Hedge funds have emerged to hold some of the more exotic risks, perhaps waiting for markets to develop.
Many auto insurers don't offer a self-driving package (Varden eventually went with Lloyd's, known for insuring exotic risks, such as Bruce Springsteen's voice).
Managers were rewarded for taking on ever larger and more exotic risks that bore little resemblance to the underlying economic reality.
Also tottering is Frontier, a specialist in exotic risks, which, according to industry lore, insured a shop selling bungee-jumping equipment after watching the owner test it.
In the spring, Markel, a Virginian insurer with a penchant for exotic risks, took over Terra Nova, a British firm that controlled eight syndicates at the time.
Without the Lloyd's brand, it is extremely expensive for individual insurers to set up offices throughout the world.Pricing risk correctly remains the biggest problem, as Lloyd's continues to undercut competitors' prices for insuring exotic risks.
OVER the years, pregnant women have asked Donald Redelmeier, at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital, about the dangers of scuba diving, hot tubs, flying, mountaineering, cycling, bear attacks and all sorts of other exotic risks.
AIG, always quick to rush into exotic risks, is the early leader in hacker insurance, with a 70% market share.
For instance, risks that are familiar and that are thought to be under one's control are more accepted than are exotic risks perceived to be controlled by others (Fischhoff et al. 1981).
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Plant Protection and Quarantine Divisionon (APHIS-PPQ) maintains the Global Pest and Disease Database (GPDD) for exotic pest risk analysis (Magarey et al. 2009).
