NEW YORK—The industry is certainly aware of, and gaining knowledge about, supply chains—but products are not necessarily keeping up with the risks. 

"The industry is in a period of flux," says Warren Meigs, deputy property executive for the U.S. and Canada at AIG Property Casualty, during Advisen's Property Insights Conference June 11. The exposure is "not well enough understood," and contract wording is not uniform.

Gary Love, vice president and staff operations underwriting manager at FM Global, agrees. During a panel discussion on the topic of supply chain risk and contingent business interruption, Love says understanding the true risk of second-, third- and fourth-tier suppliers is a "daunting, daunting task," and his feeling is the industry has not stepped up yet to provide products to cover the types of losses starkly revealed by recent events such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, flooding in Thailand, and Superstorm Sandy in the Northeast U.S.