COVID keeps impacting markets in unanticipated ways. Most recent reports are a sharp upwards spike in director D&O insurance premiums. Some brokers report average increases in the US as between 60% and 74%.

Drivers: risk of litigation based on COVID, and increased risk of bankruptcy generally (D&O traditionally has covered directors even when companies are before the Bankruptcy Courts).

Companies which are financially weak may find that their insurers may also alter coverage to exclude claims heard in bankruptcy; the details of this exclusion are not clear to me.

COVID comes on top of other market dynamics which tend to increase risk and thus premiums: increased class action litigation, with new foci such as cyber breach and failures of corporate culture.