Alliance NOW! Risk & Insurance Podcast Series

Hosted by The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research

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Episodes

158

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-US

About the show

The Alliance NOW! Risk & Insurance Podcast Series provides listeners with rich, nuanced conversations that deepen learning and promote the successful completion of Risk & Insurance Education Alliance programs.

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60 recent

August 11, 202632 min

Cyber Insurance, AI & Rising Threats- What Agents Need to Know in 2026

Ready to build expertise in one of the fastest-growing areas of insurance? Explore the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance's Cyber RiskPRO® program and gain the knowledge you need to identify cyber exposures, explain coverage solutions, and serve clients with confidence in today's rapidly evolving cyber environment. Artificial intelligence is transforming the insurance industry, but it's also reshaping the cyber threat landscape. In a recent episode of Alliance Insights , Lisa Gardner spoke with Adam Connor, Area Executive Vice President at Risk Placement Services, about the current state of the cyber insurance market and what insurance professionals should expect over the next 12 to 18 months. One of Connor's key observations is that AI is rapidly becoming an everyday business tool. He described today's AI adoption as similar to the early days of online dating services. What once felt unfamiliar is quickly becoming mainstream. Insurance agencies are already using secure AI tools to analyze books of business, identify growth opportunities, improve retention strategies, and automate administrative tasks. At the same time, cyber criminals are leveraging AI to increase the speed and scale of attacks. According to Connor, social engineering and ransomware remain leading causes of cyber claims. AI lowers the technical barriers for threat actors, making sophisticated attacks easier to launch than ever before. Despite rising claims activity, the cyber insurance market remains competitive. Connor noted that many organizations continue to see flat renewals or even rate reductions due to new carrier entrants and strong marketplace competition. However, he expects the market to gradually harden as losses continue to accumulate. Connor also challenged a common misconception that smaller organizations are unlikely cyber targets. Many attacks use a broad, automated approach rather than targeting specific companies. Businesses that fail to maintain software updates, security controls, and employee awareness programs remain vulnerable regardless of size. Another important takeaway is the need for adequate cyber insurance limits. Connor cautioned that minimal coverage may create a false sense of security. With cyber losses often reaching millions of dollars, organizations should carefully evaluate whether their limits align with their exposure. As cyber threats continue to evolve, insurance professionals have an opportunity to help clients better understand both risk management and insurance solutions. While technologies may change, Connor's message was clear: cyber risk isn't going away, and organizations that embrace both cybersecurity and cyber insurance will be better positioned for the future. Cyber threats are evolving faster than ever, and clients are looking to insurance professionals for guidance. Build the expertise needed to identify cyber exposures, evaluate coverage options, and confidently navigate today’s cyber risk landscape with the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance’s Cyber RiskPRO® program. Learn more and take the next step in advancing your cyber risk knowledge. Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

August 6, 202647 min

Environmental Strategist Podcast: Dirt, Dust, and Environmental Liabilities for Contractors

Contractors face environmental exposures that can lead to costly claims, coverage disputes, project delays, cleanup expenses, legal defense costs, and third-party liability. In this episode of the Environmental Strategist Podcast , presented in partnership with the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance , Brooks Bunbury is joined by Christopher Pell, Senior Underwriting Manager with Intact Insurance, Midwest and Eastern Environmental Division, to explore real-world contractor pollution liability claims and the environmental insurance solutions that can help protect businesses. The conversation examines current environmental insurance market conditions, growth in contractor pollution liability coverage, and the types of claims carriers are seeing across the construction and contracting space. Examples include mold from an improperly installed HVAC system, asbestos-contaminated demolition debris, underground utility strikes, fuel line leaks, stormwater runoff, liquid asphalt spills, illicit dumping, vapor intrusion, and aging underground storage tanks. Listeners will also learn how Contractors Pollution Liability (CPL) , site pollution coverage , transportation pollution liability , underground storage tank coverage , and related environmental insurance products may respond to exposures that are often excluded or limited under general liability, commercial auto, or property policies. The episode also offers practical underwriting insights for agents and brokers, including why project lists, loss runs, financial stability, health and safety practices, and well-drafted contracts matter when placing environmental coverage. This episode is ideal for insurance agents, brokers, risk managers, contractors, and environmental insurance professionals who want to better understand contractor pollution exposures, coverage gaps, and the importance of environmental financial assurance. Key Topics Environmental liabilities facing contractors Current environmental insurance market conditions Growth trends in contractor pollution liability (CPL) Mold claims and water intrusion exposures Asbestos contamination and demolition risks Fuel spills, leaking tanks, and underground utility strikes Vapor intrusion, silica, PFAS, and stormwater runoff Contractor Pollution Liability (CPL) coverage Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL) and site pollution coverage Transportation Pollution Liability coverage Underground Storage Tank (UST) risks and insurance considerations Legal defense costs in environmental claims Contractual environmental insurance requirements Environmental financial assurance programs Underwriting best practices for contractors How pollution coverage can provide a competitive bidding advantage Key Takeaways Environmental exposures exist for nearly every contractor, not just environmental specialists. Excavation, demolition, HVAC, plumbing, utility installation, roofing, and transportation operations can all trigger costly pollution claims. Standard general liability policies often contain pollution exclusions that leave contractors uninsured for significant environmental losses. Contractor Pollution Liability (CPL) coverage can address cleanup costs, bodily injury, property damage, business interruption, natural resource damages, and legal defense costs. Mold continues to be a major source of environmental claims affecting contractors across multiple trades. Underground utility strikes, fuel releases, asbestos discoveries, and stormwater runoff can quickly generate six- and seven-figure losses. Transportation Pollution Liability fills important coverage gaps that may not be addressed by commercial auto policies. Aging underground storage tanks present increasing risk and may become more difficult and expensive to insure over time. Strong safety programs, favorable loss histories, stable finances, and well-written contracts can improve underwriting outcomes and pricing. Contractors can use pollution liability coverage as a differentiator when competing for projects that require environmental financial assurance. Want to build stronger environmental risk and insurance expertise? Enroll in the Certified Environmental Strategist, Self-Paced Online Course from the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance. This four-hour, on-demand course helps insurance professionals better understand environmental exposures, coverage solutions, and risk management strategies. Start learning on your schedule and earn your Certified Environmental Strategist certification. Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

July 30, 202644 min

How Insurers Launch New Products in the Age of AI From Product Design to Underwriting Operations

Featured Guests Jeffrey Williams , Managing Director, Microsoft Global Insurance Advisory Practice Andy Welch , Product Architect, HSB Max Bedell , Head of Sales, Covenir Topics Discussed AI liability insurance Emerging AI risks and exposures Insurance coverage gaps Underwriting AI-related risks Insurance operations and automation MGA and carrier strategy AI adoption and employee enablement Claims and customer service transformation Future insurance technology trends The evolving relationship between people and AI Key Takeaways AI is creating new insurance coverage needs and exposures. Insurers are beginning to address AI-specific liability risks. Successful AI adoption requires employee education and engagement. AI should augment insurance professionals, not replace them. Insurance remains a relationship-driven industry. Organizations that thoughtfully integrate AI into workflows will gain a competitive advantage. CIC Insurance Company Operations Want a deeper understanding of how insurance companies operate, make underwriting decisions, manage claims, and leverage technology? The CIC Insurance Company Operations course from the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides insurance professionals with a practical look inside carrier operations, business strategy, financial considerations, underwriting processes, and organizational decision-making. Explore CIC Insurance Company Operations and gain the knowledge needed to better understand the insurance companies you work with every day. Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

July 22, 202634 min

Enterprise Risk Management Building an ERM Program from the Ground Up

Key Topics Discussed Building an enterprise risk management (ERM) program from scratch Creating a strong foundation for organizational risk management Gaining executive support and stakeholder buy-in Breaking down silos through relationship building Identifying and prioritizing enterprise risks Using risk assessments to guide strategic decisions Designing insurance programs that support organizational growth Building productive broker and underwriter relationships Business continuity planning and resilience strategies Managing supply chain risk in a global organization Navigating multinational insurance challenges Lessons learned for new and aspiring risk managers Why risk management offers diverse career opportunities Key Takeaways Successful ERM programs begin with a clear understanding of an organization's most significant risks. Executive sponsorship is critical when building a risk management function. Relationships across departments are essential for identifying and managing risk effectively. Business continuity planning requires both strategic planning and operational knowledge. Insurance is one component of a broader risk management strategy. The right consultants, brokers, and service providers can accelerate program maturity. Risk management professionals can find opportunities across virtually every industry. Featured Guest Emily Buckley Risk Manager, Specialized Bicycle Components Emily leads risk management, insurance strategy, business continuity, and resilience initiatives at Specialized Bicycle Components. As the company's first dedicated risk manager, she has been instrumental in developing its enterprise risk management framework and strengthening organizational resilience across a global footprint. Learn More Interested in advancing your risk management expertise? The Practice of Risk Management course from the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance's CRM Designation program, provides practical frameworks for identifying, analyzing, controlling, financing, and monitoring organizational risks. Whether you're building an ERM program, improving business resilience, or advancing your career, PRM delivers the tools needed to make a measurable impact. Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

July 15, 202632 min

AI in Insurance: How Carriers Are Transforming Underwriting, Claims, and Operations

In this episode, you'll learn: Why insurance's biggest bottleneck isn't decision-making—it's the work surrounding the decision How AI agents differ from traditional automation and workflow tools Why governance, transparency, and auditability are essential for insurance AI How carriers can use AI to improve underwriting accuracy and speed-to-quote The role of AI in claims consistency, customer trust, and claims outcomes Why human oversight remains critical in underwriting, claims, and policy servicing The difference between general-purpose AI models and insurance-specific AI Lessons learned from more than 120 live insurance AI deployments Common mistakes organizations make when scaling AI initiatives How insurance leaders can build an AI strategy that delivers measurable business value As AI changes how insurance work gets done, understanding how insurance companies operate becomes even more important. The Alliance's CIC Insurance Company Operations course provides a deeper look into carrier structures, underwriting operations, claims management, profitability, financial performance, and the decisions that drive insurer success. Explore CIC Insurance Company Operations through the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance and strengthen your understanding of today's insurance marketplace. Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

July 8, 202630 min

The Interconnectedness of Risks

Why risks rarely exist in isolation and often interact, overlap, and amplify one another The limitations of traditional risk rankings, heat maps, and siloed risk assessments How interconnected risks can create cascading impacts across an organization Lessons from the World Economic Forum's risk network approach to understanding complexity Why rapidly evolving business environments require a more dynamic view of risk How digital transformation and growing dependencies increase interconnected exposures The concept of risk influence and how one event can trigger multiple downstream risks Why lower-ranked risks may have greater strategic importance than organizations realize Creating risk influence matrices to visualize relationships between risks Simple methods for assessing risk connections using high, medium, and low influence ratings The role of subject matter experts in identifying and evaluating risk interdependencies How surveys, workshops, and collaborative assessments can improve risk visibility Using AI-generated risk lists as a starting point for broader risk analysis Understanding catalyst risks that drive multiple business threats simultaneously Why executives often focus on only a handful of risks and overlook important triggers The value of risk networks in revealing hidden vulnerabilities and dependencies How organizations can prioritize mitigation efforts based on influence rather than rank alone Practical steps for integrating interconnected risk analysis into ERM programs The importance of communication, collaboration, and ongoing evaluation in risk management Why understanding risk interconnections can improve resilience, decision-making, and long-term organizational success Ready to deepen your risk analysis skills? Explore the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance's Analysis of Risk course to learn practical techniques for identifying, evaluating, and communicating risk more effectively. Visit the link in the show notes to learn more and register. Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

June 15, 202633 min

Product Recall and Subsequent Business Continuity Risks in Food and Beverage

Why product recalls in the food & beverage industry are becoming more frequent and complex How large-scale production and rapid distribution increase the potential impact of a recall The role of supply chain risk and why contamination often originates upstream Understanding strict liability and exposure across the entire stream of commerce Key differences in regulatory oversight between FDA and USDA Why certain products (e.g., those without a “kill step”) carry higher contamination risk How modern traceability and testing accelerate the speed of recalls The importance of responding quickly to remove affected product from the market Financial and operational consequences, including production shutdowns and revenue loss Why business continuity planning is essential to maintaining operations during a recall The need for clear crisis response plans, defined roles, and rapid communication How reputational damage can escalate without coordinated response strategies Gaps in traditional insurance coverage and the value of product recall insurance How proactive risk management, visibility, and preparedness reduce overall exposure Why recalls are not one-time events but continuous risks requiring ongoing attention Want to go deeper on the strategies behind managing complex risks like product recalls? The Alliance’s Control of Risk course offers practical frameworks to help you strengthen risk evaluation and response. Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

June 8, 202615 min

Environmental Strategist Podcast: Environmental Exposures Impacting High Net Worth Insureds

Topics Covered: Why high net worth individuals are considered “industry disruptors” in insurance The limitations of traditional personal and commercial insurance when addressing environmental risk Real-world environmental loss scenarios, including: Why many high-net-worth insureds are unknowingly self-insuring environmental exposures Environmental liability exposures tied to complex asset portfolios, including: How environmental risks for HNW individuals can rival those of corporations The disconnect between agent assumptions (e.g., mold coverage) and actual environmental coverage gaps The importance of integrating personal and commercial insurance into a cohesive environmental program How tailored environmental insurance solutions can eliminate gaps and reduce hidden liabilities Why education and expertise are critical for advisors serving high-net-worth clients The role of proactive environmental risk planning in protecting wealth, operations, and reputation How many environmental exposures are your high-net-worth clients unknowingly self-insuring? The Certified Environmental Strategist (eS) self-paced course gives you the tools to uncover those risks and help protect what matters most. Environmental Strategist Resources: Hazardous Transportation Liability & Physical Damage Application Contractors Pollution Liability (CPL) Application New Business Application for Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL) Insurance StorageTank Pollution Liability Application Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

June 2, 202646 min

Predicting and Preventing Crashes

Why rising claims costs, nuclear verdicts, and premiums are reshaping fleet risk management The shift from reactive claims handling to proactive crash prevention strategies Why crashes are predictable when you focus on leading indicators instead of outcomes The importance of identifying high-risk drivers and understanding behavior patterns How data sources like MVRs, telematics, and violation tracking reveal hidden risk The role of continuous monitoring vs. one-time or annual reviews Why increasing deductibles without a strategy can increase exposure Common gaps in fleet risk programs, including a lack of visibility and inconsistent workflows How to align brokers, carriers, and insureds around a shared risk mitigation strategy The connection between driver behavior, accountability, and safety culture Practical approaches to building a repeatable, data-driven prevention program Why combining analytics with real-world execution produces the best outcomes How better risk management reduces total cost of risk, not just insurance premiums Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

May 18, 202630 min

From Onboarding to Belonging

Why onboarding should be treated as an experience, not just a checklist The critical difference between onboarding and true employee belonging Why first impressions extend beyond day one and shape long-term outcomes Common mistakes organizations make by focusing too heavily on tasks and compliance How understanding individual motivations, personalities, and learning styles improves engagement The role of curiosity and early feedback in building trust with new hires Practical ways to personalize the first-day experience and create meaningful connections Why onboarding should be a shared responsibility across leaders, managers, HR, and peers How involving cross-functional teams improves integration and team cohesion The importance of clear expectations and consistent communication from the start Simple, thoughtful gestures that can make employees feel welcomed and valued How better onboarding experiences drive retention, performance, and culture Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.