One global team.
We have joined our major global placement hubs in Bermuda, London, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong under a single Direct (Property & Casualty) team.
This allows us to share the skills, expertise and knowledge we have globally, ensuring WTW continues to consistently deliver the best possible placement solution for our clients.
By pooling our collective expertise, our Direct (Property & Casualty) team generates a greater level of insight and strategic thinking, becoming greater than the sum of its parts and providing clients with complete solutions that consider both short and long term objectives.
As we grow our capabilities, all brokers benefit from the shared knowledge and experience of their colleagues, whether addressing issues that have previously occurred across other territories or facing brand new challenges.
Working together creates better optimised tailored solutions that range from trading to transformational. It strengthens our relationships and gives us a competitive edge.
Direct and Facultative global line of business overview
Global Reach. Delivered Locally.
The right risk to the right market by the right broker, be it local or wholesale every time.
Together, we work as one global team, providing access to markets and giving greater visibility over where our business is placed.
Through simplified, streamlined processes and new developments in software solutions; our clients can rest assured that they will obtain the best deal available in the global marketplace.
*Team stats as at 1 April 2024
What we do
We have evolved our approach to continue our commitment to deliver truly global broking across borders.
This means even greater capacity, resource and expertise than is available elsewhere, all accessible locally for our clients.
Our core lines of business include:
- Property insurance
- Casualty insurance
- Environmental liability insurance
- Product recall insurance
- Reputational risk insurance
- Life sciences
- Healthcare
What makes our service unique
We provide a service with traditional values, advice and relationships you can trust.
Our three main differentiators we pride ourselves on are:
We work across teams and locations to provide you with optimal solutions and outcomes.
We have the ability to exploit and translate bulk data into the intelligence and insight you need to make the right decision.
For the service we provide and the truly global market access, this enhanced offering allows us to continue working for our clients to get the best deal possible.
How we do it
One team. One hub. Our people work seamlessly across products and geographies to provide our clients with outstanding and enhanced levels of insight.
We pride ourselves for being:
We go above and beyond to get to know you and to ensure you enjoy working with us.
Our teams have the culture and determination to deliver. We don’t stop until we have found the very best solution.
We provide a service with our traditional values, advice and relationships you can trust.
Case Studies
Client business challenge
Trucking firms in the US (as they are elsewhere in the world) are dependent on liability insurance to be able to take to the roads. Following changes in the marketplace a large trucking firm was struggling to secure US auto liability coverage, which was key to their continued operations.
What we delivered
In a tough market we were able to generate new capacity for the insured. By working with the insured and the market we were able to provide a multi-year loss rated buffer layer.
The value to our client
The client went from a position of potentially halting operations to having the security of a multi-year solution.
Client business challenge
A multinational cement producer challenged the value of business interruption coverage for their business. They were keen to rationalise the cover and limits they purchased for business interruption.
What we delivered
Through analysing risk engineering reports, we were able to develop and quantify credible maximum foreseeable loss scenarios for the production sites. This enabled the insured to validate the purchase of business interruption coverage at both management and plant level.
The value to our client
Through this process the client gained confidence that the limits and coverage accurately reflected their exposure. It also gave a clearer appreciation of the cover that would be provided in the event of a loss.
Client business challenge
One of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers needed product recall for automotive batteries. This presented a perfect storm for our product recall team who were faced with a new technology going into vehicles. Unproven technologies make underwriting difficult and the use in high value per unit items such as vehicles makes the potential loss quantum huge.
What we delivered
We worked with the insured to analyse their exposures and to create a report that addressed insurers concerns. This was then presented to the market and capacity sought in a structure that enabled to market not only respond but to respond in a cost-effective manner.
The value to our client
The client achieved a policy limit of $100 million which is one of the largest limits in the market. Not only was significant capacity developed but this was delivered within budget.
Client business challenge
A senior living client had been used to the challenges of buying earthquake insurance for its properties. However, when they suffered a significant wild fire loss, they found that their existing insurer was no longer able to continue to provide coverage.
What we delivered
The insurance market has developed tools and data that enable earthquake insurance to be provided at a cost. The threat posed by wildfires is less well understood making underwriting more difficult. By using our in-house analytics, we were able to enhance the markets understanding of the risk posed by this portfolio of properties.
The value to our client
As a result of this analytical work we were able to generate London market interest in the risk. This meant we were able to work with our US team to replace the lost capacity and to bring the pricing to a level that the client was happy with.
Placing new and emerging risks
We are at the forefront in helping clients seize opportunities from new technologies and industries while minimizing their risks and protecting their balance sheet.
Recent placements include:
- Green technology: Providing property protection for the first facility in the U.S. processing natural graphite, vital in the production of new battery technologies.
- Sustainable mining: Arranging casualty cover for a next generation mine that uses automation and technology to minimise the impact on the environment.
- Bio-energy: A property placement for the world’s third largest waste to energy site, protecting facilities needed to power the green transition.
- Electric vehicle chargers: Product recall insurance for electric vehicle chargers, helping clients developing charging solutions for new transport solutions.
- Clinical trials: Liability cover for vital clinical trials that helped to accelerate the development of new Covid vaccines during the pandemic.
- Electric fleets: Casualty cover for a U.S. fleet of all electric buses, placed in the local market.
- Artificial intelligence (AI): Financial loss and professional indemnity extensions to a general liability policy covering AI-driven measuring devices for a mining equipment manufacturer.
- Reputation risk: A comprehensive reputational risk solution, including insurance, prevention, crisis response and brand rehabilitation, for a major US fast food chain.
- Structured parametrics: A first of its kind structured parametric reinsurance solution enabling a forestry business to get cover for fire risks where traditional and regular parametric insurance were unavailable.
- Ports and terminals: An innovative property program protecting a major container shipping company for damage at ports and container terminals with potential to be rolled out worldwide.
- Aviation: A four-in-one program for an airline, including property damage and business interruption, casualty, marine cargo and fidelity guarantee.
- Aid and development: A general liability program for the World Food Program covering its unique insurance needs in some of the most difficult parts of the world.
- Sharing economy: A customized program designed to help safeguard transportation and micro-mobility businesses from liability risks within the sharing economy space.
- Green buildings: Property placements that help clients rebuild in a greener way after a loss, with sub-limits providing an amount on top of the actual loss for sustainability improvements.
- Supply chain: Helping companies cover the cost of port delays by adding demurrage and port blockage sub-limits to a property placement.
- Political violence: Placements providing wraparound cover for political violence risks across a company’s portfolio as part of their property policy.
- Property reinstatement: Enabling businesses to rebuild faster with ‘constructive total loss’ clauses that deem properties as totally lost when they cannot be saved without undue expenditure.
- Metro and rail systems: Placing comprehensive all risk cover for metro systems worldwide, rolling stock operators and freight businesses, up to $750 million capacity with sublimits for collision and derailment.
- Heavy truck fleets: Arranging a large buffer layer to fill a gap in auto liability for a fleet of heavy trucks that regular markets were unwilling to insure, enabling the company to renew its umbrella.
The common theme with all these examples is we were able to work with our colleagues and clients to understand the exposures, allowing us to develop solutions that met the client’s needs.
It is when we can work collaboratively in this way that we usually enjoy most success. The Direct (Property & Casualty) team has been designed to facilitate this way of working across the international marketplace.
For more information, please contact our specialists listed at the top of this page.
