Colemont: Transitioning From Strength

Even when it was affiliated with a London broker, Heath--now Colemont--operated independently, exec says

At the beginning of the year, a major wholesale insurance broker took a new name, signaling a new era for the firm.

"Unlike most everyone else in our segment, we were actually founded on the principal of independence--independence being defined as not being owned or affiliated with a retailer," explained Marshall Kath, chief executive officer of Colemont Insurance Brokers in Dallas.

Colemont opened its doors in 1992 as Heath Insurance Brokers, an affiliate of London-based Heath Lambert. The concept then was that U.S. Heath would serve as the London parent's North American wholesaler and produce business for the London market. Instead, Heath Insurance produced business that remained here in the United States.

Eventually, in 2003, Heath Lambert invited the management of the U.S. firm to buy out London's interest. The buyout closed at the end of March 2004, according to the company's biography, and the firm was renamed Colemont Corporation this year.

The name, according to marketing materials, comes from intersecting streets where Colemont's main office was founded--at the corner of Cole and Monticello. But the intersection of the "C" and "M" in its logo signifies that the firm "engineers insurance solutions to bring our Customers together with our Markets."

Such a transition could be traumatic at some level, but for Colemont the transition was not disruptive.

"The beauty of it was that we were set up on the basis, and operated on the basis, that we were totally standalone and autonomous," Mr. Kath observed.

From the beginning, the wholesaler built its operation from the ground up, independent of Heath Lambert, so when the "umbilical cord was cut," as Mr. Kath put it, there was no rush to fill in any of the back-office functions.

"The decision on Heath Lambert's part that we were not going to be one of their businesses going forward did not, operationally, throw us a curve ball," he said. "It was a mutually agreed to transaction. It worked out great, and the timing was superb."

The timing coincides with a continued line of growth since the operation opened its doors in 1992, when it recorded $18 million in gross premium. The firm has grown to $951 million in gross premium in 2004, offering access to hundreds of specialty lines through close to 400 insurance professionals in 15 offices throughout the country.

There are several reasons for Colemont's success over the years, Mr. Kath pointed out. One stems from the independence it was founded on. Unlike other wholesale competitors, Colemont built its client base from scratch without the benefit of a retail broker parent to refer business its way.

Without such referrals, there was no confusion over the distribution channel for the client, said Mr. Kath. He suggested a non-independent wholesaler may put more effort into the book of business coming from the parent and not work as hard on the behalf of those agents coming from the outside.

Today, as some major wholesale brokers owned by major insurance brokerage houses ready themselves for independence, Mr. Kath suggests that their concentration may not be on the business at hand, but on how they will replace the business they could lose from the parent.

"We are minus the distraction of all the marketplace dislocation that is occurring," he said. "We are able to devote all of our time and energy and resources to meeting customer's needs."

Another advantage for clients working with Colemont is the absence of a burdensome bureaucracy. The firm prides itself on a "flat" structure that delegates a lot of decision-making to individual offices.

"We just don't like the feeling of a big institution," admitted Mr. Kath.

A Colemont executive has a great sense of "urgency" in placing an agent's business, grown in its lean years.

"An average platform, with average people, would have gotten an average result over a period of time," observed Mr. Kath. "But to go from the new guys on the block to the top five [wholesale specialty broker] in 12 years time, we had to be doing something right."

In this current soft-market cycle, Mr. Kath noted that Colemont is spending more time "listening to the needs and wants of our customers, the retail agents with whom we do business. We are, hands down, most successful when we do that and then deliver timely and creative solutions to their desktops."

But the company is also listening to the carriers it does business with, to their strategies and objectives for now and tomorrow.

"Their appetites are changing as they deal with less hard-market pricing and a continuingly low-interest rate environment," he continued. "We commend them for working toward, or maintaining, an underwriting profit," he said. He added: "We want to deal with those carriers who will maintain their financial strength and not become insolvent because of undisciplined pricing decisions. That is a self-serving desire on our part."

For the future, Mr. Kath said there will be calls for greater accountability and transparency. For Colemont, that means no change in its operations since its business practices have also met those standards.

Growth will continue to come from growing the business and not acquisition, Mr. Kath noted. If there is an asset considered worth investing in, the company will do that, but it will not be "a primary engine for growth. We are not counting on it. It is not an overriding strategy."

The culture at Colemont relies heavily on teamwork and letting everyone feel they have a stake in the company. They do that through a compensation package that pays both individually and collectively.

"If we talk about teamwork and doing things collectively so we get more done, but then we turn around and pay everybody based on an individual number, or some singular reference point, then what I talk about versus how we earn [for] ourselves is different," said Mr. Kath. "I would feel like I was talking out of two sides of my mouth."

"By design, we have not made any major changes or overhauls to our financial model," said Mr. Kath. "It has stood the test of time."

Photo caption:

Gene Eisenmann, Chairman (left), and Marshall Kath, CEO, proudly display the Colemont logo at the Colemont corporate office in Dallas, Texas.

Kath pullquote:

"We are minus the distraction of all the marketplace dislocation that is occurring," he said. "We are able to devote all of our time and energy and resources to meeting customer's needs."

Marshall Kath, CEO, Colemont

To go with building photo with superimposed logo:

Flag: Colemont At A Glance

History: Stared in 1992 as Heath Insurance Brokers, an affiliate of London's Heath Lambert, recording $18 million in gross premiums that year.

Now: Colemont was created as a result of a management buyout in 2004, with its new name put in place in 2005. 2004 premiums were just under $1 billion

Business: Offering access to hundreds of specialty lines through close to 400 insurance professionals in 15 offices throughout the country.

Headquarters: At the corner of Cole and Monticello Streets in Dallas.

Logo: The intersection of the "C" and "M" signifies that the firm "engineers insurance solutions" to bring "Customers together with... Markets."

Special Reports /

Colemont: Transitioning From Strength

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