Buyers Hopeful For 2004

The mood of insurance buyers, both public and corporate, ranges from acceptance to nearly ecstatic for the coming year, with strong broker ties playing a key role.

Although the city of Fort Collins, Colo., changed two out of three insurers during just-completed renewals, “We remained loyal to our broker,” said Stewart J. Ellenberg, risk manager for the city.

The renewals “went pretty well. We found that we had some negotiating power this year in several areasexcess workers compensation and property and even liability. It was rather amazing.”

Mr. Ellenberg said brokerage firm Arthur J. Gallagher, with which the city has a 10-year relationship, was able to narrow down “which companies were players and which were not.”

“The key is that underwriters are still extremely busy these days and they are still looking for the cream of the crop,” he noted. “So by not approaching 20 different markets for these areas, [the brokers] narrowed it down to those they felt were most likely to have an interest in our account, and I think that helped.”

“We were down to two insurers in all three of these lines, and we were able to actually negotiate the best deal,” he said.

Mr. Ellenberg said he also depends on brokers for notification of significant changes in coverage that might be driven by the reinsurance market. “If the reinsurer says no on various things, then that is a problem for us,” he said.

He also expects brokers to notify him of changes with carriers.

“We like to have a five-year commitment with our carriers, but it also has to be a carrier that is going to be here,” he said. “We could have chased a lower-dollar insurance program with carriers that were B-rated, but I don't feel comfortable doing that.”

John Matthews, corporate director of risk management for Harrah's in Memphis, Tenn., said the company uses separate brokerages for its property, directors and officers liability, and casualty programs, adding that each broker agrees to provide Harrahs with reports on the financial stability of the underwriter on an ongoing basis. “If there's a negative change during the policy year, or something that may even possibly be a negative change, we may look for alternatives during the policy year,” he said.

The company employs brokerages Palmer & Cay for property lines and Becher + Carlson for casualty lines, he said.

“Becher + Carlson has been with us since the late 1980s,” he said. “And we've worked with the same people. So there is a lot of knowledge and a lot of history with that staff. Palmer & Cay picked up our property program in 2001.”

Although the company has good working relationships with its brokers “and they do a great job,” he noted that brokers, in general, “can always be a little more proactiveand maybe more creative in the terms of enhancing the policy wording.”

Service is so important that its “one of the reasons we've made changes [to brokers] over the years,” Mr. Matthews said, noting that the company uses its own service culture as a benchmark.

“Being in the entertainment business, we have to offer good customer service as a company culture,” he explained. “We do the same thing with our internal customer service, and we feel like our vendors have to be highly responsive.”

Mr. Matthews noted that because the company is in the entertainment business, its insurance needs are ongoing. “We have strange entertainment situations where we have an entertainer or group coming in and we find out at the last minute. So we have to get coverage for them and get certificates to show we have insurance,” he said, noting that the situations demand quick broker responses.

He added that “a lot of things happen during the year, with 25 casinos around the country doing promotions all the timeand there are also construction projects.”

Also on the horizon are changes this year in gaming laws in the United Kingdom. “Once that happens, wewill have a whole new set of insurance needs” for brokers to respond to, he said, without providing more details.

Ruth A. Unks, president of the Public Risk Insurance Management Association in Arlington, Va., said brokers need to be adept at determining the risk manager's needs.

As a growing number of risk managers are asked to be more than “traditional” risk managers and are now responsible for enterprise risk management, “we need brokers for more than just placement of insurance coverages,” said Ms. Unks, who is also risk manager for the Maricopa County Community College District in Tempe, Ariz.

Risk managers now need broker services that include specialized consulting in enterprise risk management, “as well as traditional services such as actuarial work, risk control services and claims services,” she noted.

Elements of a good relationship include trust and the “ability of the brokerage staff to understand and work with the entity and the risk manager's staff,” she said.

Ms. Unks added that public risk managers want brokers with solid experience dealing with public entities, “and this experience must be demonstrated by a clear commitment, corporately as well as locally.”

Jeff Bernor, enterprise risk manager for USAA in San Antonio, Texas, characterized his mood for 2004 as “optimistic.” He added that innovation from brokers is at the top of his wish list.

“Were looking to brokers to bring us new ideas,” he said.

“With the volatility weve seen in the marketplace over the last two or three years, and a lot of question marks remaining over the next couple of years,” he said it is critical for brokers to know their business, know the markets and the options that are available for both traditional and nontraditional risk transfer.

“I look for a broker thats not afraid to bring some new ideas and some different thinking to the table,” he continued. “It will spark us to think about our risks as well.”

Mr. Bernor said solutions should include alternative risk-transfer options, as well as many types of alternatives within the traditional market, whether multiyear agreements or blended risk programs.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, January 23, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Buyers Hopeful For 2004

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