The standalone SML market is evolving. And, for once, the evolution is genuinely exciting.
The SML market first emerged as CGL SAM limits collapsed and insurers withdrew coverage across their books. The pioneers of the standalone market — a tiny group of specialist underwriters — stepped into that vacuum and established something new. A nascent market, built from scratch. What used to cost nothing went to five or six figures.
Now a second wave of underwriters is arriving. Not enough to close the gap between the exposure and the available limits — not remotely — but enough to create something that hasn’t existed before in standalone SML: choice.
For brokers, that’s exciting. For the first time, there’s competition. We can compare terms. We can negotiate. The conversation with our clients shifts from: Where will I find coverage? to: Who will I find it from?
But here’s what’s easy to miss.
Our client’s question is shifting, too — and it’s moving past both, with increasing urgency, to the question that really matters: What’s actually going to protect us now?
Because the uninsured and uninsurable exposures haven’t improved. They’ve gotten worse. Settlements and awards have continued to rise. Reputational damage moves faster. Regulatory scrutiny has intensified. Expectations have sharpened. Statutes of limitation have expanded. The financial safety net that CGL towers once provided is gone, and the capacity entering the market now — welcome as it is — doesn’t come close to replacing it.
Both waves have brought the same tools. Background checks, training, policy templates, prevention protocols. Because those are the tools of the world they came from; the tools they know.
The problem is that claims keep coming from organizations doing all of them. Because those tools were designed for reassurance, not risk management. They confirm that controls are in place. What they can’t tell you is whether they are actually working — whether the gap between what an organization intends and what it’s doing is quietly widening, whether judgment is supported in the moments that matter most, whether concerns are being addressed. And when those gaps lead to claims, evidence that controls were in place isn’t enough to mount a credible defense. The mismatch between reassurance and risk management caused too many claims and too little defensibility, which in turn was the reason for the original market retreat. The changes to statutes of limitations and rising severity only made matters worse.
The tools this environment needs didn’t evolve inside the insurance market. They come from healthcare, aviation, and emergency services. Every high-risk sector hit the same wall as safeguarding. Each rebuilt around the same set of principles: support judgment where uncertainty is greatest, monitor controls continuously, sustain attention deliberately, and measure whether the whole system is working.
Safeguarding never made that shift. Until now.
Jigsaw brings those principles to safeguarding — integrated with SML insurance from fresh Lloyd’s capacity and supported by specialist experts. The system measures. The insurance reflects what it measures. The experts support both.
The standalone market now has real options. Jigsaw should be in the mix every time.
If you work with organizations that serve minors or vulnerable adults, and your clients are asking about more than insurance, we’d welcome a conversation.
