Ace Bermuda launches broad North American D&O policies

Ace Bermuda has launched three professional-lines products aimed at the North American business segment through its Bermuda-based subsidiary, Corporate Officers & Directors Assurance (CODA). CODA provides broad coverage for directors' and officers' insurance, offering clients up to $75m in capacity.

Ace said the CODA premier directors' and officers' liability policy form is designed to give comprehensive financial protection to directors and officers when their company fails to indemnify them, or when traditional insurance programmes fail to respond.

Ace said the highlights of the enhanced policy included a separate and additional limit for independent directors if the policy's standard limit of liability is exhausted, there is a narrowed insured versus insured exclusion and expanded notice of circumstances, where circumstances need only be "reasonably expected to give rise to a future claim."

It also said that conduct exclusions have been amended to preserve more limits for innocent insureds, and that choice of arbitration venue has been broadened to include Toronto and Vancouver, as well as London and Bermuda.

Additionally, the CODA premier independent directors' policy (IDL) insures only outside directors for non-indemnified loss. This policy is designed to protect the personal assets of outside directors and allow companies to attract and retain the best available directors.

Ace said the IDL policy, in combination with a company's standard directors' and officers' insurance programme, should provide outside directors with sufficient confidence that their personal risks from board service are well managed and contained.

Ace described the third product, the CODA premier officers' liability policy, as "an innovative Side-A policy that only covers current and former officers of a company."

The policy contains all of the coverage features contained in the premier directors' and officers' liability premier policy, but the policy's limit of liability is dedicated only for the benefit of officers. Coverage under the policy extends to officers in their capacity as an officer or director of the company, as well as to other employees if the other employees are co-defendants with an officer.

Patrick Tannock, executive vice-president, professional lines at Ace Bermuda, said, "The need for these types of specialised professional coverages is very real today in light of the increasing frequency of partial settlements, in which claims against some but not all of the defendant directors and officers are settled."