Podcast

Mar 17, 2021

Into the Breach Podcast - Episode 9: COVID-19’s Impact on Reps and Warranties Insurance: A Year in Review and What Lies Ahead

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Into the Breach is the first law firm podcast exclusively devoted to reps and warranties insurance and the transactional risk markets. Hosted by Seyfarth partners Bryan M. O’Keefe and Gena B. Usenheimer, each week the hosts in their unique, buoyant style, interview leaders from the industry, and explore the latest developments, market trends, and news impacting RWI and transactional risk insurance.

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Episode 9: COVID-19’s Impact on Reps and Warranties Insurance: A Year in Review and What Lies Ahead

March 2021 marks one-year since COVID-19 took over the United States, rattling the U.S. M&A markets, and grinding deals to a virtual standstill. The advent of the virus also profoundly impacted the reps and warranties insurance product, leading insurers in the spring of 2020 to impose special “COVID-19 exclusions” and requiring heightened due diligence around COVID-19 related risks.

But by December 2020, the markets had shifted yet again, turning red-hot, and culminating in a rush of year-end deals and many U.S. transactional risk markets pulling back from blanket COVID-19 exclusions. With vaccines now here and re-openings on the horizon, where are M&A markets and RWI headed now, in hopefully the final stages of the COVID-19?

To talk about these topics and more, Bryan and Gena are joined by Bill Monat, Executive Vice-President and Transactional Risk Solutions Leader at Willis Towers Watson. Known industry-wide as one of the preeminent thought leaders in the RWI space, Bryan, Gena, and Bill engage in a big-picture discussion on COVID-19 and its impact on reps and warranties insurance, touching on topics such as:

  • A revisiting of how 2020 started for M&A markets
  • A discussion on the immediate impact felt by COVID-19 starting in March 2020
  • The advent of the “COVID-19” exclusion on RWI policies and how different markets initially reacted to the virus
  • The market rebound in Q4 of 2020 and how RWI placements finished for the year
  • The state of the market today in March 2021 and how insurers have evolved on COVID-19 policy language
  • Predictions about how the arrival of the vaccine and gradual reopening will impact M&A and RWI
  • Looking back at changes that we thought in 2020 were poised to occur and how the virus impacted their trajectory

 

To access other Into the Breach episodes, click here.