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Luxury brands

With WTW’s understanding of the luxury brand sector, we can help you manage risk through innovative advice and broking.

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Our luxury brand and high-end retail clients operate in a fast-moving, complex and competitive business environment.

With increased customer focus on speed, convenience and provenance, luxury brands have invested in complex supply chains, bespoke delivery and payment solutions, and technology as they seek to grow their market share.

Brands also use technology to build and support emotional investment, which is reflected in the many and diverse partnerships with third parties that help to define, develop, promote and support the brand.

While the risk profile of luxury brands from fashion and accessory to hard luxury may share many common features, we understand that one size does not fit all.

Luxury is an important and growing sector in which each company has a unique risk exposure, business model and culture.

That's why WTW is committed to understanding and supporting the unique culture, business model and operational objectives of each of our luxury clients.

An evolving risk landscape

Corporate risk priorities have shifted to include more than just physical assets. Risk management is now just as important for people risks as brands compete for top talent, and for intangible assets, such as intellectual property and copyright.

The drift to digitalization has highlighted data protection, while the prevalence of social media has underlined the importance of reputation.

The risk map for luxury brands is being re-drawn. Along with the more traditional physical loss and damage exposures, corporate risks may also feature, such as:

  • Failure to achieve environmental or sustainability targets
  • The ability to attract and retain key talent
  • Heightened exposure to global terrorism, civil commotion and political risk due to increased geopolitical instability
  • New and diverse partnerships, joint ventures, projects and product lines, which push business boundaries and create new risk exposures
  • Reputational risk, which is especially acute in an industry so dependent on social media
  • Cyber risk, especially in respect of customer and other sensitive data
  • Crime, including not just the rise in organized theft but digital theft and social engineering
  • Supply chain transparency and end to end-to-end ethical integrity
  • Natural catastrophe risk, resulting in loss of assets or contingent business interruption
  • Supply chain vulnerabilities in an increasingly global ecosystem
  • Vulnerability to counterfeiters and loss or breach of intellectual property

At WTW, we combine many years of global luxury brand experience with wide ranging risk management expertise to address the distinct and specific needs of your luxury brand and help you navigate the changing risk landscape.

What we do

Our globally integrated Luxury Brands team provides you with expertise from all areas of client servicing, including claims management; captive management; program design and placement with markets worldwide; actuarial analysis; alternative risk transfer; mergers and acquisitions; and employee benefits. We also provide day-to-day servicing by a team that understands the luxury sector.

We can work with you to provide bespoke policy wording aligned to the luxury risk profile and a risk program that supports and responds to luxury business and operational needs.

Our clients are leaders in high jewelry and fashion, watches and leather goods, cosmetics and fragrance, luxury automotive, fine art and online luxury sale and distribution.

We can provide the following cover:

  • Marine cargo and jewelers block
  • Fine art and specie
  • Environmental advisory
  • Supply chain consultancy
  • Cyber risk
  • Reputational risk
  • Terrorism and political risk
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Remuneration and compensation advisory
  • Clinical trials
  • Product recall
$50mn
aggregate limit of liability available under reputational crisis insurance solution
1000+
clinical trials placed globally by WTW
140+
countries where WTW service our clients' needs

WTW stats as at 7 October 2022

Why choose WTW?

We use an analytical approach

We can provide you with the data analytics behind the decisions you make on program design and cover requirements. This supports good governance, giving you a clear audit trail of decisions and allows you to present recommendations to your board and internal stakeholders from an evidenced, informed, and data-driven position.

At the most basic level, you will be able to decide whether to transfer or retain risk. By integrating our analytical and broking functions, we take into account current market conditions to ensure we achieve an optimal deal for you, providing best value for money and fit-for-purpose cover.

A proven model for global program management

You will benefit from our tried-and-tested processes and structures that ensure our clients get the same high-level of quality of service anywhere in the world, and that our local offices are fully aligned with our clients’ needs and objectives.

Our connected team brings the best of WTW to serve you

We have an integrated team approach. We connect experts in your business, industry professionals, and product specialists with key talents from across WTW in a flexible team approach. This enables your core team to work cohesively across boundaries and profit centers, to bring the best of WTW intellectual capital to you.

Our claims service proposition

At WTW, we pride ourselves on our ability to protect the interests of our clients in the management and handling of claims.

We recognize the importance of an efficient claims service in terms of cost savings, brand protection and customer care. We aim to prevent claims before they happen. And if they do, draw lessons from them to better prepare for similar losses in the future.

Case studies

Optimizing risk retention and transfer

Client need

Our longstanding client, a large multinational luxury group specializing in one product wanted a streamlined and simplified insurance placement that, would allow it to substantially increase captive involvement.

What we delivered

We engineered a new program design and successfully retained a broad form of wording. We also worked closely with the insurer to dramatically reduce information requirements, — facilitated by a very large deductible, and to ensure full compliance in all territories. Fees reflected the placing costs and anticipated ongoing servicing costs of the account.

The value to our client

The client appreciated that we fully understood their objectives and had the technical ability to deliver a simplified placement, and cost saving, while also retaining security of cover. The client also relied on our global compliance knowledge and benefitted from specially protected password folders and encrypted emails to protect confidentiality.

Improving the program scope, wording and protocols

Client need

We were ask asked by a luxury goods retailer to undertake a technical audit of a property damage business interruption (PDBI) and inventory program placed in Lloyd's by another broker.

What we delivered

We conducted an in-depth assessment of the company, the business, the exposures and objectives. These were risk mapped against the cover in place, identifying several gaps and omissions. A full remarketing exercise allowed us to conduct a full cost benefit analysis for the company, which resulted in a recommendation to retain the program structure in a much-improved format.

The value to our client

In addition to the competitive premium, we negotiated a bespoke wording to reflect actual exposure. We helped to arrive at a simplified claims process and overhaul protocols and ensured that the client further benefitted from complete cost transparency.

The luxury goods retailer came to us mid-term due seeking our recognised expertise and credibility in this area. We were able to deliver the check and challenge that significantly improved the existing arrangements to the benefit of our new client.

Disclaimer

WTW offers insurance-related services through its appropriately licensed and authorised companies in each country in which WTW operates. For further authorisation and regulatory details about our WTW legal entities, operating in your country, please refer to our WTW website.

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