Immaterial assets, brands, data, know-how, reputation, which form the bulk of the value of modern companies and resist insurance.
Intangible assets designate the immaterial elements of a company's value, brands, patents, data, know-how and reputation, as opposed to physical assets such as factories or inventories. They today represent 85 to 87 % of the value of large companies, overturning the balance sheet of the industrial era. This shift puts insurance in difficulty, for its founding concepts, the insured value, the loss, the appraisal, presuppose a physical object whose loss can be observed and quantified. To cover an asset that resides in a relationship or in the minds of others, rather than in a balance sheet, requires hybrid instruments combining risk transfer, prevention and algorithmic measurement, of which reputation policies offer a first sketch.
The world's fifty largest companies amass around $11tn of intangible assets, most of which escapes the categories of an insurance designed for tangible goods.
actifs immatériels, intangibles