ACE Progress Report Sheds Light on the
Bankruptcy and Liability Implications for
Directors & Officers
A Series of ACE Progress Reports: Critical Research on Current & Emerging Risk Management Issues
April 23, 2010 07:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time
PHILADELPHIA--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--ACE USA, the U.S.-based retail operating division of the
ACE Group, today announced the availability of a new report presenting the implications of bankruptcy for directors
and officers. More than any other action against corporate officers and directors, bankruptcy poses the greatest
threat to their personal financial well-being, and presents the most complicated coverage issues.
In this new report, titled: “Financial Crisis: Bankruptcy Implications for D&O Insurance,” authors Carol Zacharias,
Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, North America, ACE Group; Scott Meyer, Executive Vice
President of ACE Professional Risk; and, Keith Lavigne, Senior Vice President, ACE Professional Risk, examine
the rise in bankruptcy filings, describe the bankruptcy process and participants’ roles, illuminate directors and
officers liability and key coverage concerns, and propose best practices with regard to quality insurance protection.
Their commentary is part of ACE Progress ReportsSM, a collection of white papers, articles, and executive reports
on current and emerging risk management issues.
In their discussion, the authors discuss the impact of the global recession – which -- spawned by the subprime
mortgage and credit crisis in the United States -- fostered a steep rise in the number of personal and business
bankruptcy filings in 2009. These soared thirty-two percent (1.44 million filings) over the previous year. More than
150,000 U.S. companies -- approximately one in every 200 American businesses -- filed for bankruptcy protection,
in 2008 and 2009. The rate of bankruptcy filings has more than doubled in the last two and a half years, while the
number of filings by publicly-traded companies in 20