The 2025 Bermuda Hot Topics seminar brought together insurance and reinsurance professionals for a full day of thought-provoking discussions on the evolving risks and regulatory developments shaping the global insurance landscape. Featuring speakers from across Kennedys’ network, the sessions offered practical insights and forward-looking perspectives on the challenges facing the market, from catastrophe-related property losses and professional lines exposures, to arbitration complexities, social media litigation, and the Bermuda market outlook.
Below are some of the key takeaways from each of the day’s sessions:
Hot topics in commercial property claims: Post-catastrophe challenges
Speakers: Jared Greisman, Eridania Perez and Richard Geddes
- Timely communication and careful ROR drafting are essential to reduce bad faith risks.
- Stay updated on wildfire and hurricane claim laws and key policy exclusions.
- Closely monitor rebuilding costs, including fraud and inflation.
Managing professional lines and exposure under the current US administration
Speakers: Eric Scheiner and Greg Steinberg
- Employment claims now come from many different directions and in many shapes and sizes, including claims for reverse discrimination. On top of that, we do not see traditional EPL claims going away. Given the wide range and volume of claims, EPL exposure remains a signature concern under the current administration.
- Tariffs have created a significant amount of economic uncertainty, which will likely continue over the next several years, notwithstanding how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the tariff issue. This will likely lead to more companies experiencing financial difficulty and bankruptcy risk, which in turn creates greater exposure for D&O insurers, particularly those writing Side-A policies.
- The EEOC will likely focus on “illegal DEI” given the directives from the current administration. With respect to the SEC, we are likely to see the SEC move away from ESG issues such as climate change and instead focus on more traditional financial fraud cases.
Defending D&O claims in bankruptcy
Speakers: Marc Casarino, Maurice Pesso and Justin King
- Bankruptcy brings heightened D&O litigation risks for directors and officers.
- Strong defenses exist from the business judgment rule and reliance on experts, exculpation clauses and insurance.
- The most effective strategy blends legal defenses with practical tools like settlement dynamics, insurance recovery, and reputation management.
Two departments separated by a common language:
Important considerations for communication and partnership between underwriting and claims
Speakers: Cara Vecchione and Jim Byrnes
- Importance of establishing proactive, regular lines of communication between claims and underwriting;
- Consider inviting key members of your claims team to underwriting meetings and events to help foster and strengthen business relationships with insureds; and
- Consider involving your claims team in policy wording/drafting to help understand practical implications of proposed insurance policy amendments.
Hot topics: Arbitration
Speaker: Thomas Kendra
- Draft clauses that anticipate disputes across primary, excess and reinsurance layers.
- Ensure alignment between arbitration clauses in direct policies and in reinsurance and retrocession treaties.
- Specify how to address the aggregation of claims in case of pandemics, cyber events, or climate losses.
Social media litigation and the use of novel theories of products liability in this Emerging Field
Speakers: Jeff Trimarchi and Kristen Perkins
- There is increasing pressure on Congress and courts to remove or modify protections for social media companies and to permit certain theories of liability against these companies for alleged harms that result from use of their platforms.
- Some members of the US Supreme Court have suggested that the immunity provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has been interpreted too broadly and that the platforms are not merely acting as neutral publishers of third-party content.
- In the meantime, Plaintiffs have been attempting to use product liability theories to navigate around first amendment and statutory protection under Section 230 – i.e., failure to warn and inadequate parental controls.
What’s on the horizon for the Bermuda Insurance market
Speakers: Chris Carroll and Nick Williams
- Likely areas of concern moving forward:
- AI and cyber
- Microplastics
- Mass tort and class actions in Europe