Some of the newest Bermuda companies have entered the U.S. excess and surplus lines market in the past two years with fresh capital and “A-minus” A.M. Best ratings.

Among them is Montpelier Re, a Class of 2001 Bermuda reinsurer, where executives of one-year-old specialty insurance operations say personal relationships within the company–and with customers–built over decades-long careers in the segment will drive the success of the new U.S. specialty insurance platform.

“Every underwriter we have hired, we have known, worked with or done business with in the past,” said Bud Lockwood, president of Montpelier Underwriting Inc., one component of the Montpelier U.S. platform, which is a wholly-owned managing general agency authorized to issue insurance contracts on behalf of Montpelier Syndicate 5151 at Lloyd's.

“Our mantra is that we're a group who know each other, and while we're starting in a soft pricing cycle, we're actually doing business with people we've known for years and years,” said Stan Kott, CEO of Montpelier US, which also includes a second component–an E&S insurance company in Scottsdale, Ariz., known as Montpelier U.S. Insurance Company (MUSIC).

“Although we don't have any renewals, it's as if we do, because we've always built our operation on the strength of personal relationships and knowledge,” he added.

“We don't compete on price. We don't typically compete on product features,” Mr. Kott noted. “What we really do is make it comfortable for our customers to want to do business with us.”

“People want to do business with people they can rely on, people they have faith in–and that goes back to the relationships that we've developed with the general agents in the United States,” added Dick Nenaber, president of MUSIC.

Like other executives of new E&S operations to be profiled in this series of articles, Mr. Nenaber is no stranger to start-up building processes. “I seem to have a track record of being able to start successful E&S insurance companies,” said Mr. Nenaber, an apparent understatement for someone whose resume reveals a 31-year history of the E&S industry in Scottsdale.

Mr. Nenaber, who started in the E&S business in 1977 with Great Southwest Fire Insurance Company, also co-founded Western Heritage Insurance Company in 1986 (after a one-year stint managing the binding authority division of Swett & Crawford in California). When Nationwide bought Western Heritage's parent, Allied Insurance Group, he went on to reorganize Fulcrum Insurance Company, then a unit of Sorema, into a binding authority company.

Together with Mr. Kott, Mr. Nenaber later started Wellington Specialty Insurance Company. The entire U.S. operation of Wellington Underwriting Inc. went from a $10 million operation in 1999 to just under $300 million in 2006, according to Mr. Kott–who also reported that Wellington's U.S. platform made an underwriting profit in all of those years.

After Catlin purchased Wellington, Mr. Kott–who had a relationship with Montpelier Re Chairman Anthony Taylor dating back to Mr. Taylor's days at Wellington–capitalized on the opportunity that opened up when Mr. Taylor's Bermuda-based property-catastrophe reinsurer serendipitously decided to expand into diversifying U.S. businesses, Mr. Kott reported.

Wellington Specialty wrote $47 million in 2006 and was on track to write $65 million in April 2007, when Mr. Kott and Mr. Nenaber left, Mr. Nenaber reported.

More information on the history, key milestones and distinguishing characteristics of Montpelier's U.S. specialty businesses is presented in summary form below.

In coming months, E&S/Specialty Lines Extra will profile two other recent Bermuda entrants to the U.S. specialty insurance market–Ironshore Insurance and Valiant Insurance Group.

“We don't compete on price. We don't typically compete on product features. What we really do is make it comfortable for our customers to want to do business with us.”

Stan Kott, CEO, Montpelier US

“Every underwriter we have hired, we have known, worked with or done business with in the past.”

Bud Lockwood, President, of MUI

“We're finding that hard market to soft market, the company that answers the telephone, gets back on the e-mails and provides consistent service is the one that will do okay.”

Dick Nenaber, President, MUSIC

Special Reports /

Comfort Factor Will Distinguish Montpelier US, Execs Say

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