Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 23 2023

The Insurance Monitor concluded last week with humour: "2023 is the first normal year after the pandemic. But many changes due to the epidemic remain. This applies to work in the home, the famous home office. By the way, our British colleagues are always surprised at the choice of words, for them the home office is the Home Office. By coincidence, there is a whole series of such strange Anglicisms. When the Germans speak of "public viewing" at football tournaments, the English think of the public viewing of corpses. That's the real meaning of the term there." One could now write a lot about language, its appropriation, dissemination and change of meaning - but many a football match shown in public has more the character of an execution for some of the players on the pitch - so public viewing is almost humane.

David Saillen, responsible for the art and specie business in Central Europe at Liberty Specialty Markets, has published an in-house article on the impact of technological developments on the art insurance market. It contains some exciting aspects on underwriting, the art market but also the future fight against forgeries. One thing is for sure - you never get bored in this business. And travel costs also play a role in the eye of management. There are said to be art insurers whose importance has declined because they no longer have a sufficient presence to save costs.

Arte Generali has now established a unit in London. Possibly the risks that are not wanted in the smaller country units because they are potentially volatile are now being written there. In any case, the Italians are making progress.

In building insurance, prices are rising faster than one would like - and this is not only due to losses. The increase in building costs is reflected not only in higher sums insured but also in higher average premium rates. In other parts of the world, insurers are pulling out of the market completely because the risk is too high for them. The catastrophe exposure in California is so great for State Farm Insurance, which is heavily involved in the market there, that it is no longer accepting new customers and is trying to make a profitable selection from among the existing ones. Sounds like the influence of management consultants who know how to generate fees but lack the awareness of the difficulty of convincing customers in a business of trust. Hopefully the management has taken out a good directors' and officers' liability insurance policy.

Lempertz, van Ham and Ketterer want to show this week that the German auction market can also be vital and interwoven with million-dollar surcharges - mainly with Expressionism. Afterwards, everyone will travel to Basel to see if there is any purchasing power left.

At the beginning of July, the Whistleblower Protection Act (HinSchG) comes into force and obliges all companies with 50 or more employees to set up offices that enable whistleblowers - the word "denouncers" is somehow on the tip of my tongue - to give space to their need for publicity without repression. For ordinary mortals, the law is no longer comprehensible because it refers to so many ordinances and laws from other areas that even a resourceful lawyer needs days to begin to understand what the law wants and how to apply it correctly. But one thing is already clear: it creates additional jobs, unrest and the urgent need to continue business outside the country.

Badly done legislation seems to be the trademark of the current German government anyway. Keyword heating. The resulting insecurity massively blocks purchasing power, which is now lacking in the furniture industry, for example, and which also affects other consumer goods. Ideologically based restructuring of the German social order does not reach those for whom it is actually well-intentioned. And even meaner - those affected turn to a publicly branded Igitt party that can also claim a victim role for itself because it is treated like a leper in public. Good arguments and education, together with what was buon Governo in the Renaissance, are a much more vivid argument against aberrations. But that's where those currently in power are standing on their own feet tremendously.

Nevertheless, look courageously to the future - Europe is big, charming and diverse, only reason seems to be taking a break at the moment.

In this spirit

Stephan Zilkens and the team of Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH in Solothurn and Cologne