What personal assets – tangible and intangible—does an underwriter need to work in this esoteric area of risk?
The tangible assets are the structures and systems in place at Kiln and of our parent Tokio Marine. The other core tangible asset I rely on is the Lloyd’s market itself and the broker relationships it brings. Intangible assets are the underwriter’s core competencies that you develop over time. That’s to do with the wordings and how flexible you can be with them. Empathy with the client is another important intangible asset: understanding what keeps them awake at night and responding with an insurance product. Is IP risk high up the corporate agenda? It isn’t high enough. Today, most companies achieve competitive advantage from intangible resources or intellectual property and yet those resources are often fundamentally insecure and at risk. Fifty percent of organisations are destroyed within one year of losing a key patent or IP asset, yet a lot of companies still only pay lip service to the risk. These are typically companies that haven’t been through the Enterprise Risk Management pr
