BRANDED PRODUCTS AND INSURANCE

Abstract

For most  insurance professionals, the most obvious aspect  of  branded products is the risk to the manufacturer and/or to the distributor of being sued in the courts for indemnity in respect of some loss or injury suffered by a user of the product. Employers' and environmental liability are among the risks attaching to the manufacture or preparation of the product, alongside  all the hazards arising from the processes and materials involved. In looking at a completely different aspect of the relationship between branded products and insurance in this paper, I am in no way seeking to imply that these well-known insurance topics are less important.  Indeed, a growing proportion of the price of any branded product relates to the costs of employing a risk manager and buying insurance, whether the financial  risk is transferred to a professional insurer or retained by the manufacturer or trader in a captive insurance company.