AXA XL Adds Hostage/Assault Crisis Protection
AXA XL’s Environmental business has added complimentary hostage/assault crisis response coverage to its pollution insurance specifically designed for real estate businesses and portfolios.
According to Matt O’Malley, President of AXA XL’s North America Environmental business, “Our environmental insurance team has been a pioneer in the pollution insurance market for the last 35 years. As such, we are constantly looking at ways to enhance our insurance policies to help our clients address new and emerging concerns.
“With access to AXA XL’s diverse, specialty product lines, we are able to tap into our crisis management expertise and add this response coverage as a value-added protection specifically for our clients insuring their real estate interests with us.”
AXA XL’s Pollution and Remediation Legal Liability [PARLL] policy provides insurance protection against loss, remediation expense and legal defense expense for sudden and gradual pollution conditions. A variety of real estate businesses and portfolio managers rely on the PARLL policy to address pollution incidents on their office, commercial, retail and mix-use properties.
According to Denise Balan, Head of US Security Risks for AXA XL, “The possibility of a hostage or assault situation occurring on their premises might not have been a consideration for our property owner and manager clients in the past.
“However, given recent events we see all too often, the issue has taken on new importance and raised concerns. The added Hostage Crisis and Assault endorsement gives these clients immediate access to crisis management response services and financial assistance to help mitigate damages.”
The endorsement includes coverage for a hostage or assault incident, including potential ransom delivery, extra expenses incurred as a result of the incident, legal liability and consultant services. AXA XL partners with S-RM, a global risk consultancy, to provide hostage and assault response services to its policyholders, worldwide.
“Our added Hostage/Assault Response coverage gives our real estate clients added piece of mind that should an incident occur, they have the insurance coverage and added crisis management resources to address it quickly with minimal harm to occupants, their facilities and their reputation,” said Mr. O’Malley.
