Policyholder Pulse
A recent decision by a California appellate court in Practice Fusion, Inc. v. Freedom Specialty Insurance Company, denying the policyholder more than $118 million in Directors & Officers liability coverage based on an expansive professional services exclusion, is a sobering reminder that this nettlesome exclusion—when over-broadly applied, as was the case here—may render your D&O coverage worthless. The mere fact that Practice Fusion’s insurers asserted this exclusion in the circumstances of this claim should remind brokers and risk managers of the importance of eliminating, or at least narrowing, professional services exclusions where there is any potential argument that the insured is engaged in providing any form of “professional services.” Although it is of course appropriate to fill any gaps created by the exclusion with commensurate Errors & Omissions coverage, E&O policies do not provide the same scope of coverage, or even limits, that are available under D&O policies.
Yemeni-based Houthi forces have 
Long a feature of directors’ and officers’ (D&O) liability insurance policies, the so-called “Bump-Up” Exclusion has gotten significant attention over the last few years. Because of the recent escalation in securities litigation that follows a majority of mergers and acquisitions, the Bump-Up Exclusion is of critical importance to publicly traded policyholders. Bump-Up Exclusion provisions are often found in a D&O policy’s definition of “Loss” and purport to exclude the amount of a settlement or judgment that represents an increase in the price paid to acquire an entity, where such consideration was alleged to be inadequate. A recent decision out of the Delaware state courts affirms again that D&O insurers will be held to the specific terms of their Bump-Up Exclusions.
Temperatures in Arizona this week reached 
Amazon. Bank of America. Citigroup. Dick’s Sporting Goods. JP Morgan. Kroger. Meta. Microsoft. Procter & Gamble. Target. Walt Disney Company. These are just a few of what is a 
After hitting the shores of Louisiana with winds of up to 
If 2020 was the year of the pandemic, 2021 appears to be shaping up to be the year of “returning to normal.” So far, most coverage disputes related to COVID-19 have been reactions to direct losses caused by the virus and related measures (i.e., relating to business interruption or event cancellation). In the upcoming months and years, however, many businesses will have to make proactive decisions on how to return to work. It is important for businesses to understand how those decisions may impact a variety of potential insurance coverages, including possible D&O coverage, as this post will discuss. Additionally, now that insurance companies have a better understanding of the types of risks involved with COVID-19, coverage terms and exclusions in policies issued after the pandemic may become drastically different.
Almost four months have passed since the World Health Organization declared COVID‑19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Continued social distancing and other precautionary measures have driven many organizations to expand work-from-home protocols for the foreseeable future or even permanently—in turn 
