Matt Harrell, CIC
Managing Director ofNational Accounts,
Franklin StreetInsurance
Tampa, Florida

Time at company: 7.5 years.

Choosing a client-facing path: AtFlorida State University, I was not an insurance major at first. Iwas MIS (management information systems) back then, until Irealized I wanted to get into something that was client-facing. Isaw that Florida State had one of the top insurance programs in thecountry. I graduated in 2004 with a double major in risk managementand insurance, and finance. People laugh that I left computerprogramming because it was boring — but that I got into insurance.They don't understand the industry.

Finding solutions in the face of seriousloss: After graduation, I worked forWillis in Miami in its marketing analyst program. I did that for ayear and-a-half, and then transferred to Willis in Tampa to becomea producer. This was right around when all of the hurricanes were happening. Not only high damageand destruction, but also high frequency of those storms. It reallyturned the property insurance market upside down, but gave us anopportunity to come up with creative solutions for problems thatproperty managers were facing at the time. We dove into catmodeling — which is much more prevalent now than it was then — tocreate policies for their portfolios.

How due diligence can payoff: At Franklin Street, recently wewere working on a large multifamily portfolio of locations in thesoutheast. I looked at the property loss runs, and they were notgood at all. They had high loss frequency with an 80 percent lossratio. Most brokers send those loss runs out to the carriers andhope for the best. But we looked at what those losses are, andfound the cause of claims for the past five years. A lot of themwere pipes that had frozen due to weather, which then leaked. Wedug down into the details, and were able to demonstrate that 60percent of those losses had occurred more than three years ago,because the property owner put forth an installation program toinsulate the pipes and prevent them from freezing in the firstplace. We took that information to the carriers. We anticipated aflat to 5 percent increase in coverage costs, but were able to get,including the General Liability, a 15 percent decrease.

Why splitting risks can makesense: The property portfolio is reallygoing to dictate what insurance market we will go to — are they incat areas, are the properties subject to earthquake or hail claims?Most brokers assume they should group the entire portfoliotogether, but through analysis we can determine if it makes senseto split the portfolio — maybe all Florida locations with onecarrier, and frame locations with another.

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