Been placing this coverage since 2006. Most requests feel familiar now. But a contract that feels ordinary on my desk can be someone's first overseas deployment. I keep wondering whether all those years help me hear what they're actually worried about, or just the question I've answered before. I might have had it backwards. Still thinking.

The part of a DBA placement I care about most is quiet. It happens before any underwriter hears your name, while I'm reading how your operation actually works. I call it Risk Reconnaissance. Look first. Then recommend.

A grievance today can be a claim tomorrow. Attorneys who report early position themselves for defense-cost coverage, stay compliant with policy terms, gain expert guidance, and protect themselves if things escalate. Waiting rarely helps. Reporting does. bit.ly/4ieUGGk

Commercial property premiums fell 6.3% in Q2, the steepest quarterly drop since 2010. Every account size posted a decrease this time. Capacity is abundant. Buyers have leverage right now, especially on larger accounts. bit.ly/3TVFjdM

When a contractor tells me they're taking work into a new country, my first question is about their company, not the country. Here it is: who owns risk in your company? I've been placing Defense Base Act insurance since 2006, for contractors working everywhere from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. And this question comes up every time someone expands into unfamiliar territory. The honest answer is all three. The CFO, the contracts team, and operations. Each one sees risk through a different lens. Finance watches cash flow, profitability, and financial stability. Contracts watches compliance, proposal strategy, and contract requirements. Operations watches staffing, performance, and getting the work done. Here's where it breaks down. These groups often work independently. So each one assumes someone else has the rest of the picture. A new territory is where that assumption gets tested first. Risk mitigation starts before the bid, when those three lenses are in the same conversation. Deployment is too late to find the gap. So before your next bid in a new location, use this line: "Before we commit, can finance, contracts and ops walk through the risk on this one together?" Ask it early. It surfaces the gaps while you can still do something about them. #DefenseBaseAct #GovCon #RiskManagement #OCONUS

Your commercial insurance broker doesn't speak government contractor. That gap costs time, money, and resources. Most commercial brokers work with commercial businesses all day. Those clients do not face the same hurdles or the same varied operations as a GovCon company. So the questions never get asked. Where It Shows Up • A contract award deadline arrives, and the broker is still learning what the Defense Base Act requires. • FAR 52.228-3 or FAR 52.228-4 sits in the contract, and nobody on the insurance side reads it. • Contract flow-downs to subcontractors get missed, so the prime carries exposure it never planned for. • An employee deploys OCONUS, and everyone assumes the domestic workers comp policy follows. It does not. DBA is federally required statutory workers comp for U.S. government contractors and subcontractors working outside the United States. A general commercial program does not satisfy that requirement. Questions Worth Asking Your Broker "Which of our contracts include FAR 52.228-3 or FAR 52.228-4?" "How are our DBA requirements flowing down to our subcontractors?" "If an employee is injured overseas tomorrow, which policy responds, and how is the claim reported to the Department of Labor?" "What changes in our program before our next pre-deployment?" If the answers come slowly, that tells you something. We work on Defense Base Act and government contractor insurance. Our team is small, and the focus is narrow by design. That focus is how we catch the clause, the flow-down, and the gap before a claim finds them. Happy to compare notes on your current program.

Business interruption adds 650% to the cost of a cyber claim, per NetDiligence. Most SMEs set their cyber limits before they ever run that math. Worth a second look at your coverage gaps in our 2026 midyear outlook. bit.ly/4i2IdFu

Commercial property premiums fell 6.3% in Q2, the steepest quarterly drop since 2010. Every account size posted a decrease this time. Capacity is abundant. Buyers have leverage right now, especially on larger accounts. bit.ly/4z4Pwny

Every contractor has met this figure. He reads the quote you forwarded, skips the number at the bottom, and asks who is actually going where. Accessories include a subcontractor roster with one certificate still missing, a map pinned from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and an Army canteen cup that outlasted three offices. Calculator included, pressed only after he knows who is deploying. The cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest contract.

Commercial property premiums fell 6.3% in Q2, the steepest quarterly drop since 2010. Every account size posted a decrease this time. Capacity is abundant. Buyers have leverage right now, especially on larger accounts. bit.ly/4yqnxNF