How one dealer is making lemonade out of property insurance coverage disruption

At a time when many insurance coverage carriers are shrinking their capability or exiting the California property insurance coverage market, one wholesale dealer is charging in to grab development alternatives.

“Over the past 12 to 18 months, and specifically now, we are trying to grow as much as we can in California,” stated Daniel Feigenbaum (pictured), chief govt officer of London Underwriters, a wholesale insurance coverage brokerage that focuses on writing admitted and non-admitted enterprise for unbiased retail companies in virtually all 50 states.

The Florida-based agency has been round since 2010 however has primarily centered on its presence on the East Coast. For Feigenbaum, the supply disaster in California creates area for wholesalers to supply distinctive options.

“We feel that this is a very opportune time to help solve a lot of the problems for agents in California,” he informed Insurance Business.

‘Three-bucket approach’ for the industrial sector

Feigenbaum was fast to supply a caveat: “We don’t do any personal lines business as a wholesaler, so we don’t have a solution for the homeowners’ insurance issue, which I know is a big problem in California.”

London Underwriters presents quite a lot of options for the small and mid-sized industrial area. Feigenbaum pointed to his brokerage’s “three-bucket approach” as a key differentiator.

“It’s one of those situations where we can be in the right place at the right time,” the CEO stated. “We’re not only one factor or the opposite.

“We’re not just the binding authority, the brokerage, or the insurtech distributor. We have a marriage of all three, so that we can potentially find a home for most risks that are being submitted to us.”

Feigenbaum highlighted two choices.

Three by Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway has “tremendous appetite” to develop in California, in keeping with Feigenbaum.

“This is a noteworthy one, and a game-changer if we can get all the mechanisms correct,” he added.

Three is designed to cowl small companies in a easy and simple coverage that’s three pages lengthy. It contains property legal responsibility, industrial auto, and staff’ comp coverages in a single bucket.

Feigenbaum stated London Underwriters is working intently with Berkshire Hathaway’s workforce to develop a technique that may assist retail brokers entry the service’s capability.

AU Gold

London Underwriters acquired its title from being a Lloyd’s of London coverholder, in keeping with Feigenbaum. The insurance coverage market stays a powerful candidate for putting industrial dangers, which brokers can entry by means of the AU Gold platform.

AU Gold is an extra and surplus on-line program the place brokers can quote and bind builders’ danger, vacant property, and industrial packages.

“We still have very interested parties at Lloyd’s that want to diversify and grow their California book,” Feigenbaum stated.

“We have very little restrictions in California for growth on the commercial property side. Subject to some fire risk restrictions that could apply to a particular zip code, they’re very much open in terms of a growth appetite for California.”

Creating options for conventional Main Street industrial companies

If brokers can’t discover options inside London Underwriters’ insurtech choices, Feigenbaum is assured that the brokerage’s home binding authorities can fill the necessity.

“The third bucket is really related to some of our US domestic binding authorities,” he stated. “So, these are the home insurers which are additionally very a lot inclined to develop their footprint on the West Coast.

“We think we have three different avenues that can help solve problems, and if the problem doesn’t fit one of the buckets, we have the ability to try the other two and so do our agents.”

As for urge for food, Main Street mercantile companies would completely match inside London Underwriters’ home binding authorities and insurtech authorities.

“For smaller accounts, for the guys that fit the Nationwide, Allstate, State Farm [risk profiles], all of that we can absolutely handle,” Feigenbaum stated.

“I think it’s a result of us having spent the last three or four years developing both our insurtech distribution and our binding authority relationships.”

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