Editorial standards and how we verify

The Atlas is only as valuable as it is accurate. This page sets out how content here is researched, verified, sourced, kept current, and corrected, and how the site stays independent. It is the public version of the standard every page is held to.

The fact-check standard

Every substantive claim is checked against primary sources: regulator and standards-body pages, court filings and official disclosures, and first-party announcements from carriers, managing general agents, and assurance vendors, rather than secondary summaries. After drafting, each page goes through an independent, adversarial verification pass, a deliberate effort to find where it might be wrong, with any conflict resolved by reading the primary source directly rather than averaging two secondhand accounts. Anything that cannot be traced to a primary source is either attributed (for example, "according to trade reporting") or softened, never presented as established fact.

A note on sources in insurance

Much of the primary record in this field is held by the carriers and reinsurers themselves. We treat carrier and reinsurer newsrooms, Lloyd's bulletins, and standards-body publications as primary sources. Specialist insurance trade press is treated as secondary reporting and cited as such, only where no primary source exists and clearly labeled.

How we source

Every substantive page lists its primary sources openly, in a Primary sources block, and those sources are also emitted as machine-readable citation data so that answer engines and readers can follow them. If a claim matters, you should be able to click through to where it comes from.

Neutrality and independence

The Atlas is independent and vendor-neutral. It is not owned by, affiliated with, or paid by any standards body, carrier, MGA, or assurance vendor, and it does not accept payment in exchange for coverage or placement. Where a product or standard is backed by a particular company, that is stated plainly so you can weigh it yourself. The landscape and directory pages rank nothing for money; inclusion is an editorial decision, not a paid one.

Disclosure of commercial interests

The author may undertake commercial work in AI assurance or insurance through a separate venture, operated under a different name and entity (see About). Where this site covers anything that author or venture is involved in, that relationship is disclosed on the article itself. Independence of the published reference takes priority over any commercial interest, and the two are kept structurally separate.

Keeping it current

AI risk moves weekly, and some of the most important facts, such as regulatory effective dates, change while in train. Freshness is therefore part of accuracy. Evergreen reference pages carry an Updated date and are re-verified against their primary sources on a regular cycle. Where a figure or date is time-sensitive or not yet final, we carry a short Editor's note recording when it was verified and pointing you to the source to confirm the current value.

Corrections

Mistakes get fixed openly. If you spot an error, an out-of-date figure, or a source that has moved, please flag it. Corrections are made promptly and visibly rather than quietly. You can reach Andrew McPherson via andymcpherson.com.

Built for citation

Because much of this is read by machines as well as people, the same standards serve both: clear primary sourcing, structured citation data, and machine-readable versions of the corpus. You are welcome to quote and cite the Atlas with attribution. See About for reuse terms and the machine-readable endpoints.