Corporate insurance buyers identify the most desirable qualitiesin an insurer as honesty, a genuine wish to help clients preventlosses, excellent service, financial strength, flexibility, goodpricing, transparency and good communication in the 2011 RiskManager Choice Awards survey of 364 insurance buyers conducted bythe Flaspöhler Research Group, in partnership with NU.

They also say insurers can help them by pointing out gaps incoverage, understanding their company's risk profile, and keepingup with regulatory and industry changes and international businesschallenges—all traits that characterize the top two “best overall”insurers, Zurich and the Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., theirclients say.

ZURICH CLIMBS TO TOP OF THE CHARTS

So what are some of the special qualities of its product andservices that led to Zurich being chosen as the best overallinsurance company in the Risk Manager Choice Awards survey?

Cindy Slubowski, senior manager, risk and insurance, with KraftFoods Inc., in Northfield, Ill., tells NU that Zurich is akey partner with Kraft on a number of programs, including crime,directors and officers, employee-practices liability, umbrella,marine cargo, and property.

She notes Kraft has its own criteria when choosing an insurer.“The way we place our [business] is based on coverage, relationshipand price,” she explains. “In other words, we're not a priceshopper—we want the coverage we want. And Zurich is a great partnerin that they work with us to get us the coverage that's appropriatefor Kraft.”

She adds that with Kraft being such a large company, “acookie-cutter approach doesn't work for us. Zurich is very willingand able to work with us when it comes to designing coverage thatfits our needs.”

Zurich, she notes, is especially important in their propertyprogram, fronting Kraft's property internationally. Zurich also hasbeen instrumental in developing custom reports “that help us managethat whole international portfolio.”

Her company values the partnership, she says, because “numberone, their balance sheet is very strong; two, therelationship-management function at Zurich is the best in theindustry.”

She explains that Zurich understands that “for someone like me,to have one person I can go to to help me navigate a largeorganization like Zurich, and that person having the ability to getthings done, is key.”

Philip J. Procacci, CEO andco-founder of Procacci Development Corp. in BocaRaton, Fla., a real estate developer, says working with Zurich hashelped his business in positive ways.

With Zurich, he says, “I have my property coverage, windcoverage, liability, auto—they handle everything. I've been withZurich now for about eight years, and we have a greatrelationship.”

Within the past five years, his company began constructingbuildings to be hurricane resistant in up to 185-mile-per-hourwinds. Initially, he collaborated with Zurich to improve thebuildings in order to meet Zurich's “Highly Protected Risk”code—which allows him to benefit with preferred pricing for theprotected buildings.

He has continued to work with Zurich's engineers on wind-tunneltests and other protections.

“We're collaborating on better ideas each year on how to improvethe protection of a building at the lowest possible cost,” he says,adding that one of the goals is to come up with new ideas than canbenefit the entire industry.

One of the benefits of the safe buildings, he says, has been“tremendous success on the leasing side.” He has a450,000-square-foot commercial building in Miami that willwithstand winds up to 185 miles per hour. That building is now 98percent rented—far above the average for the area.

“The relationship I have with Zurich has beena great opportunity for me,” Procacci says. “They are ready andwilling to give us new ideas and ready to do new studies and testson certain products. This helps us come up with new ideas, and downwhere we are in South Florida, that's everything in the real estatebusiness. We love it here, but you have to take certainprecautions, and we think our buildings provide thatprotection.”

William J. Montanez, director, risk management for Ace HardwareCorp. in Oak Brook, Ill., and a founding member of NU'sRisk Managers Advisory Board, says he has great appreciation forZurich's property program.

“They've had our property program for going on seven years,” hesays, explaining that in March, “we did a complete remarketing ofour entire property program to test the market, and Zurich came inextremely competitive.”

This helped him realize that “we have a very good thing withZurich. Not only on pricing, but service levels, continuity withintheir account-management team and the consistency of theprogram.”

He explains that when his company gets property-improvementrecommendations from Zurich, “the approach that's used iscollaborative, rather than us versus them.”

Zurich always has been “extremely responsive to all of ourneeds. We always want to build long-term relationships, and wereally think Zurich is a long-term business partner of ours,” hesays.

The insurer also proved valuable at one of the company'slocations in Washington State—where there was a possibility anearby dam could burst.

 Zurich gave them a full report and helped themdetermine what they needed to do to protect themselves in theeventuality of a catastrophic flood, he says.

Preventive measures were taken, such as raising inventory offthe floor. “Best practices,” he notes. “Nothing happened,fortunately, but in the event it had happened, we were in goodshape.”

He concludes, “I can see why they're considered one of the best,based on my own personal experience. Based on the amount ofinterest they have, the amount of commitment they are making totheir customers, there is no reason they should not be consideredthe best.”

Tom Hunter is vice president, risk management with CommercialMetals Co. in Irving, Texas, a company that deals with scraprecycling, steel manufacturing and marketing distribution of steelproducts.

The company's no. 1 product is rebar, used in construction ofconcrete roads and precast-concrete products.

“We have property and casualty lines with Zurich,” he says,explaining that he met with Zurich in 2008 when he was new toCommercial Metals and was looking to build relationships withstrong global insurers.

Since that time, he notes, “we've placed a number of pieces withZurich, based on their ability to deliver to us on a global basis.We have operations in Australia, China, Eastern and Western Europe,and the United States, so it's important to have a global partnerthat can issue the policy, pay the claims and be there to helpus.”

This has made a “huge difference. When I came to CommercialMetals,” he says, “we had a very decentralized function. Since thattime, we now have two global policies: one for property and one forcasualty coverages. So we have the same terms,conditions—everything is controlled from a central riskperspective.”

One area his company has worked on with Zurich is building apartnership. “It's a different economic climate now after therecession, so we've been working with Zurich to come up withinsurance solutions to help us,” he explains. “One thing we'relooking at doing is providing a warranty on certain products, sothey will help us through that.”

While this isn't “your typical insurance product,” he adds,“they are helping us develop that feature for our marketing.”

CLIENTS CHEER FOR CHUBB

Michael Liebowitz, director of insurance and risk management atNew York University, a former president of the Risk and InsuranceManagement Society, and a founding member of NU's RiskManagers Advisory Board, relies on Chubb for a liability policythat provides coverage for his student-film production program. “Ihave them for other coverages, but this is where I really likethem,” he says.

The policy is written out of Los Angeles, “which I wouldconsider to be a center of excellence for that coverage,” Liebowitzsays. “We're speaking with underwriters who actually know thebusiness.”

Even though the carrier has had its share of losses on thepolicy, Chubb has been “more than fair. They have stuck with us. Itonly goes to prove that a relationship with a carrier can go bothways. It's created a major stability in our program. We've had afairly lengthy relationship with them” he says.

The NYU students make mini-feature films, one of which, “God ofLove,” won an Academy Award for short films this year.

Daniel H. Kugler—assistant treasurer, risk management forSnap-On Inc. in Kenosha Wis., director of student involvement forthe Risk and Insurance Management Society, and a founding member ofNU's Risk Managers Advisory Board—also has enjoyed asuccessful, long-term relationship with Chubb.

Kugler says Snap-on has its directors and officers, fiduciaryliability and crime programs with Chubb.

“We've been working with them for over 10 years,” he says.“They've been very receptive to Snap-On. They are well-run, and wefeel very comfortable with them providing our insurancecoverage.”