim wasn't covered.
But because you missed the window.

The LION Process:

We don't leave "Notice" to chance.

1. The Definition Trigger
We negotiate the definition of "Claim" so it triggers only when a written demand is received by the Risk Manager or General Counsel—not just any employee. This prevents a mailroom mistake from voiding your coverage.

2. The Protocol
We build a "Notice Flowchart" for your legal team before the policy binds. Everyone knows exactly who to call and when.

3. The "Laundry List"
At the end of every policy period, we notice everything. Every potential circumstance. Every rumble of thunder. We lock in coverage under the expiring limits so you start fresh.

Process beats panic.

Don't let a clerical error cost you your limit.


Does your team know exactly what triggers a notice requirement?

DM me "NOTICE" and I'll send you our protocol checklist.

The insurance industry is approaching a 400,000-worker deficit.


CFOs, CUOs, and board members at regional insurers, reciprocals, and mutuals…

Here's the part most people get wrong: Gen Z isn't avoiding insurance careers. They don't know they exist.

In my 18 years in this industry, I've watched the narrative problem compound:

We're an industry that has exactly what younger generations want — meaningful work, people-first culture, good pay, career growth.

But we've done a poor job of telling that story.
Meanwhile, the talent we do have? We're burning them out. A CII study found 78% of employers have taken no steps to address secondary trauma in claims professionals.

We manage external risk all day. We should apply the same rigor to our own teams.

This week's Friday Five covers all of it — the talent gap, the burnout blind spot, and what leaders are doing differently (including 250 Pilates classes).

Comment "BRIEF" below if you're not on our distribution…

Stay covered!

P.S. If you're serious about building the next generation of insurance talent, it starts with telling your story. We've had great success being authentic on social media about who we are and what we stand for.

P.S.S. Getting out in nature, doing pilates, meditation helps with burnout. Can you guess where this is?

Innocent until proven guilty" is a legal right.
It is not an insurance right.


Most D&O policies contain a "Conduct Exclusion."
It states the insurer will not pay for claims arising from fraud or criminal acts.

That sounds reasonable. You shouldn't be insured for committing crimes.

The problem is the trigger.

In standard policies, the carrier can often stop paying defense costs as soon as there is a "fact in dispute" or a credible allegation of fraud.

If a plaintiff accuses you of fraud, the carrier can say:

"This looks like it falls under the exclusion. We are pausing defense payments."

You go bankrupt proving you didn't do it.

We change the trigger.

We demand "Final Adjudication" language.

This means the carrier must pay your defense costs all the way through trial and appeal.

They can only apply the exclusion if a judge or jury issues a final, non-appealable ruling that you actually committed the act.

We shift the burden of proof from you to the contract.

Check your policy for "Final Adjudication" wording.

If it's not there, you are exposed to the allegation alone.

This is just one of 10 tweaks we make to the conduct exclusion alone to ensure that you have defense cost coverage. 

DM me "CONDUCT" and I'll help you find them.

The single biggest leverage point…


Time

Most brokers start the renewal process 30 days before expiration.

They flood the market with submissions. They cross their fingers. They hope for appetite.
You get daily emails asking for "just one more thing" while trying to close your quarter.

We operate on a 150-day cycle.

Day 150: The Strategy
We map out exactly where we are headed. We identify the story we need to tell before we ever open a submission file.

Day 120: The Build
We construct the submission. We test every angle of the risk narrative.

Day 90: The Approach
The carriers see our first approach now. We are reading the market, not reacting to it.

Day 60: The Options
We have your options locked down.

Day 30: The Bind
Bindable terms in hand. No drama. No surprises.

One client saw their limits jump 25% at flat premium simply because we had the runway to position them properly.

You negotiate effectively when you control the clock.

If your renewal is July 1st, we should be starting right now.

DM me "TIMELINE" and I'll share our 150-day execution roadmap.

Early in my career, I said "Yes" to everything.
Every client call. Every project. Every "quick question."

I thought availability was a competitive advantage.

I was wrong.

Overcommitment is the enemy of excellence.
If you are always available, you are never deeply focused, creative, or unique.

I learned the hard way:

You cannot manuscript a complex policy while answering emails every 5 minutes.

You cannot negotiate a difficult claim while jumping on "quick syncs."

The Pivot:
The process was developed. 
Each day had a focus throughout the week. 
Each month prepared for the next. 
Always aligning with the client’s calendar 
150 days out from expiration. 
Sunday nights were for alignment of the week. 
Fridays for policy checking. 

It felt too structured but the focus helped my alignment,
the team,
The client. 

My clients stopped getting "fast answers."
They started getting better answers. 

Structure creates the space for 
deep work, 
unique, 
creative outcomes.

And deep work is the only competitive advantage that lasts.

What is one thing you need to “structure" this week to better align the team?

Kroll just surveyed 325 PE executives about cybersecurity.

The headline number: 80% experienced hold-period cyber disruption. Average financial hit per deal: $2.1 million.

But the number that stopped me...82% of PE firms have no dedicated cybersecurity leader managing portfolio risk.

Not "could improve their approach." 
No leader. 
Period!

When Flip and I review these reports for the Friday Five, we're looking for the data point that changes how our clients think about their next renewal. 

This week had three of them.

The $77.7 billion US data center construction surge creating entirely new risk classes for carriers. 

The PE cyber governance gap that predicts whether a firm absorbs a valuation hit at exit. 

And the plaintiffs' bar expanding its litigation analytics to 1,200 additional state courts.

Three forces. 

One common thread...the institutions slowest to adapt pay the most.

We broke all of it down in this week's Boardroom Brief.

Link in comments.

Comment "BRIEF" if you want it in your inbox every Friday.

If your insurance coverage doesn't work in a simulation, it won't work in a crisis.


We don't just place the coverage and file the binder.

We stress-test it.

Before the program binds, we run "Mock Claim" scenarios against the proposed language.

We simulate the specific nightmares that keep the C-Suite awake:

1. The Friday Night Hack

A ransomware event hits at 6 PM. Who do we call? Does the "Breach Response" definition actually trigger immediate counsel, or are we stuck waiting for carrier approval?

2. The Regulatory Subpoena

A short-seller report triggers a stock drop. The SEC calls. Does the policy cover the "Informal Investigation" costs, or does it only trigger after a formal Wells Notice?

3. The Nuclear Verdict

A jury awards $50M. Does the excess tower sit flush on top of the primary, or is there a gap in the attachment point that leaves you exposed?

We usually find the cracks during the simulation.
It is infinitely better to find them in a conference room than in a courtroom.

You stress-test your software.
You stress-test your financials.
Start stress-testing your risk transfer.

Ready to see if your program holds up?

DM me "STRESS TEST" and let's run a scenario.

Ps. This is how we react when we hear of another prospect’s program not working and they need a LION!

I’m exceptional at bar games. 


Corn hole / bags

Shuffleboard 

Darts 

Ping pong etc. 

And if you’re a guy reading this you’re probably like most other guys who think…

Ya I’m sure she is for a girl. 

Well I’d probably beat you too 😂

I’m rarely this confident about my ability but repetition lends itself to credibility. 

It’s not that people underestimate me. 

It’s that they never thought to ask. 

They just decide. 

That I wouldn’t be good

Couldn’t be that good or whatever it is

But the reality is that this happens everywhere in life at all times. 

It often happens with the megabrokers. 

Well, of course, they’ll be the best because it’s

Xyz or abc or whichever three letter broker it is. They’re the biggest or they have the most data or insert whatever assumption. 

But that really isn’t the case. 

What makes someone or some team exceptional is that 

Drive
Skill
Extra effort 
Hidden talent 

Being a guy with a sport or a mega broker with a deal doesn’t make you necessarily the best. 

At LION Specialty we pride ourselves on being that team that has that extra effort, and hidden talent. 

Curious what that looks like?

Come talk to us. 

What talent of yours often gets overlooked?

P.S.  for a little video proof… the ongoing dual between my fiancé and me… anytime there’s a game to be played… and yes, the record is 62 / 57 … me. We’ve kept score the whole time we’ve been together. For the record, he’s also pretty incredible at games.

Freedom of speech and press as given by this platform itself


How lucky are we to be able to have individual liberties that some only dream to have

•	Believe in who or what you wish
•	To gather with whom we wish 
•	The right to a fair trial if accused 

To get to use social media to promote

Our companies
Our ideas
Ourselves 

It’s seemingly sometimes lost on people but what a gift it really is. 

So today, I’m grateful for those who came well before this time, while many and much had to happen to get us to where we are, it was those founding fathers and first presidents who started us on this incredible path that we are on today. 

Happy Presidents’ Day

The most expensive gap in your insurance program isn't an exclusion.

It is a missing file.

Carriers deny more claims for "lack of substantiation" than for actual coverage disputes.
If you can't prove the loss, you don't get paid.

Most companies scramble to build the file after the crisis hits.
That is too late.
You are trying to find invoices and emails while your building is burning or your network is down.

The LION Process:
We build the documentation protocol before the policy binds.

1. The "Day One" Folder
We establish exactly what the adjuster will ask for.
Payroll records. Vendor contracts. Asset lists.
We keep them staged and ready.

2. The Communication Log
During a claim, every phone call needs a follow-up email.
"As we discussed..."
If it isn't written down, it didn't happen.

3. The Timeline
We map the event minute-by-minute.
"Breach detected at 4:02 PM. Counsel notified at 4:15 PM."
Precision kills ambiguity.

An adjuster's job is to ask questions.
Our job is to have the answers ready before they ask.

Is your claim file ready for an audit today?

DM me "DOCUMENT" and I'll send you our claim substantiation checklist.

Talk birdie to me


The line the from sweatshirt I’m wearing here. And a term that is on the minds of many pros this week at TPC Scottsdale golf tournament.  

As I watched these pros and amateurs tee off yesterday, I’m constantly reminded of the dedication and skill that it takes to get to the top of your game. 

While it starts with above average skill, it always comes back to finding beauty and comfort in the mundane. 

That extra effort to do the next rep, 
one more hour of practice,
one more review,
one more check

I see it in all aspects of life:

My cousin who did make a birdie yesterday in the tournament - has played golf for 40 years but just changed his golf swing recently to find that “next level”

Our team who reviews each document over and over again to make sure there are no mistakes. 

I’ll continue to believe that drive will allow anyone to outperform those around them. 

While it can’t be trained, it can be encouraged by team members who share that same desire to continue to level up. 

What are you doing to level up?

Right now we are perfecting our internal data to make sure we are accurately capturing it for the future!

A finance director joined a video call with his CFO, his CEO, and two colleagues.
None of them were real.


$25.6 million gone across 15 transactions before anyone caught it.

That was Arup, a global engineering firm, early 2024.

Attackers built real-time deepfake replicas of multiple executives on a live video conference. Convincing enough to override every instinct a trained finance professional had.

Financial institutions should pay close attention.

Your executives sit on hundreds of hours of public video and audio. 
Earnings calls, conference panels, LinkedIn clips, webinars. 

Every recording is training data for the next synthetic clone.

We just published Part 1 of our Deepfakes Miniseries in the Wednesday Intelligence. 

We mapped a deepfake loss across a typical FI insurance program, and the coverage fractures fast.

Most social engineering endorsements still require the instruction to arrive via email or written communication.

A deepfake video call? May not qualify.

Then there are the AI exclusions now spreading through D&O, E&O, and cyber forms. Broad language excluding claims "arising out of or related to artificial intelligence" can swallow a deepfake event whole. Even when the insured was the victim.

No single policy owns the full loss. And most of these wordings were written before attackers could clone your CEO's face.

We break down where the gaps hide, which carriers are already adapting, and six questions to bring to your next renewal.

Reply "DEEPFAKE" and we'll send our one-page Coverage Gap Checklist.

P.S.  this is only for those of you that are buyers of insurance!!

Bankruptcy doesn't just freeze your assets.
It can freeze your insurance defense.


A portfolio company filed Chapter 11.

The directors were sued immediately for "breach of fiduciary duty."

They called the insurer to pay for their defense.

The Bankruptcy Trustee stepped in.

"That policy is an asset of the estate. You cannot deplete it to pay for legal fees."

The directors were left paying $800/hour lawyers out of their own pockets while a $5M policy sat frozen in court.

We structure "Priority of Payments" clauses into every D&O program.

This language dictates that in the event of bankruptcy, the insurer must pay the individual directors first.

The estate only gets what is left over.

We also add "Side A" DIC (Difference in Conditions) coverage that sits completely separate from the corporate balance sheet.

You don't need insurance when things are going well.

You need it when the walls are closing in.

If your policy isn't bankruptcy-proof, it’s not finished.

Does your policy have a "Priority of Payments" clause?

DM me "PRIORITY" and I'll show you where to look.

Five events since 2017. Combined losses from billions to trillions. Physical damage across all five: zero.

NotPetya. 
The 737 MAX grounding. 
COVID-19 shutdowns. 
The Ever Given. 
CrowdStrike.

We went line by line through the coverage implications this week. The exposure class is Non-Damage Business Interruption, and for financial institutions running digital-first operations on legacy programs, the gap between what can shut you down and what your policy actually covers is measured in trillions.

But the article that stopped me was a Law360 piece on cyber policy restoration periods.
The distinction between “operations-focused” and “network-focused” language in your period of restoration definition is outcome-determinative. 

One version covers you through the full resumption of normal business activity. The other stops the clock the moment someone reboots a server — even partially.

That’s the kind of clause that determines whether your next cyber claim pays for twelve weeks of operational drag or cuts off at week two. 

Silence in insurance is dangerous. Especially in the definitions section.

We covered all of it in this week’s Friday Five, plus a forward look at parametric capacity that could compress payout timelines from months to days.

P.S. link in comments. 

P.S.S. Part 1 of our Wednesday Intelligence miniseries on deepfakes is live. What happens when bad guys deepfake your CEO — and six questions for your next renewal. Link in comments.

Your employee didn't get hacked.
They got tricked.

And your insurance policy treats those two things very differently.

A controller gets an email from the "CEO."
"Please wire $500,000 to this vendor immediately for the acquisition."
The email looks real. The tone is urgent.
The controller wires the money.

You file it under your Crime policy.
The carrier points to the "Voluntary Parting" exclusion.

"Your employee voluntarily sent the money. This wasn't theft. It was a mistake."

Or they point to the "Social Engineering" sub-limit.

"We cover this, but only up to $100,000."
You just lost $400,000.

We don't accept $100k sub-limits for the biggest risk you face.
We manuscript the definition of "Computer Fraud" to include "Social Engineering" and "Impersonation Fraud."

We stack the Crime policy limits with the Cyber policy limits to ensure you have full tower protection, not just a sliver.

If your policy penalizes you for being human, it’s the wrong policy.

Check your Crime policy today. Look for the 

"Social Engineering" endorsement.
Is it $5M or $100k?

DM me "FRAUD" and I'll review your limits.

There is a question plaintiff attorneys will ask after every data breach in 2027.
Most boards haven't even heard the premise yet.

"Did you use AI-powered security scanning tools to check your code?"

If the answer is "No," you might be negligent.

Last week, Anthropic released an AI tool that scanned production codebases and found 500+ vulnerabilities that human experts missed for 20 years.

These weren't minor glitches. They were exploitable flaws hiding in plain sight.

Traditional scanners check for "locked doors" (passwords, encryption).
AI checks for "structural weakness" (broken business logic).

We saw this with MFA.

Three years ago, Multi-Factor Authentication was "nice to have."

Today, if you don't have it, you are uninsurable.

AI code scanning is next.

When a defensive tool becomes widely available and highly effective, failing to use it stops being a "resource decision."

It becomes a "breach of fiduciary duty."

The window between discovery and exploitation is compressing from weeks to hours.
Your defense needs to move at the same speed.

Is your board asking about AI security, or are they waiting for the lawsuit?

We put together a one-page AI Security Standard-of-Care Checklist — 10 questions your board should be asking before your next renewal. 

The carrier application changes already in motion. The specific coverage intersections across cyber, tech E&O, and D&O. 

What the standard of care looks like now, not 12 months from now.

Comment CHECKLIST and I'll send it over.

Executives, there are two ways to protect your personal assets and your financial institution’s balance sheet in 2025…

1. Buy insurance. Hope it works.

2. Engineer a risk management program so resilient, it becomes a strategic asset.

Many still do the first. 

Even the sophisticated ones.

That’s why I’ve spent 25 years - and over 85,000 hours - mastering the second.

From building multimillion-dollar divisions at Marsh, JLT, and NFP…to recovering over $250 million in claims for clients…to founding LION Specialty, a boutique insurance firm built for the institutions who can’t afford to settle for off-the-shelf solutions.

Today, I help financial institutions, private equity firms, and insurance carriers, MGAs and ILS funds:

→ Navigate the global insurance markets.
→ Gain direct access to the best underwriters in the U.S., Bermuda, and Lloyd’s.
→ Structure D&O, E&O, Cyber, and complex P&C programs that hold up under real-world stress.
→ Align coverage with board priorities and capital strategy, not just next year’s premium.

We stress test programs annually like regulators would. 

We optimize every renewal. 

We've honed our claims playbook over three decades. 

Because in our world, you don’t get rewarded for being insured. You get rewarded for being prepared.

Building the New Standard:

At our insurance brokerage firm, LION Specialty, we’re building more than a brokerage. 

We’re building the broker of the future...

→ Delivering boardroom-grade insights to thousands of institutions through our weekly "Boardroom Briefings," and daily insights via our social platforms.
→ Attracting elite talent through a high-performance compensation model and culture.

Our mission: 

Obsess over every detail, so you don’t have to. 

Obsess over our execution. 

So you feel like you’re our only client! 

If your institution is ready to rethink insurance as more than a commodity - and turn it into an edge - I’d welcome an opportunity to connect! 

- Mark “FLIP” Flippen 

Mark Flippen

Arguably no better way to decompress from a long week than watching one of your kids in a play about nature’s rejuvenating power…

The play was based on the “Secret Garden,” a classic children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in 1911.

It’s the story of Mary Lennox, a neglected girl sent to live in her uncle's gloomy manor in Yorkshire after her parents die in India. 

There, she discovers a hidden, locked garden and, with the help of a local boy named Dickon and her sickly cousin Colin, brings the garden back to life, which in turn heals and transforms all three children and the household. 

The book is celebrated for its themes of nature's healing power, friendship, and personal rejuvenation. 

Layla and her group from Denver Christian did a spectacular job bringing the story to life in our wonderful performing arts theater. 

How are you rejuvenating this weekend?

CEO & Co-Founder, LION Specialty | Insurance Broker | 25+ Years Helping Insurance Companies, MGAs & Insurtechs Protect Their Executives & Balance Sheets | $250 Million Claims Recoveries | Corporate Liability Specialist

400,000 insurance jobs need filling.
Gen Z isn't avoiding the industry.
They just don't know it exists.

I shared some thoughts recently with the BIG I for their Independent Agent Magazine on what we're doing about it at LION. How we're using social media, leading with tech opportunities, and training people from the ground up.

The professionals who taught us this business didn't hoard the knowledge.
Neither should we! 

Here's a link to the article: 

https://lnkd.in/gVPMCD7T

P.S. Special thanks to Mindi Zissman for the time she spent interviewing all the amazing professionals that contributed. And the well written piece!

Open article: How the Insurance Industry Is Tackling the Talent Crisis by iamagazine.com

How the Insurance Industry Is Tackling the Talent Crisis

The most powerful lesson I got as a baby broker. I had just spent three weeks building a 50-page PowerPoint deck.

It was a freaking work of art.

Before this lesson, I thought volume proved our value.

The senior broker on the deal stopped by my cube the day before the proposal meeting.

He took one look at the deck.

Dude! What is this?

He was a no-nonsense guy.
Knew his stuff cold.
Could carry any room with anybody and properly advise on corporate risk.

If you can't explain the deal on one sheet of paper, you don't understand the deal.

I tried to argue.
I remember saying something you say when you’re young and don’t know much…

But the risk is complex.

I’ll never forget this part…

The client simply needs a recommendation. They need us to explain it clearly and justify it.

He made me grab a single sheet of paper. Explain and justify. You got five minutes. What we told them we’d do. What we did. Make a recommendation and justify it.

Five minutes later, we had the agenda.

That’s all we did the next day.
The meeting took about ten minutes.

The CFO loved it.

Simplicity is mastery.

P.S. We still brought the full deck! Haha. But it went from 50 slides to 15 after that little exercise.

Anybody got a good lesson that’s burned in your brain from early days?

Drop it in one sentence in the comments!

P.S.S. Found an old pic of the Willis NY days, the building at Hanover Sq above Harry’s

Exactly one year ago, I took a Greece trip my old ego would’ve said NO to, and it was prob the most impactful thing I could’ve done for our business…

Chaperoning 23 teenagers. 
Going town to town in a tour bus. 
Bunking up in modest lodges. 

Walking the footsteps of the Apostle Paul.

I had become more of a Santorini guy – infinity pools, not ancient ruins.

Faith during the week? Hardly. 

The occasional Sunday, maybe. 

This one hit different though.

Over the past few years I’ve worked to crush parts of me that fueled my life for more than 40 years. 

Ambition. 
Greed. 
Excess. 
At all costs. 

Walking Paul's missionary route was the perfect marker, for this point in my life. 

In Philippi's prison, history became tangible, not just pages in an old book. 

In Thessaloniki's ancient churches, the simple message met elaborate tradition. 

The two can be balanced. 

At Meteora's impossible monasteries, I witnessed determination that defied logic.

If monks can build elaborate churches and houses on top of mountains that seem unclimbable, we can surely build a decent insurance agency! 

Ancient Corinth, was like their Vegas thousands of years ago. 

Excess now reduced to rubble. 

The transformation wasn't just mine. 

Students who normally buried faces in phones - spontaneously sang Amazing Grace in an ancient church. 

The class clown read from Corinthians with unexpected reverence. 

Seeing my daughter connect scripture to reality for the first time.

Standing at Mars Hill where Paul addressed skeptical Athenians, our school Chaplain’s words struck me deeply: 

"Some messages are worth crossing oceans for, some truths change everything they touch, and standing here makes me wonder what I'm willing to journey toward."

I wonder too…what else am I journeying toward in the second half of life?

Sometimes the most transformative experiences are the ones we almost talk ourselves out of. 

The old me prioritized the opposite of this trip. 

This one allowed me to see the value of transformations. 

Experiences. 

I've never been more thankful I said yes.

Happy Sunday, y’all

Burnout isn't a personal failure. It's a system failure. The byproduct of a culture that rewards overextension.
That's been a big part of our industry for far too long.

Our friend Brenden Corr wrote a piece recently that I think the whole industry needs to read.

78% of insurance industry employers have taken no steps to address secondary trauma in insurance professionals! And Brenden offers five practical ways to rethink burnout at the organizational level, starting with normalizing acknowledgment and recharging without guilt.

Pause and let that soak in for a second, please. 

We unpack Brenden’s phenomenal piece a bit, along with his Project 55 in this week's Mental Health edition of Friday Five.

And my conversation with Mindi Zissman for the BIG I and the massive exodus of 400,000 insurance professionals that's happening right now. We all need to be doing our part to make our industry more attractive to Gen Z.

Mental health is one of their main concerns. 

Along with a special message from TASH on how 250 Pilates classes parallels to starting and running one of the industry's fastest-growing startup boutique brokers!

And if you're new here and not on the weekly distribution…our team rips through over 200 insurance, legal and risk articles, and we write about the three events that caught our attention every week. 

It’s a five minute scannable read that hits your inbox every Friday morning at 7ET. 

Just comment “LION” below and we'll get you subscribed.

Please take a moment to at least read Brenden's piece. 

And stay covered everybody! 

Much love, yall

I’ve been doing this new thing lately that catches many people totally off guard. 

When I meet other insurance industry professionals here on LinkedIn, I offer up a quick ten to fifteen minute coffee chat. I’ve met so many cool people lately doing this. Just another simple way to himanize all this networking stuff. 

It’s still a people business last time I checked! 

Please let me know if you’d like to connect and grab some time. 

No offense to the vets, but my favorite recent chats are with the younger pros that are either just starting out, the ones still in their first few years, or the one I did just yesterday with a sharp mid-career pro. We talked about his young family. He has number two on the way, and it was fun for me to reminisce a bit in my mind about that stage in my own journey.

Oh and if you happen to be reading this, and have gotten to this point and you have no idea who I am!

Hello. I’m Mark Flippen, most call me FLIP. 

I’ve spent over 25 years in the insurance business with about 20 of those specializing in the FI brokerage space… working w financial institutions, private equity firms and high-performance financial services businesses. 

I’m one of the managing partners and co-founders of LION Specialty. We’re a boutique insurance broker with a platform and high performance team that brings Fortune 500-level service to firms just below the radar of the mega-brokers. 

Because they deserve it too! 

If any of this sounds interesting or you just want to talk shop, my contact deets are in my profile. Feel free to DM too. Our team also writes a weekly Boardroom Brief that now goes out to over 2500 industry executives and financial professionals - with the three events and articles we think our clients won’t want to miss. It’s a quick scannable five/six min read w our thoughts and opinions on how that week’s events might move the market. 

Check it out and subscribe here: 

https://lnkd.in/gP22wvyF

P.S. I post here most days about insurance: our client service process, case studies and client success stories from my all my years in the business. And the occasional personal post about living with teenage daughters, my wife of 22 years and my faith journey. Follow along if you’d like! 
Mark Flippen

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I Help Executives Turn Insurance Into A Competitive Asset & Protect Their Personal Net Worth | Managing Partner & Co-Founder of LION Specialty | Expert in Corporate Liability Insurance 

There are two ways to protect a financial institution in 2025:

1. Buy insurance. Hope it works.
2. Engineer a risk management program so resilient, it becomes a strategic asset.

Many still do the first. Even the sophisticated ones.

That’s why I’ve spent 25 years — and over 85,000 hours — mastering the second.

From building multimillion-dollar divisions at Marsh, JLT, and NFP…to recovering over $250 million in claims for clients…to founding LION Specialty, a boutique insurance firm built for the institutions who can’t afford to settle for off-the-shelf solutions.

Today, I help financial institutions, private equity firms, and insurance carriers:

→ Navigate the global insurance markets.
→ Gain direct access to the best underwriters in the U.S., Bermuda, and Lloyd’s.
→ Structure D&O, E&O, Cyber, and complex P&C programs that hold up under real-world stress.
→ Align coverage with board priorities and capital strategy, not just next year’s premium.

We stress test programs annually like regulators would. We optimize every renewal. We've honed our claims playbook over three decades. 

Because in our world, you don’t get rewarded for being insured. You get rewarded for being prepared.

Building the New Standard:

At my new insurance brokerage firm, LION Specialty, I'm building more than a brokerage. I’m building the broker of the future...

→ Delivering boardroom-grade insights to thousands of institutions through our weekly "Boardroom Briefings," and daily insights via our social platforms.
→ Attracting elite talent through a high-performance compensation model and culture.
→ Making every client feel like they’re our only client.

If your institution is ready to rethink insurance as more than a commodity — and turn it into an edge — let’s talk.

- FLIP

Weekly Boardroom Risk Intelligence

Real success isn’t building a company. It’s building a life that survives it. To the one (and all the ones out there!) building the life while I build the business.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Julie.

And Happy Valentine’s Day Y’all!

We spent 20+ years at the world's largest brokers handling the most complex financial institution placements on the planet. Then we left and built something for the clients those firms treat as "small accounts."

Regional insurers, mutuals, MGAs, ILS Funds, and Insurtech companies. 

Because of your premium spend, you get assigned to the B-team at the big global firms. Junior brokers learning exposures on your time. Or the generalists who cover financial institutions on Tuesday and manufacturing on Thursday.

We took the parts of the best global platforms that actually work. 

The carrier relationships across the US, Bermuda, and London. 
The structured approach to complex placements. 
The discipline around claims preparation...and built our entire operation around serving the institutions those firms overlook.

$250M+ in claims recovered. Hundreds of placements across every FI type. Carrier relationships measured in decades, not quarters.

You work with people who understand CFOs, General Counsels, and risk leaders at financial institutions specifically. We're specialists. There’s no B-team here.

One client told us something we've never forgotten: "You make us feel like we're your only client."

That's the standard. 
Every placement. 
All our client renewals. 
Every claim.

If you want to follow along, we break down what's moving in the FI insurance market every Friday. 

Join here:
https://lnkd.in/gP22wvyF

Check it out: 

He ran operations for dozens of tech companies. Then he walked into a church where nobody knew his name.

If you’ve been scrolling the gram lately and you’re into faith-based stuff, you’ve probably seen the Duomo ads.

The one that got me was this cool looking dude in a cowboy hat talking about God.

I wanted to go hang out with that guy instantly.

So I went down the rabbit hole. Turns out the guy who built Duomo is Artem Kopaniev. For five years he was COO of one of the largest tech ecosystems in Eastern Europe. The kind of role most wouldn’t dare step away from to do what he’s doing now.

Building a Bible app!

The leaving part I get. Been there. Left a cushy job in big broker corporate America a couple of years ago.

What got me was how he started.

He didn’t go the typical tech founder route. Hire the big team. Raise a bunch of money. Build the prototype. Etc. 

He went and spent time in Christian communities as a total stranger. 

Sat with the people. Asked all the questions. Tried to understand — not just what they needed from technology, but whether he actually shared the values he wanted to build around.

Most founders start with a market. Artem seem to start with a mirror. 

And it reminded me of a lesson I’ve been deep in over the past few years.

You can’t take people somewhere you haven’t been yourself.

Artem spent a year doing that before he wrote a single line of code.

Interviewing people. Testing every faith app on the market. Sitting in rooms where nobody knew who he was or his track record.

He said something that stuck with me…strangers showed him interest, offered help, asked what brought him there. That experience of being held by a community before you’ve earned anything, became the foundation of the product.

Duomo has 100,000 downloads now. Team of 25, people who left these huge tech cos like Glovo, Bolt, and Genesis to work on this. Real traction.

But the part I keep coming back to isn’t the numbers.

It’s a senior executive sitting in a room full of people he didn’t know, asking himself whether he believed what they believed before he tried to build something for them.

That’s not something you put in a pitch deck.

graphical user interface, text, application

One deepfake video call. 
$25.6 million gone.
Six questions that will tell you if your insurance program is built for this.

A finance director joined a video call with his CFO, his CEO, and two colleagues. 

None of them were real! 

He wired $25.6 million across 15 transactions before anyone caught it. 

That was Arup, early 2024. 

It’s the deepfake playbook the bad guys are now using at industrial scale. Your insurance program probably doesn’t cover this the way you think it does.

Social engineering endorsements that require written or email instructions. “Voluntary parting” defenses that void coverage the moment your employee clicks send. 

AI exclusions spreading through D&O, E&O, and even cyber forms that can swallow a deepfake claim whole.

No single policy owns the full loss. 

It fragments across cyber, crime, D&O, and now media liability, and the gaps live in the seams between them.

We broke all of this down in this week’s Wednesday Intelligence Boardromm Briefing. The specific coverage traps, the carrier moves worth watching, and six questions every FI executive should bring to their next leadership team meeting.

And your insurance renewal strategy. 

We also put together a one-page Deepfake Coverage Gap Checklist that goes deeper than those six questions…

The endorsements worth asking about, the exclusion language that should raise a flag, and what your renewal conversation should actually sound like in 2026.

Our Boardroom Brief subscribers got the offer. If you’re interested in taking a deeper dive here, DM me an we can get you the same offer… 

P.S. we need to be connected and must be a buyer of insurance at a financial services company

Deepfake Fraud 

In my JLT days circa 2014-19 I was introduced to a powerful concept called "the broker challenge team." We would proactively bring in another internal team to review all aspects of how we were servicing a client.

So if it was a big D&O placement, another strong D&O team.
If it was a property placement, another property team.
So on and so forth.

We would effectively try to simulate what would happen when another broker was brought in to critique everything we were doing on an account.

The first part of it I always called the "Substitution Test."
Simple question: If your main broker went out tomorrow for any reason, would your insurance renewal proceed flawlessly?

With all the consolidation going on, I suspect some of you are experiencing this now. Non solicits and non competes suck from the client side.

You dont want to hear, "eventually handled." Or "someone would figure it out."
You want to hear, "Flawlessly."
It would run on schedule.
We wouldn't miss a beat.

The answer starts to tell you whether you're protected by a PROCESS or dependent on a person.

If the answer is "we'd scramble" - you're relying on institutional memory that likely lives in one head. Market relationships. Carrier quirks. The context behind why that exclusion got negotiated out three years ago. All of it walks out the door with them.

If the answer is "their colleague would cover" - that's a bit better. But would that colleague know your claims history? Your board's risk tolerance? The conversation you had in January about expanding into a new state?

If the answer is "it would proceed exactly on schedule" - you have a system. 

Documented steps. Knowledge that exists independent of any individual.
Many broker-client relationships are built on personal attention. That's valuable. Yet personal attention without systematic backup is a single point of failure dressed up as white-glove service.

The Substitution Test isn't about whether your broker cares.
It's about whether that care is backed by process - or just good intentions.
Run the test. If you don't like the answer, DM me.

P.S. Here's a snapshot of our renewal strategy process...

The bank teller was kidnapped at gunpoint with her son.
This one didn’t happen overseas. It happened here…

Northeast U.S. End of her shift at a regional bank we handled.

Two masked kidnappers grabbed her and her 8-year-old son in the parking lot.

They wanted her to open the vault and hand over the cash.

She was a teller. She didn’t have vault access.

When the kidnappers realized their mistake, they released her. But not before they dropped her young son off in the mall parking lot mid-kidnapping. And subjected her to serious trauma.

The aftermath hit hard.

Severe PTSD for both mother and son. She couldn’t return to work. Her son needed ongoing counseling. 

The family had to relocate for safety.
This is where their K&R coverage stepped in. Not with a ransom payment. There wasn’t one.

With comprehensive trauma support.

Medical and mental-health treatment for both victims. Full salary continuation. Security consulting to assess ongoing risk. Relocation assistance. Counseling support for her son.

Total cost of care was well into seven figures.

This was my first kidnap-and-ransom claim. One of the hardest we’ve ever handled.

And it changed how I talk to every financial institution about K&R coverage. Because the families who need it most are rarely the ones companies think first to protect.

The bank tellers. Branch managers. the clams adjusters. The underwriter and his daughter. Warehouse supervisors. Anyone criminals think can get them money.

We break down coverage gaps like this every week in the Friday Five. And we go deeper most every other Wednesday in our Boardroom Briefings.  

Comment “BRIEF” for the link.

K&R case study: managing the details 

LinkedIn network: need your help on two fronts…data extraction and policy form / coverage analysis. If you are doing anything interesting around automation or AI on either of these fronts, let’s connect. 

If you know of anyone doing anything interesting, feel free to tag them in the comments. 

Happy to share what all I learn here too with anyone that’s interested. 

Let’s all win together! 

Please comment, like and repost for reach here, if you’re interested in this too

Thnx y’all ! 

P.S. Depending on response I’ll likely write more about this in an upcoming edition of the LION Specialty Boardroom Briefing. Subscribe, if you’re not already on the distribution!

Soulset is better than mindset.
"It will always work out," I like to say. "Never a doubt," one of our mentors always says.

But will it really? All work out. 

Last week I stood at each end of that spectrum.

My youngest daughter showed me a cool insta clip from a young woman named Izi Murray. She’s a former D-1 college soccer player who helps young athletes.

Izi was talking about how most winners have a "winning story" that is on repeat in their heads at all times, regardless of what is happening. 

I was nodding as we watched it.
Because something similar is always running through mine.

That same day...

One of my teammates confessed to me that she worries a lot.
She feels the weight of learning the business. She feels the uncertainty.

She looked at me and asked if I truly believe that. That it will actually work out?

"100% without a doubt"

Then I told her why.
It’s not because we have a perfect business plan. Or that doin what we’re trying to do is easy. To the contrary, actually. 

It’s because my belief is anchored in something that doesn't fluctuate with the rollercoaster ride of hard we’re on.

It is based on my faith in Jesus Christ.

I didn't preach. Didn’t push.
I just told her the truth about where my peace comes from.

When we left corporate in late 2022, I thought the freedom we wanted was about marketing. Bold posts without approval processes.

I was thinking too small.

The real freedom wasn't about building a brand.

It was about being able to look a worried teammate in the eye and tell her exactly who is in control.

I didn't leave the corporate world just to build a business. I left so I could stop filtering my soul.

If you are a leader, your team is looking at you. They are looking for panic.

If you can show them Peace,
and tell them the Source of that peace, you might give them something a paycheck can't buy.

"Never a doubt."

What’s your version of “Soulset?”

Does the industry have enough capacity for all of this? 

80% of PE firms experienced cyber disruption during the hold period last year…

Average financial hit: $2.1 million per deal.

CFOs, and board members…

That’s not a headline from a vendor selling cyber tools. That’s Kroll surveying 325 PE executives and laying out real world scenarios happening now.

In my 20+ years placing coverage for financial institutions and private equity firms, this kind of breach activity on transactions is unprecedented. 

→ Cyber risk migrates from IT line item to material deal risk

→ Smaller PE firms absorb outsized losses because they lack the governance infrastructure larger firms have built

→ The gap between who has a formal cyber mandate and who handles it case-by-case predicts the financial outcome

Meanwhile, $77.7 billion in US data center construction starts hit in 2025 alone. Another $88 billion is slated for the first half of this year. 

It’s a massive boom for property markets. But again, I wonder if there’s enough capacity! 

Weigh in in the comments, if you have an opinion…

And the plaintiffs’ bar just expanded its litigation analytics to 1,200 additional state courts. They’re mapping your judge’s preferred language before they file.

Yikes! 

If you want the framework sophisticated boards use to stay ahead of these three converging forces…

Read about it in this week’s LION Specialty Friday Five Boardroom Briefing.

Comment “BRIEF” below if you’re not on our distribution…

Stay covered yall!

P.S. Our Wednesday Intelligence drops every other week with war stories from our claim files. Friday is your market intel, Wednesday is your coverage stress test. Ask us about it.

My claims advocate opened the file and started naming people, not policy provisions. That taught me everything about how claims actually work.
It was my first big claim. SEC suit against an investment management client.

We bring in Ed, our senior claims advocate and attorney, to help manage the response. I'm expecting him to dive into the policy. Start reading provisions. Analyze coverage grants. Review exclusions.

Instead, he opens the file and says: "Ah, good. We got Greg."
(Greg was the underwriter.) Then he says: "And my buddy Sarah handles claims for Greg and their team."

He knew them by name. Knew their track records. Knew how they operated.
I thought we were there to review coverage. To design response. He taught me we were there to work with people.

Policies don't respond to claims. People do.

The policy language matters. But the people interpreting that language matter more. Ed spent the first 30 minutes teaching me about how Greg and Sarah work. Not about their company—about them specifically.

How Greg approached gray coverage situations. How Sarah worked with brokers during claims. What their track record looked like on similar situations.

He said: "These are good people to have on a claim. They won't be easy. They'll be tough. But we always seem to get to a reasonable place with them."

That was the tell. "A reasonable place."

Here's what I learned: most claims aren't black and white.

They're not "this is clearly covered" or "this is clearly excluded." They live in gray areas where the policy language could go either way.
And in those gray areas, the people on the other side of the table often determine the outcome.

Some carriers approach gray coverage asking: "How can we deny this?"
Others ask: "How can we cover this?"
That difference is everything.

Twenty years later, the people are still how we select carriers.
My teams don't just evaluate policy forms. We evaluate who will be in the room when our client's business is on the line.

Because coverage is only as good as the people who honor it.

Let's connect if you want a broker who's been through this before.

Executives Guide to Claims Advocacy

The Delaware Supreme Court just told AIG, Chubb, and Berkley their favored M&A fine print doesn’t work the way they thought it did.

For years, D&O insurers have used the “bump-up” exclusion to shut down payouts on merger price lawsuits. 

If a case looked like a fight over deal value, they’d often pay the lawyers but refuse to fund the settlement.

The Harman decision blows a hole in that.

In a 3–2 ruling, Delaware’s high court said it’s not enough for insurers to call it a price dispute. 

They have to show the settlement actually functions as a higher deal price. In Harman, they couldn’t. 

The settlement went to investors beyond just those who tendered into the deal, and insurers (DE said) never put in real evidence that the payout was topping up the per-share price.

The bottom line now for carriers…

…prove the dollars are a price increase before using the bump-up to walk away from a settlement.

That quietly shifts negotiating leverage for every financial institution board with M&A in the plan.

And bump-up is only one of three hidden trouble spots in a single deal.

There’s a straddle gap between your tail and your go-forward D&O. When a lawsuit reaches back before closing and forward after closing, each insurer can argue “not my problem,” unless you’ve fixed that language up front.

Then there’s a growing idea overseas called “stepping stone liability.” 

That’s where a company’s legal breach becomes the stepping stone to personal claims against individual directors. We speculate that Cyber incidents may be one of the pressure points people start  watching closely.

Three gaps. One transaction.

Boards that tighten all three before the next deal won’t just be following sound protocol — they’ll be negotiating from a stronger position than peers who don’t.

We broke down all three this week with specific fixes for each. 

Comment BRIEF and we’ll get you subscribed.

Stay covered out there everybody! 

LION Specialty 

P.S. if you like this post you’ll love our daily posts too! Follow along at Mark Flippen and Natasha I. Kiemnec, ARM

If you’re building the future of insurance, don’t let a broker from the past slow you down like this…

A new Insurtech client and I recently had a funny chat after he hired us.

(a case study on why all Insurtechs should be working w us!) 

Let’s call new client, Dan.

Dan is building a spaceship.

He employs a full team of engineers. Their platform is ecosystem-based. Claude Code, n8n automations, AI agents and swarms, and custom built proprietary models running on their private server. 

All of it built so his underwriters can underwrite faster with more sophistication, source better submissions from their broker partners, and generate quotes and bind policies in minutes, not days.

The future that’s already here. 

He’s moving at Mach 10.

But when he showed me his E&O insurance program, we both kind of laughed. He knew it too. 

It was a bicycle helmet.
For a team flying a spaceship! 

His previous broker had given him an off-the-shelf policy full of exclusions for “tech issues,” which is his entire business. 

They’d split his Tech E&O and MGA E&O across two different carriers, creating the classic finger-pointing problem when a claim hits both. 

The whole thing was designed for a slow, manual MGA like we had in the  1900s! 

Every time Dan tried to launch a new product, his broker would say, “Hold on, let me go ask the carrier.” Then two or three weeks of silence. Three weeks is a lifetime in Insurtech.

Dan told us: “My technology is my edge. I need a policy and a broker that moves as fast as my team and our code.”

So we didn’t go to the standard market. We went global. Built a program on our manuscript policy from scratch. All his gaps taken care of.

Now when Dan wants to launch, he launches. His insurance moved from drag chute to launchpad.

Dan stopped settling for a broker who couldn’t keep up. Maybe you should too.

Why LION for Insurtechs? 

Most insurance company professional liability policies exclude the one thing insurance companies actually do for a living.

I had the same conversation twice last week with two different insurers. Both were in difficult claims. Both had E&O policies. Neither policy responded to what the claim was actually about.

Underwriting.

The very act an insurance company performs every day. And the act that generates the revenue that justifies having a professional liability policy in the first place, carved out of coverage.

A regional insurer gets sued over an underwriting decision. They turn to their E&O policy, the policy they bought to protect their professional operations. The carrier points to the "underwriting exclusion."

This isn't a one-off technicality buried in an endorsement nobody reads. It's standard language in many US insurance company professional liability forms. Narrow "insurance services" definitions paired with broad "arising out of" underwriting exclusions.

In too many programs, the operations that generate your exposure are the operations your policy may not respond to.

Both conversations ended the same way...with the recognition that the gap had been there from day one, long before anyone needed to know it existed.

Our Lloyd's-backed form is built specifically for US insurance operations. 

We start with the broadest professional services definition we can justify and carve back from there. It's all centered around your actual operations, not generic financial institution activity. Underwriting is expressly inside the four corners of coverage, not pushed out by default.

Underwriting is covered. Because it has to be.

If you're a regional or mutual insurer carrying a standard professional liability form, find out whether your underwriting operations are actually protected before you find out the hard way.

DM me. We'll read the policy together.

A Must Read for Insurance Company Executives 

Five catastrophe events. Zero physical damage. Billions to trillions uninsured.
That's the NDBI problem nobody's talking about. This week's Friday Five breaks down Non-Damage Business Interruption...ninety-two percent of S&P 500 value is now intangible, but most BI policies still require something to burn before they pay.

We also pulled apart the three-word clause in your cyber policy that stops paying a BI claim weeks before your business actually recovers. And I pinned a piece on why parametric insurance isn't coverage — it's a liquidity weapon.

In case you missed it: The Wednesday Intelligence Brief kicked off our deepfake miniseries. A finance director wired $25.6 million after a video call with his CFO, his CEO, and two colleagues. None of them were real. We broke down why FI executives are walking training data for synthetic clones and the six renewal questions every institution should bring to the table.

New this week: both editions are now available as audio. 
Read it or listen to it, your call.

Comment NEWSLETTER for the link.

View newsletter: LION Specialty Newsletter 

Welcome to the Pride's Friday Five Every Friday the team rips through 200+ insurance, legal, and market-risk articles into three signals your board ca

Open article: Five Catastrophe Events. Zero Damage. Billions Uninsured. The "NDBI" Issue No-one is Talking About, and The LION POV! by Mark Flippen • 2 min read

Five Catastrophe Events. Zero Damage. Billions Uninsured. The "NDBI" Issue No-one is Talking About, and The LION POV!

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