I’m approaching my one-year anniversary as editor ofNU, and the job, without question, has affected the way Isee the world.

As I’m sure is common for many ofyou, perhaps all of you, I now see risks everywhere I look. Walkingto lunch, I worry about the liability related to the wobblyflagstones paving the sidewalk in front of a local bank (someone isalways trying to fix them, but never seems to get it right).

At home, I’m amazed at how blasé my apartment building’smaintenance staff is about leaving loose power cords casually lyingacross hallways and stairwells.

Every store or business I pass I start to wonder about theunique risks inherent to the operation. What are the E&O issuesfaced by an optometrist at an eyeglass boutique? What specialloss-mitigation efforts do jewelry stores need to undertake, withtheir small but precious cargo? What kind of total annual premiumsmust Starbucks pay?

Then, recently, I went to see “Sleep No More,” a hot-tickettheater piece based on “Macbeth” that was “staged” (the wrong wordcompletely) across a 100,000-square-foot, six-story formerwarehouse. Rather than being fixed in one place, audience members,alone or in small groups, had to go in search of both the actorsand scenes.

Lighting ranged from dim to pitch dark, and the multilevel spaceoffered more than 100 rooms to explore—some the size of a highschool gym and filled with crumbling castle ruins or forests orgraveyards (with the accompanying tons of dirt). Nothing was offlimits. In smaller rooms, the audience could open suitcases, shiftaround furniture and rifle through drawers (which were sometimesfilled with pins, knives or sharp medical instruments).

It was an absolutely amazing experience, but for the full threehours I was there, I couldn’t stop thinking, “My God, how are theygetting away with this from an insurance perspective?”

This emerging obsession with risk is reflected in a new serieswe officially launch with this issue: “Risks in Focus.” On aroughly monthly basis, we’ll take a deep-dive look at businesseswith unique, compelling and often visually arresting riskprofiles.

We kick off the series with an exploration of the underwritingworld of undertakers. As you’ll discover in the story that startson page 16, funeral-home directors are a class ofprofessional-service providers with some highly particular risksthat have to be addressed: grieving relatives, dropped caskets,dangerous chemicals and even “extreme leakage.” Hearses andcrematoria also bring with them some special insurancechallenges.

I don’t want to give away any of the upcoming classes of(inherently interesting) businesses that we’ll feature in theseries, but I’m comfortable predicting that these are stories youwill definitely want to read—and occasionally watch, as we includevideo.

And as promised in last week’s editorial, you’ll see a newfeature on page 7: the “Essential 11,” where we give you a quickrecap of all the most important headlines from the past sevendays.

Bryant Rousseau
Editor in Chief
201-526-1239
[email protected]