SDV Insights

SDV has been serving policyholders and insurance brokers in the United States for over 20 years. As part of its continuing growth, SDV has been expanding its insurance coverage expertise to include more multinational clients. The firm feels it can bring a unique perspective to growing insurance markets, such as Central and Eastern Europe.

Last month, Stella Szantova Giordano attended the SIBAF Forum – an annual conference of insurance brokers in Slovakia. “I was very impressed by the quality of the conference,” Stella says. “The speakers had a deep level of expertise, and the topics were well-selected for a wide audience of insurance professionals who service different industries and types of clients.”

In many ways, the difference in applicable regulatory and legal regimes in Europe creates a different set of problems and more difficult paths to obtaining coverage. Many U.S. companies that do business overseas are not prepared for the stark difference of how an insurance claim is handled in Europe, or that certain insurance products may not be available in the foreign markets where they operate.

“We feel that our expertise with a variety of claims under different types of insurance policies can be of great assistance in Europe. Cyber coverage, which is by now quite developed in the United States, is still relatively unknown and under-utilized by European businesses. The combination of cyber risks with data privacy protections in the EU are an emerging risk. SDV has worked extensively in this area, and we hope to share our experiences with our European colleagues through SIBAF presentations in the future,” said Stella.

In addition to assisting American clients who have operations overseas, SDV provides invaluable insurance advice to foreign businesses who have (or are considering launching) business operations in the United States. “We understand the business and insurance risks across many industries, and can advise clients on hidden or unique risks they had not even thought of,” says Jeremiah Welch, an SDV partner.  “Our international group can advise clients on what insurance they need, and what risk transfer strategies they should employ when setting up their vendor or contractor relationships here in the U.S. Insurance coverage is complex, and it is easy to miss something crucial when procuring insurance policies in an unfamiliar market, especially when a company is used to a different way of doing business in its home country.”