Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. said Wednesday that it had updated its directors, officers, and company liability policy for members of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts Inc. in view of increased shareholder expectations and heightened scrutiny by regulators.
The company said it has become the nation's largest writer of directors and officers liability for REITs and also offers the only NAREIT-sponsored D&O program.
Sarbanes-Oxley certification, the implications of a financial restatement, and decisions regarding a proposed transaction are among the issues covered by the broadened Hartford product, Matt Shulman, a vice president at the financial products division of the Connecticut insurer, said in a press release.
The product continues to offer customizable protection to meet individual REITs' specific needs, the company said. Among the enhancements are "nonrescindable Side A" coverage that stays in force even in the face of a material misrepresentation in the application and broad severability language that preserves coverage for innocent insureds if the other directors or officers are found to have made such misrepresentations.
