Intangible assets
Immaterial assets (brands, data, know-how, reputation) that make up most of the value of modern companies and are hard to insure.
Ocean Tomo, 2020: 90% of the market value of S&P 500 companies sits in intangible assets, against 17% in 1975. Brands, patents, data, know-how, reputation: the balance sheet of the industrial era has been turned upside down. This shift puts insurance in a bind. Its founding concepts (insured value, loss, appraisal) presuppose a physical object whose loss can be observed and quantified. An asset that lives in a relationship or in the minds of others, rather than on a balance sheet, calls for hybrid instruments that combine risk transfer, prevention and algorithmic measurement. Reputation policies offer a first sketch.
Textbook case: a company whose value lies mostly in its brands, software and data finds that most of these assets escape the categories of an insurance designed for tangible goods.
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