How an IP Insurance Leader Uses Data Analytics to Adapt to the Changes in Their Industry

Home > Resources > Customer Stories > How an IP Insurance Leader Uses Data Analytics to Adapt to the Changes in Their Industry

Maddi Brown is the Intellectual Property Practice Leader at CFC Underwriting Ltd, heading up the Intellectual Property Underwriting Team. With 15 years of experience in Intellectual Property insurance, 7 of those years at CFC, she explains the huge changes the industry has experienced and how Classification has helped to be data led to accurately assess IP insurance risk and bring it into the mainstream.

How has the Intellectual Property Insurance Industry changed?

When I started, traditional lines of insurance were always the key assets of most companies. Most businesses would think about office insurance or professional insurance, but now, the importance of intangible assets is top of mind. They’re what you are left with when you get up and leave your office. When you boil it down, the value to your business is really the people and the product – so how do you think about protecting those?

The market’s starting to open up, and there are more providers for IP insurance, which some wouldn’t think is a good thing, but actually, it is. The more competitors that we get in the market, the more people are talking about it, and that’s good all around. Our next challenge will be to make sure that the quality is still there as the market gets busier.

How has LexisNexis® Classification helped to accurately assess Intellectual Property Insurance risk?

LexisNexis Classification provides us with a snapshot into the current position of the client and that adds real comfort to the exposure. It adds historical data. It also adds the ability to look at technology sectors and areas, so that we can then find out where the client sits.

Classification provides us with dispute litigation data. This is really key to understanding the exposure and the risk for that client. Understanding the exposure by territory e.g. US and Global litigation data, is also really useful for us. The clarity of the data is what I find the most important thing with Classification. How we can access it and use it, and get to that key information quickly.

How has Classification data helped you increase confidence in the risk class?

Classification has allowed us to give comfort in what we’re doing, why we’re presenting terms and why things are set at a certain level. It’s allowed us to add reassurance to the data, the way that we’re rating and the structure that we’re providing, and that’s made a massive difference to those who support us.

Classification provides us a snapshot into the current position of the client and that adds real comfort into the exposure.

Maddi Brown
Intellectual Property Practice Leader
CFC Underwriting

What Return on Investment has Classification given you?

Thanks to Classification, we can actually turn quotes around in 24-48 hours. We can deliver to our clients a quick turnaround, a good service, and an efficient service. We are able to offer fair pricing and deliver premium levels that are palatable to them. The support of the data from Classification allows us to do this. So, risks that should be paying a higher premium are paying a higher premium. Risks that should be paying a lower premium are paying a lower premium. This is a huge improvement on where the market used to be, where everybody just paid really high premiums.

Who uses Classification at CFC?

Primarily the IP Team uses Classification. But it’s also used by our Transaction Liability Team. They love it, as it gives them a quick insight into businesses they’re looking at when they’re taking on intellectual property risk. By having access to Classification at CFC, we’re adding a lot of insight and confidence to our lines of business because we have the data.