Jonathan Reiner
Executive Vice President
RT Specialty
Chicago
Years at company: 6.
How I became a Cyber Liability specialist
At RT Specialty — a wholesale broker — we deal with a large variety of retail brokers. Some are experts, and some are generalists. The generalist brokers lean on a wholesaler for tougher-to-place accounts that are difficult to place in the standard or direct market. I educate them and their clients on how Cyber [insurance] works, what the claims look like, and the market, and I analyze policy language and craft manuscript endorsements to better cater to their clients.
I started working with Cyber Liability when it was still in its infancy — in 2009 or 2010. It intrigued me because few brokers specialized in it, so I knew I could have a competitive advantage if I learned the product better than my competitors. I realized I could add a lot of value and be a specialist in Cyber more quickly than in other specialties.
Who's driving sales
A year ago, we were putting quotes in front of clients of all sizes, clients that have significant data counts, and they were not aware of the type of financial damage a breach could cause them. Fast forward, and now we have a client buyer base that is far more educated, and they are the ones reaching out and saying they want to buy more limits or talk about certain products. It's exciting when the buyers are the ones driving the sale of Cyber Liability.
Partnerships trump price
We are seeing a little more uniformity in Cyber Liability policy forms and language. A couple of years ago, many carriers had their own take on how an insurance policy should respond to a breach. Now we are starting to see the marketplace move toward a more similar approach and response, but with insurers retaining the capability of altering their product to compete with other carriers. It's not always coming down to price. It's just as important to focus on who you are partnering with, rather than simply what you are partnering on. We advocate to clients on who the insurer is, and how they respond to a breach, instead of how the product is structured.
When educating the client pays big
We ran some benchmarking data for a client, for how much of a notification cost limit they should buy with their Cyber policy. I recommended a pretty high number, given the amount of data they were holding and the industry they were in. The client pushed back and said it was too expensive. The client, his broker and I hopped onto a conference call, and I explained how notification costs work. The client ended up purchasing more than what I had recommended. And sure enough, down the road, the client had a breach, and the notification costs came into play.
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