When the Sun Belt states' white-hot construction market evaporated, Horizon E&S Insurance Brokerage—which counted this sector among its business staples—looked to diversify its client base and lines. Cyberspace recently emerged as a lucrative new frontier for the California-based managing general agent.
"We've found a niche with a cyber-liability program that has worked quite nicely for us in the past few months," says Jay Ginnow, Horizon's vice president. "We write it through Lloyd's of London, which offers very competitive, very broad language. We've been getting lots of positive responses."
The product is a third-party liability line for entities exposed to identity theft as well as privacy issues relating to media and technology: Companies charged with physically transporting computer-server hardware, for instance, or design and graphics firms hired by entertainment concerns such as The Walt Disney Co., which requires its consultants to carry insurance covering the theft of logos and other trademarked content.
"It's something that Lloyd's has been doing for a long time, but recently we happened to run into two or three clients interested in the product, so we decided to market it and found interest among a lot of different agencies," Ginnow explains. These initial clients were based in California, he adds, but Horizon has since marketed the product to the rest of its geographic reach: It also writes business in Washington, Nevada and Arizona.
FIRM PHILOSOPHY, SWEET SPOTS
Horizon got its start nine years ago in California, where it now maintains two offices. Its sweet spots are what Ginnow describes as second- and third-tier agents: medium and smaller regional, independent firms. But Horizon has become more nimble in response to the economy.
"We're much more diversified in lines and classes than ever before," he explains. "Premiums are so soft that we've become more generalists, not just focused on construction and medical. If we think we have the ability, we'll look at any type of business that comes our way these days. That's very typical of all wholesalers right now."
Aside from diversifying its offerings, Horizon has avoided making changes to its existing programs. But it is marketing unique strengths to differentiate itself in the marketplace.
"We provide hands-on, personal service at the actual brokerage level," Ginnow says. "We are very quick to respond to our clients. When you call you get straight through to me—you don't get an assistant, as you would with any of the larger brokers out there. But even though we're lean and mean, we have access to as many markets as any large wholesaler."
As Horizon looks to the future, he adds, it expects to deepen its work with the cyber-liability program—but it also hopes the construction market will rebound eventually.
And, expressing a widely shared sentiment among his peers, "we're hoping the market firms up and pricing becomes more equitable for the exposures being written so that our insurance companies stay alive to see another day. At the pace they're writing insurance, you wonder how long they can survive this market."
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