Agency Profile: Closing the Cyber Gap

AHT Insurance

Washington, D.C.
Employees: 160

AHT Insurance takes an aggressive approach to advising commercial insureds on cyber liability. With a major service focus on technology companies, government contractors and nongovernmental organizations—firms with ever-present threats of hacking and other security breaches—AHT is entrenched in helping clients understand related risks and choose the best insurance programs.

But the right cyber coverage is important for every business that shares data over the Web, says David Schaefer, AHT principal and executive vice president. So the agency provides a comprehensive cyber gap analysis to assess companies’ current and future exposures against current policies. The result: additional conversation that leads to a more informed buyer—and often a better insurance program.

Brian Schermerhorn works with brokerages on placement strategy, and Terri Katzenberger helps clients understand their exposures and insurance needs.

TERRI KATZENBERGER, VICE PRESIDENT

Losses from cyber exposures can create complicated coverage issues and confusion over how, why and when insurance may respond—and, if it does, which policies are most likely to provide good risk transfer options. Cyber is different—there are often pre- and post-loss services that can be bundled with coverage. We provide clients with a clear picture of how coverage works in the context of potential claims.

DAVID SCHAEFER, PRINCIPAL AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

Companies typically buy cyber coverage believing they’re getting a comprehensive policy addressing cyber exposure, but that’s not the case. First- and third-party exposures in the cyber world are rarely dealt with comprehensively in insurance policies, and there always seem to be limitations until you shine a light on them and work with underwriters for improvement. So we present some scenarios to help our clients understand what could happen, and we look realistically at how current coverage could respond to those risks.

I’m not sure the industry is looking at opportunities to sell cyber coverage in the right way. I think the provision for coverage should be folded in to existing policies. There should be an option to buy it, of course, but we should have the ability to target premium for it within the context of every policy versus trying to sell it all inside a separate, new line of coverage. The current approach makes the coverage very complex and very misunderstood.

BRIAN SCHERMERHORN, NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & PLACEMENT

In developing a successful placement strategy, it’s challenging to balance structure, cost and terms. The hardest part of placement is coordinating coverage among multiple insurance companies. No single company can close all gaps at this time, but several are working on it. The use of multiple insurance companies puts increased pressure on cost and terms, which leads to some clients choosing to not purchase cyber coverage.