Two Bermuda companies are teaming up with multinational financial services firm Aon PLC to launch Apex Protect, a company offering specialty directors and officers for funds.

Apex Group Ltd, the global financial services provider and specialty provider Mosaic Insurance make up the partnership.

Apex Protect offers pioneering and enhanced D&O coverage for funds, factoring ESG credentials into the insurance risk assessment.

ESG assessments are provided by Apex ESG Invest Check, a market-leading, fund-specific solution.

The initiative uses Mosaic’s award-winning insurtech platform, and levers Aon’s expertise and footprint, providing real-time price indications on a 24/7 basis for frictionless processing.

Apex Protect provides broad fund D&O coverage, with extensive mitigation and investigation protection.

Key advantages include significantly quicker turnaround times, with instant pricing discovery for D&O insurance for new or existing funds, as well as exclusive policy wording and increased pricing leverage.

Notably, improving ESG scores will result in premium benefits.

“We are excited to be partnering with Mosaic Insurance to offer Apex Protect, an innovative solution capable of linking ESG ratings with specialised underwriting for our clients through Mosaic’s bespoke digital platform,” said David Carrick, CFO, Apex Group. “Apex Protect is a powerful proposition, combining Mosaic’s experienced underwriting team and broker partners, with Apex Group’s market-leading ESG services to help identify and reduce financial and non-financial risks across funds.”

Special additional limits are offered for non-executive directors in the event of exhaustion of limits, pre-claim costs in the event of an inquiry or investigation, and regulatory and public-relations costs for directors and officers of funds.

“We’re proud to partner with Apex Group on this innovative offering that showcases what a true risk-first insurtech can do in this space,” said Liam Jones, Strategic Growth Officer, Mosaic.

“This is a ground-breaking approach that combines our revolutionary technology, market-leading D&O coverage, and claims services informed by ever-important ESG risk understanding that allows objective client differentiation. We’re thrilled Apex clients will be the first to benefit from this capability.”

Apex Protect includes an additional ESG limit for ESG claims brought against fund directors or officers, subject to completion of an ESG assessment delivered by Apex ESG Invest Check.

“Reducing the frictional burden and cost whilst increasing the transparency of purchasing fund-level D&O insurance is an important step towards driving innovation in this industry for clients,” said Christine Williams, Global Specialty Product Leader, Aon. “This is an exciting step in this journey, and we are thrilled to be partnering with both Apex and Mosaic to deliver this innovative solution.”