An avid golfer, Roger Ware is well aware of the similarrequirements between playing a solid round of 18 holes and runninga managing general agency.

“Honesty is one,” says Ware, the CEO of Alpharetta, Ga.-basedMGA Genesee General. “In golf, you play by the rules of the game.As an MGA, honesty is part of building your reputation with youragents and your carriers that you underwrite for. We do our best torepresent the risk fairly and accurately with honesty andintegrity.

“Golf is also a game of etiquette,” he continues. “It's nodifferent for us. Our reputation is critical, and I tell ourassociates that our reputation is not negotiable. We do things theright way and we do not take shortcuts. We treat our agents as ourcustomers and always want to treat them with respect—just like youtreat your partner out on the course.”

Before acquiring Genesee General, Ware was working asthe regional vice president of Crum & Forster in Atlanta.Before that, he earned an MBA from the University of Colorado andgained experience in both the technical and managerial sides ofinsurance as a general liability product-line manager for Cigna,and as a branch manager and vice president for Allianz in SouthernCalifornia.

“I spent 17 years on the carrier side, with the last nine yearsrunning regional operations of a commercial-lines carrier. Theexperience helped me gain a better understanding of the independentagency system, managing people and making decisions on how to growprofitably.”

Ware's father ran Guaranty National, an E&S insurancecompany, for 13 years out of Denver before retiring in 1996. 

“After Crum & Forster was sold I didn't like how things weregoing, and I didn't want to move my kids again,” Ware recalls. “Thegentleman who used to own Genesee was contracted with my father'scompany and also sat on his advisory panel—and I remembered oncehearing him say although he wanted to retire from the MGA business,he didn't want to sell his company to a competitor, only to theright buyer.”

Ware realized that this was the ideal opportunity at the righttime, and in 1998 he purchased Genesee and became theE&S insurer's CEO and majority owner.

“Working for an MGA is different. Having your own capital atrisk makes every decision more important,” he says.

“Typically, independent agents try all of their standard marketsfirst and only when they begin to realize that they are beingdeclined do they come to us,” Ware continues. Genesee isoften asked to provide a quote on the same day a submission isreceived, and on many occasions it is asked to quote in less thanan hour.

“We need to have a very strong understanding of all the market'sunderwriting criteria, so we know where to place the accounts weunderwrite,” says Ware. “A standard company underwriter only needsto know their carrier; we need to know over 30 markets.”

When Genesee was acquired in 1998 it primarily wrotebinding contracts for policies dealing with transportation. Thatyear it wrote $4.5 million in premiums; in 2013 Ware expects toexceed $75 million. In 2008 Genesee began a separatewholesale brokerage company named Genesee SpecialBrokerage, run by David Palmer, that specializes in large propertyaccounts and coastal wind.

Genesee has built up its binding authority to work withcasualty, property, inland marine, professional, pollution, garageand excess and programs businesses; they've also run a specialprogram for the drug-testing industry since 1999, and in June ofthis year opened one for inflatable bounce castles and slides.

“We do not write personal lines, and we will not write anyaccount that is less than $500 in premium,” Ware says. “As forclasses of business, we write all commercial lines exceptBonds.”

Ware describes Genesee's national staff of 55 as a team of“generalists” writing many classes of business. They have authoritycontracts in the southeastern U.S. and in the Rocky Mountainstates, but would write open brokerage in any state.

The CEO's own day-to-day work varies but is never stale, hesays.

“We have over 15 binding authority contracts and 15 brokeragecontracts with more than 30 carriers,” says Ware. “This requires agreat deal of planning and communication with all our carriers. Wereview profitability, pricing, underwriting quality and planningand claims.”

Ware spends a lot of time developing close personalrelationships with such carriers as Nautilus Insurance Group;Markel Corp.; Atlantic Casualty Insurance Inc.; and Western WorldInsurance Group—all of whom share his understanding that withouttrust and loyalty, the environment needed to make quickunderwriting judgments on another's behalf would not exist.

“The most challenging aspect of working as an MGA is dealingwith changing carrier appetites and how it affects your existingbook and the ability to write new business,” he says. “We recentlyhad a carrier visit us in September of 2012 to give us an award for30 years of service—only to call us in early 2013 to advise us thatthey were moving in a different direction and parting ways. Thoseare the decisions by carriers that are the most frustrating. 30years of a relationship ended via one phone call!”

His team threw out the memorial plaque in question and movedon.

Ware says that Genesee has plenty of longtimerelationships that keep new and old opportunities abundant. Thesedays, he is putting together a separate Program Management divisionto complement its work for the drug-and-alcohol testing industriesand the clients who rent inflatables.