E&S

Mixed messages?

Wholesale brokers have delivered exceptional growth in the last few years in part driven by the surge of business through the channel into the E&S market during the sustained hard market.

Richmond National build-out continues with products liability launch and capital raise

Richmond National has added its seventh line of business with an entry into products liability as it continues to diversify its portfolio and addresses attractive opportunities in the surplus lines market bolstered by its recently announced $30mn capital raise, E&S Insurer can reveal.

Kinsale CR improves 80 bps to 78.2% and GPW soars in comfortable Q1 earnings beat

Kinsale Capital Group’s net operating earnings increased 50.6 percent year on year to $56.8mn while its combined ratio improved 80 basis points to 78.2 percent in Q1 2023 as the carrier’s gross premiums written surged 45.6 percent on the back of continued favorable E&S market conditions.

Markel trims Q1 PL and excess casualty writings over pricing concerns

Markel reduced its professional liability and excess casualty writings in Q1 2023 over growing discomfort with pricing trends, as the carrier’s insurance president Jeremy Noble warned the company will continue to let business that does not meet its rate adequacy threshold lapse.

Convex US CEO Kumpf: MGU prepping entry into five new lines

Convex’s US MGU has entered five lines since it was set up last summer and is preparing to launch into five additional lines, including direct property fac, construction professional liability and primary and excess casualty, its CEO Dan Kumpf has told The Insurer TV.

Cyber insurtech At-Bay’s new E&S carrier gets A- AM Best rating

AM Best has assigned a financial strength rating of A- and a long-term issuer credit rating of “a-” to At-Bay Specialty Insurance Company, which was acquired by cyber insurtech At-Bay so it could transition to a full-stack carrier.

Pathpoint doubles property limits after partnering with Canopius’ Vave

Digital wholesaler Pathpoint has doubled the total insured value limit it can offer across its monoline property and lessors’ risk only verticals to $5mn after agreeing a partnership with Canopius-owned MGA Vave, with the tie-up also providing wind coverage in coastal states.

Sompo Intl’s John Goodloe exits as head of E&S casualty in North America

Sompo International’s head of E&S casualty in North America John Goodloe has stepped down from his role with the firm, The Insurer can reveal.

AM Best revises expansive surplus lines writer KW Specialty’s outlook up to stable

KW Specialty Insurance Company’s “good” 2022 operating results have led to AM Best revising the outlook on the surplus lines carrier’s A- financial strength rating (FSR) to stable from negative.

MRSI expands E&S lawyers PL offering to include smaller firms

Munich Re Specialty Insurance (MRSI) has broadened its E&S lawyers professional liability appetite with the carrier now open to writing primary and excess coverage for smaller law firms with 11 or more attorneys.

Richmond National raises $30mn from existing backers to fuel E&S growth

E&S carrier Richmond National Group has closed an oversubscribed fund raise that adds $30mn in common equity capital from existing shareholders including HF Capital, Bonhill Capital, WT Holdings and employees, taking the total raised since its launch in October 2021 to more than $100mn.

Bridging the talent gap

For all the exuberance and bullishness about sector prospects on display at our inaugural E&S Insurer conference and awards events in New York last week, the perennial challenge of addressing the talent gap permeated through many of the discussions on the day.

E&S market leaders aim technology at major small commercial opportunity

Small commercial represents the next major growth opportunity for the burgeoning E&S sector as technology investments are made to cut friction from the process of placing and writing the business, according to leaders of wholesale brokers and carriers at the E&S Insurer conference last week.

Distribution: Retailers and wholesalers now more strategically aligned as focus shifts to segment specialisation

Relationships between wholesale brokers and their retailer clients have evolved from being more transactional in nature to standing “shoulder to shoulder”, with strategic alignment in areas like industry specialisation and increasingly segment specialisation, according to panellists at last week’s E&S Insurer conference.

Westfield Specialty to enter environmental liability with Willette team

Fast-growing Westfield Specialty is set to move into its sixth line of business since its launch in 2021 with the hire of former Axa XL and Global Indemnity executive Dennis Willette and his team to write an environmental liability offering, E&S Insurer can reveal.

CRC: NE continues to be costliest market for construction coverage

The northeast is still the most expensive area for wholesale construction insurance coverage in the US but carrier competition is returning to much of the region, with exception of New York where pricing remains firm with restrictions imposed on some programs, according to CRC Group.

CRC: Loss-free cat wind accounts from retrenching MGA market could see 200-300% rate increases

Wind-exposed loss-free property cat insurance accounts will see double-digit rate increases rising up to and over 100 percent at renewal where there have been losses, while accounts moving from retrenching MGAs and MGUs could see price rises of 200-300 percent when entering the open E&S market, even without losses, according to CRC Group.

CRC: “Flurry” of insurtechs driving primary trucking rate decreases of 5-50% for many risks

New insurtech products have contributed to a big change in the E&S primary trucking segment in the past year with rate decreases of up to 50 percent outside the more difficult states while excess trucking is seeing several new middle market entrants generating competition, CRC has commented in a casualty market update.

CRC: Open claims and economy make it “unclear” D&O rate abatement will continue

In an update on the E&S ExecPro market, CRC Group has suggested it is unclear whether current public D&O conditions “will last through 2023 due to the increase in open claims and continuing economic issues”, with the wholesaler also highlighting increased competition in the private D&O space.

Industry recognises excellence at the inaugural E&S Insurer Awards

Executives from across the E&S market descended on Gotham Hall in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday evening for the first ever E&S Insurer Awards.