
Art vs Science: Data, Decision-making and the Future of PVT Underwriting
From The Political Risk Podcast by David Benyon
December 18, 2025 · 40 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the future of political violence and terrorism underwriting with insights from industry experts.
Join two special guests for a conversation about the future of political violence and terrorism underwriting. Billy Ayres is head of crisis management at The Fidelis Partnership, and Simon Fagg is global head of pre-sales solutions at AdvantageGo. We discuss how PVT underwriters blend expertise with analytics, what underwriters really want from their data and tech providers, insurer fears about strikes, riots and civil commotion (SRCC) becoming a frequency peril, and the evolution of terrorism risk towards active-assailant coverage. Two recent white papers published by AdvantageGo in collaboration with this podcast explore the same themes. These are: “ Political Violence: Underwriting in an Age of Insecurity ” ; and “ More Art Than Science: PVT’s Use of Data-Analysis and Modelling Techniques ”.
People in this episode
Host: David Benyon
Guests: Billy Ayres, Simon Fagg
Topics covered
- political violence
- terrorism underwriting
- data analytics
- decision-making
- insurance risks
- active-assailant coverage
Keywords
- PVT underwriting
- crisis management
- data providers
- insurer fears
- SRCC
- terrorism risk
- analytics
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The Fidelis Partnership, AdvantageGo
Books & works: Political Violence: Underwriting in an Age of Insecurity, More Art Than Science: PVT’s Use of Data-Analysis and Modelling Techniques
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