Agency Management

The soft commercial insurance market is becoming more of the norm than the exception, as broker and carrier officials suggest the pricing cycles of the past may be changing to an almost permanently depressed state.

"A difficult insurance market creates opportunities."

In the complex world of excess and surplus insurance, savvy insurers rely on the assessments provided by risk control engineers to accurately underwrite the unique exposures of each customer's operations.

In a market where growth seems elusive, the leader of Connecticut's newest managing general agency believes his startup--focused on servicing $1,500 surplus lines accounts--could bind $10 million of new business by year's end.

Every company wants to grow, but in a well-established industry finding ways to do that can sometimes be a difficult task.

Premiums written by the U.S. excess and surplus lines market fell nearly 5 percent to $11.5 billion in the first half of 2010, according to a report prepared by Highline Data exclusively for National Underwriter.