The continued soft market was a common thread that tied our monthly newsletters together this year. Nearly every issue we delivered in 2008 had an article forecasting when it would end or detailing strategies of specialty lines market participants to cope with existing conditions.

One common theme that emerged in our discussions with E&S insurance company executives was that the 2008 soft market was unlike others they had lived through.

“What is different about this soft market is the unpredictability,” said Robert Lala, senior vice president of primary casualty for Liberty International Underwriters in Chicago. “In past soft markets, you could name who was doing what, and you knew which accounts you were going to have a chance of writing with good terms.”

“There's just no predictability to it,” he added–even in terms of guessing which companies will be aggressive. “Companies you thought were very staunch in their underwriting now will open up the floodgates. Others who you thought would open up the floodgates are holding their ground.”

Scott Bayer, senior vice president for the casualty division of Valiant Insurance in New York, gave a similar assessment.

“What we've found is that we have to wind our way through all the accounts that come in the door to really see where there's an opportunity,” he said. “Where we may have success with one account, we may see a very similar one come in, but there's no opportunity–depending on the distribution, how it's marketed, what the prior carrier has done.”

“The consistencies really aren't there,” according to Mr. Bayer. “You've just got to roll up your sleeves and dive in to figure out where there is opportunity.”

One predictable element of this year's soft market was that this one, like those of the past, brought new competitors to the specialty lines space–and existing players lamented that they had to dig even deeper for opportunities to write business.

“You're being bombarded on one side with standard markets reemerging and taking part of the E&S traditional market. You've got unbelievable new capacity from Bermuda, London or onshore here in the United States,” said Paul Springman, president and chief operating officer of Deerfield, Ill.-based Markel Corp. We reported his comments in a June article about a panel discussion at AAMGA University Weekend East held earlier in the year.

Weeks later, participants in one particular specialty market–employment practices liability insurance–grumbled as they revealed the existence of a new competitor from the standard market that had taken them by surprise: Progressive, the Mayfield Village, Ohio-based personal auto insurer.

Also surprising to NU was the revelation that MEMIC, a Portland, Me.-based workers' compensation insurance group, had introduced an innovative coverage pairing of EPLI and workers comp insurance.

Giving our readers a different perspective, we devoted the lead spot of our July newsletter over to the new competitors in an article where they revealed their motivations and details of their programs–”Workers' Comp, Auto Carriers Launch Cheaper EPLI Cover Options.”

Published at a time when the price of gasoline was soaring, we reported that MEMIC's coverage for small employers–with a policy cost as low as $32 per employee–could cost some firms less than a full tank of gas for a minivan.

More recently, E&S/Specialty Lines Extra presented profiles of five new competitors in the U.S. E&S and specialty lines markets: Montpelier U.S. in our September edition; Ironshore Insurance, Max Specialty and Naxos Insurance in October; and Valiant Insurance Group in November. All but New York-based Naxos have roots in Bermuda.

How did E&S insurers survive in the face of all this competition?

“We all have to be better hunters…We have to have sharper spears. We have to run farther, and we're still going to eat less,” said Patricia Roberts, president and chief executive officer of General Star in Stamford, Conn., who participated on the AAMGA University Panel with Mr. Springman and Tom Nerney, president and CEO of Wayne, Pa.-based United States Liability Insurance Group.

“If yesterday a tough product that you were writing was a crane operator with horrible losses, now a standard carrier is picking that up. That's buffalo that's not in your real estate anymore.”

In the June article quoting Ms. Roberts' advice, “Business Strategies Vary Widely Among Specialty Carriers In Softening Market,” Mr. Springman and Mr. Nerney distinguished their business strategies from one another, with Mr. Springman highlighting Markel's passion for individual-account underwriting and Mr. Nerney explaining USLI's mission “to be the best insurance company writing small-premium accounts,” with 101 different products to fit submissions into underwriting boxes.

Our coverage of E&S insurer strategies continued in the Sept. 8 edition of NU magazine, detailing approaches including global expansion at Argo Group, internal reorganization at Markel, and product diversification strategies at American Safety and LIU.

In last month's e-newsletter, industry veterans' Nathan Warde, president of Aspen Specialty, and Larry Frakes, president and CEO of United America Indemnity, Ltd., described their soft-market strategies, highlighting changes in their risk appetites and rebuilding efforts they separately embarked on at their companies since taking on their positions in 2007.

(Editor's Note: Some subscribers to the E&S newsletter were not able to view the article about United America and Aspen Specialty in the November edition. The full article is available this month as a related link below.)

Special Reports /

Soft Market Crowds Specialty Space, Fuels Diverse E&S Carrier Strategies

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