New E&S Insurance Operation Kinsale Launched In Growing Richmond Hub

With Richmond, Va., continually growing as an excess and surplus lines insurance hub, the newest E&S carrier to set up shop there will distinguish itself with a “contrarian underwriting strategy,” the company’s chief executive says.

“Even within E&S markets, you see a flight to quality where E&S companies start to favor more preferred business, and it sometimes makes it more challenging for a broker to place a tougher risk,” said Michael Kehoe, president and chief executive officer of Kinsale Insurance, a company that will, he promises, have a “healthy appetite for distressed” small-to-midsize risks.