Richard Trezza, president of Morristown, N.J.-based program administrator Core Programs LLC, recalls discovering his own personal niche in the insurance world: "I graduated with a business administration degree, decided I don't like corporate America and went into my family's small insurance business," he says. "That's how I learned insurance."
Trezza's career path led him to establish Core Programs, which he launched in 2011 with his business partner Sean Maher, The two honed and patented a proprietary risk modeling system that serves as the backbone of a specialty program that provides Property, General Liability, Crime and Umbrella coverage for apartment buildings and condominiums.
Trezza is one of more than 900 registered specialists who have discovered the professional opportunities offered by program business—autonomous insurance entities that service clients whose coverage needs typically fall outside traditional policies. These solo operators develop products that are targeted toward a specific subject area with needs for specialized cover—such as beekeepers and pyrotechnics studios—and provide risk management services on a retail or wholesale basis.
In Core Programs' case, Trezza developed an understanding of the risk considerations for apartment complexes and condominiums, including theft, crime, hired and non-owned auto coverage, and umbrella liability. A property broadening form offers insurance for a flat fee, including back-up of sewers and drains, electronic data, fine art owned by the landlord, pollutant clean-up and removal and outdoor property.
While Core uses major models akin to those owned by Risk Management Solutions to predict hurricane and flood probability, for example, Trezza maintains that big corporations aren't able to determine fire risk neighborhood by neighborhood.
Collecting and understanding this type of data helps Core better assess the exposures for apartment and condo clients, and what makes it an attractive partner to large carriers who don't have as granular a view of fire risk by ZIP code. The client benefits as a more accurate risk picture can make for more appropriate, and in many cases, less expensive pricing; one size does not fit all for apartment and condo complexes across the country.
Core launched a Wind and Hail loss program in April 2012, which covers property including hotels, motels, office buildings, shopping centers and other commercial-use property in the Southwest and New England from storms that produce damaging wind.
The company is employed by several large carriers rated "A" or higher by AM Best but is directly responsible for soliciting applications through retail insurance brokers, building policies, binding risks and collecting premiums. The only thing they don't do is claims handling, which is delegated to a third party. "Sometimes there are things we'd like to do that we can't, but we're still not corporate," says Trezza. "For example, we have a producer that wants to do business with us in Kansas, a state with high hail risk. You need to isolate and lay out a good case for the business opportunity: why that market is not saturated and there's a need for the product."
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