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Delaware court orders Ironshore to cover StoneX FINRA arbitration costs
The ruling rejects Ironshore's attempt to apply the arbitration to an earlier policy year it never insured, while leaving part of the allocation dispute open and dismissing StoneX's bad faith claim.
A Delaware Superior Court decision in July 2026 found that excess insurer Ironshore Indemnity must cover defense costs for a FINRA arbitration involving StoneX Group, rejecting Ironshore's argument that the matter should be tied to an earlier policy period it said it never covered.
Insurance Business reports Ironshore had tried to shift responsibility back by invoking the policy's “Interrelated Claims” provision, which can treat claims tied to the same “Interrelated Wrongful Acts” as one claim made at the earliest point. The court ruled that the arbitration did not relate back to a set of 2021 disputes, because the covered employment-practice wrongs did not extend to an employer claim against a departing employee.
The case involves defense costs tied to claims by competitor BTIG, which pursued StoneX and several former StoneX employees who previously worked at BTIG, LLC. Ironshore sits above a $10 million primary policy from XL Specialty, and the excess coverage at issue includes $5 million for the September 2022 to September 2023 period.
On allocation, the court applied the “Larger Settlement Rule,” meaning the insurer pays the full loss unless it shows uncovered matters drove costs higher. The judge declined to assign StoneX a 100% allocation based on the record so far, and left open the possibility that Ironshore could argue a related uncovered arbitration inflated the bill, while also dismissing StoneX's bad faith claim.