I was training a broker in Business Interruption insurance last week and it was of course impossible not to discuss the business interruption implications of the Wanna Cry virus. It is clear that obtaining coverage is not without its hurdles.

I attended an excellent  Insurance  Institute of London lecture recently “Accelerated learning and memory techniques” given by Rob Murray of Lane, Clark & Peacock. Cii members can check the out the podcast.

It’s 11.30 am on a Monday morning - suddenly your mobile rings loudly –it’s a very worried manager of a local design firm - Lydia. 

“Someone has stolen all our money ” she shouts, “Please tell me we are insured!”

Many of you will have heard a lot about the Insurance Act 2015, which comes in to force in August 2016.

There are many changes in the Act, the majority of which are to the benefit of commercial customers.

Brokers who have clients who are solicitors are hopefully well aware of the risk of Friday afternoon frauds. Cyber criminals take advantage of the fact that solicitors are busy to pose as customers and deceive the solicitor in to sending their client’s money to the criminal’s bank account.

The Insurance Act 2015 will have a significant impact on both the placement of commercial insurances and the handling of the commercial insurance claims when it comes in to force on 12th August 2016 and both brokers and insurers should begin preparing for it now.

In my negotiation skills workshop I get lots of questions and a common one is “should you make the first offer?”

In reply to this I tell them the story of my mother and the portuguese tablecloth salesman.

In April 2015 Business Insurance quoted Gabi Siboni, director of cyber security program at Israel’s Institute for National Studies as saying that hackers are targeting electric and nuclear power plants around the world.

Many CII examination candidates when they get the text book arm themselves with a pen or highlighter open the book at Page 1 and start reading and highlighting or underlining the text. It’s probably something we have been taught to do at school but does it work?