The growing reliance on contemporary insurance consulting models to assess non-physical exposures—such as business interruption brought on by increasingly complex cyberattacks and ransomware—when assessing risk is one of the biggest problems confronting organizations today. In the past, traditional property insurance policies, combined with various extensions, generally adequately supported claims related to conventional risks. Today, however, because of the need to respond to structural risks in the marketplace, insurance consultants must conduct extensive audits of both a company's overall viability as well as that of its data resilience prior to any placement of coverage. Advisory teams with extensive experience must conduct an in-depth examination of third-party vendor exposure, data sovereignty laws, and the presence of cloud-hosted systems—each of which significantly impacts a Swiss company's overall profile during the underwriting process. If an advisory firm continues to base its underwriting recommendations solely on fixed contract terms with annual renewals as opposed to incorporating the use of real-time vulnerability metrics, there will inevitably be coverage gaps. The use of independent insurance consultants becomes very apparent when dealing with disciplines like International Expansion and Mergers & Acquisitions. The skill needed to manage complying with Swiss pension regulations (the 2nd pillar) along with the complexities of cross-border liability requires a thorough knowledge of the different legal systems involved. A comprehensive consultancy does not only provide a comparison of premium rates, but it will also provide a procedure for determining total cost of risk, identifying potential issues with double insurance, and developing a cohesive structure for international master policies to provide identical coverage.

As international underwriting models continue to become stricter for liability and complex construction types of business, companies must actively evaluate the level of service being provided by their consultant partners. The forum will allow risk managers, finance managers, and corporate planners to share their recent experiences on the following questions: How well do Swiss brokers manage the risks of being part of a multi-channel distribution system? and What benchmarks do you use to quantify the true return on investment from your consulting partners? Sharing case studies regarding claims advocacy and complex modelling of exposures is welcomed.