Insurance and Reinsurance

Our team assists our insurance clients in all classes of insurance: casualty, products liability, professional indemnity, D&O, property, construction all risk, business interruption, cyber, terrorism, financial lines and life. Our involvement in the largest and most important insurance claims in Belgium over the past decades reflects our reputation and experience. We act in coverage disputes, subrogation claims and defence work.

We act before state courts and in ad hoc and institutional arbitration and mediation. In our defence work, we are confidently address the concerns of both insurers and their clients. In our claims work for the insurance industry, Lydian’s experienced team adds value through our co-operation with international law firms and also with loss adjusters and experts appointed by our common clients.

Lawyers from our insurance and reinsurance team: 

• support and advise insurers on legal compliance of their advertising campaigns and commercial messages, including market practices;
• draft and advise on cooperation agreements between insurers and third parties (like ‘affinities’);
• draft and review agreements on cooperation and partnership between insurers and insurance intermediaries, and provide assistance in the event of litigation;
• advise on the application of the law on intermediation in insurance (agency law, intermediation law and the FSMA rules on introduction);
• assist insurers and intermediaries in setting up their distribution structure and in complying with Belgian law, including contacts with the Belgian regulator;
• advise on IDD;
• advise on professional liability of insurance intermediaries.

Lawyers from our Insurance & Reinsurance Team:

• advise insurers, reinsurers, ‘mutualities’ and insurance intermediaries about the regulatory framework and provide assistance in discussions with regulators (the National Bank, the Financial Services and Markets Authority and the OCM);
• advise insurers on corporate governance, risk management and compliance issues;
• assist insurers with respect to the exercise of their activities in the framework of freedom to provide services and the freedom of establishment;
• advise insurers and intermediaries on the consequences of Brexit on their cross-border activities;
• advise on matters of outsourcing;
• advise insurers on premium increase procedures, on pricing issues or on modification of terms & conditions.

Lawyers from our insurance & reinsurance team:

• provide our clients with strategic advice in transactions;
• conduct due diligence investigations of the insurance portfolio of clients and assist clients in cases of cross-border portfolio transfers;
• assist in all aspects of cross-border mergers involving insurers in several countries;
• advise on regulatory issues affecting mergers between reinsurers/insurers and provide the legal support for cross-border mergers;
• regularly assist international clients in setting up their Belgian branch;
• assist clients in the run-off of insurance portfolios;
• advise and assist clients with portfolio transfers;
• have extensive experience in advising medium-sized to large Belgian M&A transactions,most often on the insurer’s side, under M&A Warranty & Indemnity policies.

Lawyers from our insurance and reinsurance team:

• advise on legal compliance of policy conditions of various life insurance products, such as unit linked insurance;
• advise on the legal compliance of the policy conditions of various non-life insurance products, such as casualty, property, D&O, professional indemnity and cyber;
• develop and advise on new insurance products such as cyber, W&I, IP insurance and check whether the policy conditions comply with Belgian law;
• advise insurers about the tax treatment of their insurance products.

We have extensive experience in advising, reviewing and drafting policy conditions for Belgian and non-Belgian insurers. This is extremely important in Belgium because most insurance products are governed by mandatory provisions of the Insurance Act of 4 April 2014. EU insurers active in Belgium under the FOS principles must also comply with this Act. Specifically, we have drafted or reviewed the following policy conditions: D&O, fraud, credit, casualty, life, cyber, property, business interruption and legal assistance insurance. We frequently advise our clients on particular clauses in insurance policies or reinsurance slips. In this work, we factor in legal issues and concerns, and take into account international and Belgian market practice.

Lawyers from our insurance and reinsurance team;

• advise clients on insurance premium tax issues;
• represent clients in insurance tax litigation review policy wording, using their extensive knowledge of tax issues connected with many insurance products.

Our Insurance & Reinsurance Team is one of the very few in Belgium that has experience in working for reinsurers and advising on captive structures. We often collaborate with our Corporate & Finance Department to work out security instruments for claims on captive reinsurers. Together with our Tax colleagues, we advise on the tax implications of captive schemes. We are experienced in advising insurers on securing their claims on captive reinsurers, especially in the context of the liquidation of a captive and the transfer of its business to a newly created reinsurance captive.

We have acted in reinsurance/retrocession disputes before the Belgian courts and in arbitration. We have a strong track record in acting for UK, German and US reinsurers in reviewing and monitoring of claims handling conducted by leading local insurers of mass claims or very large insurance claims. We speak “the market’s language” and regularly organise or participate in market meetings.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 28 May 2018. It has introduced strict obligations for data controllers when personal data breaches occur. In the most serious cases, the controller must notify the competent data protection authority. In response to this, insurers now offer cyber insurance, including ancillary services such as prevention and first response help.

Lydian has developed an innovative service: a 24/7/365 cyber hotline, giving clients first line legal assistance when a data breach occurs. This service is part of a cyber-insurance policy and clients are given our hot-line number by their insurer. Clients call and are connected with our experienced lawyers who provide on-the-spot advice on how best to respond. Hassle-free access when time is of the essence – that is what we deliver. This service also advises clients on investigations carried out by the regulators, such as dawn raids.