'Black swan' event fears plague global insurers We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss 'Black swan' event fears plague global insurers By Lucca de Paoli, Katherine Chiglinsky and Benjamin Robertson December 14, 2020 — 10.05am Normal text size Advertisement There aren't many contexts where $US2 trillion ($2.7 trillion) seems like a paltry sum. Then a pandemic comes along. The economic fallout from COVID-19 has left insurers issuing existential warnings and businesses discovering they weren't covered. It's resulted in courts packed with lawsuits and governments scrambling to head off more pain. Crippled by the pandemic, insurers fear they may not be ready for a 'black swan' event.