Enterprise Risk Review
Evaluate strategic, operational, legal, financial, research, safety, security, and reputational risks together.
Insurance, Risk Management & Claims Policy
Understand the risk. Insure what cannot be carried safely.
The JR Institute intends to identify, reduce, transfer, finance, and monitor risk through disciplined operations, appropriate insurance, documented claims management, and board oversight.
Developing Framework
This page presents a planned public standard. Final coverage limits, deductibles, brokers, carriers, claim authority, reserve practices, and reporting procedures should be approved before active operations and asset deployment.
Policy Purpose
Insurance supports resilience, but it does not replace prevention.
The Institute may face property, liability, employment, research, cyber, transportation, aviation, marine, professional, fiduciary, and business-interruption risks.
Those risks should be mapped, reduced through operational controls, and insured or retained only through deliberate, documented decisions.
Core Principles
Prevent first, transfer wisely, report early, and learn from every claim.
Appropriate Coverage
Match policy type, limit, retention, exclusions, and endorsements to the actual exposure.
Risk Reduction
Use training, maintenance, contracts, cybersecurity, inspections, and emergency planning to reduce loss.
Prompt Reporting
Report incidents, demands, claims, subpoenas, damage, and potential loss without unnecessary delay.
Independent Advice
Use qualified brokers, counsel, adjusters, actuaries, engineers, and specialists where needed.
Board Oversight
Review major exposures, claims, limits, deductibles, uninsured risks, and reserve decisions.
Scope
This policy is intended to apply to the Institute’s facilities, people, programs, laboratories, data, vehicles, aircraft, marine assets, events, contracts, trustees, officers, employees, volunteers, and sponsored activities.
Enterprise Risk Assessment
The Institute should maintain a documented process for identifying and ranking risks by likelihood, severity, velocity, detectability, legal consequence, financial impact, and effect on mission continuity.
- Identify existing and emerging exposures
- Assign accountable risk owners
- Document controls and residual risk
- Determine whether risk should be avoided, reduced, transferred, or retained
- Escalate material risks to executive and board review
Insurance Coverage Program
Coverage may include property, general liability, automobile, workers’ compensation, professional liability, directors and officers, employment practices, fiduciary liability, cyber, crime, umbrella or excess liability, aviation, marine, environmental, and specialty policies.
Policy limits should reflect asset values, replacement cost, contractual obligations, catastrophe exposure, claims history, legal environment, and the Institute’s ability to absorb uninsured loss.
A certificate of insurance is evidence of coverage, not a substitute for reviewing the actual policy, exclusions, endorsements, limits, and named insureds.
Property, Equipment, and Business Interruption
Property coverage should consider buildings, tenant improvements, research equipment, data-center infrastructure, vehicles, archives, collections, supplies, outdoor equipment, and property in transit.
Business-interruption and extra-expense coverage should reflect restoration time, alternate facilities, payroll, utilities, dependent vendors, technology recovery, and research continuity.
Liability, Governance, and Employment Coverage
Liability protection should address bodily injury, property damage, professional services, governance decisions, employment practices, fiduciary duties, volunteers, events, publications, and contractual obligations.
Trustees, officers, and employees should understand that insurance may contain exclusions, cooperation duties, notice requirements, consent provisions, and limits on defense costs.
Specialized and High-Risk Operations
Aviation, marine, cyber, environmental, research-participant, laboratory, clinical, international, construction, and security operations may require specialized policies or endorsements.
No major asset or high-risk program should begin operation until insurance, exclusions, operator requirements, geography, use restrictions, and incident procedures have been reviewed.
Vendor, Contractor, Tenant, and Partner Insurance
Agreements may require vendors, contractors, tenants, charter operators, event organizers, and research partners to maintain appropriate insurance.
- Specify required policy types and limits
- Request certificates and endorsements where appropriate
- Review additional-insured, waiver, and primary-coverage terms
- Track expiration and renewal
- Verify coverage before high-risk work begins
Incident and Claim Reporting
Accidents, injuries, damage, theft, threats, cyber incidents, demands, lawsuits, subpoenas, professional complaints, and circumstances that may reasonably lead to a claim should be reported promptly.
Records should include date, location, people involved, photographs, witnesses, immediate response, preservation actions, insurer notice, legal review, and follow-up.
Deductibles, Self-Insured Retentions, and Reserves
The Institute should understand the financial effect of deductibles, self-insured retentions, coinsurance, waiting periods, sublimits, exclusions, and aggregate limits.
Material retained risks may require designated reserves, contingency funds, captive or pooled arrangements, or other board-approved financing.
Broker, Carrier, and Annual Program Review
Insurance should be reviewed at least annually and whenever the Institute acquires major assets, opens new facilities, begins high-risk work, changes transportation operations, expands internationally, or experiences a significant claim.
Review should address limits, pricing, carrier strength, exclusions, service, claims handling, loss control, broker conflicts, commissions, market alternatives, and uninsured exposures.
Framework date: July 2026
Risk Management Cycle
Identify, control, transfer, respond, and improve.
- Identify the exposure. Map people, property, operations, obligations, and possible consequences.
- Reduce the risk. Use training, engineering, contracts, maintenance, security, and continuity planning.
- Transfer or retain deliberately. Select insurance, indemnity, reserves, or avoidance based on informed review.
- Report and manage claims. Preserve evidence, notify insurers, cooperate with counsel, and document response.
- Learn from loss. Analyze root causes, improve controls, update coverage, and track corrective action.
Risk or Insurance Questions
Report incidents, coverage gaps, claims, or uninsured exposures.
Inquiries may concern property, liability, research, cyber, employment, fleet, aviation, marine, contracts, certificates, claims, or reserve decisions.
Submit a Risk Management Inquiry
Identify the asset, activity, policy, incident, date, exposure, and available supporting information.
Contact the Institute