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As the property and casualty sector risk landscape has evolved, the excess and surplus (E&S) insurance market has grown significantly, with Fitch Ratings reporting 14 consecutive years of E&S premium growth through 2024, seven of which were in the double digits.
For independent agents and brokers, that growth reflects the practical reality that more accounts today fall outside standard underwriting appetite and require placement in the E&S market. As E&S placements increase, agencies are being pushed to rethink how they prepare and present submissions. The ability to deliver a clear, decision-ready submission is quickly becoming a competitive advantage.
As a non-admitted market, appetites in the E&S space can shift quickly based on loss trends and current market conditions. Carriers may adjust pricing, change capacity or pull back from a class of business entirely if the market demands it. At the same time, underwriters are navigating heavy submission volumes, often managing an influx of incomplete submissions that create friction in the placement process and require several follow-ups before coverage can be placed.
Despite the potential for instability, the E&S market is an effective outlet for complex and hard-to-place risks that may not fall under standard underwriting requirements such as catastrophe-prone property, cyber and specialized liability. And as risk models evolve and underwriting grows more selective, even familiar accounts may shift out of standard markets at renewal.
In agents' endeavors to serve as an effective stream of business for their carrier partners and source of expertise to their clients, technology is becoming an invaluable resource for improving submissions, reducing unnecessary friction in the placement process and strengthening trust in carrier and client relationships.
Strengthening carrier relationships
Carrier expectations for their agent partners in the E&S market are shifting to meet the needs of a faster-paced landscape that requires greater precision. Long-term carrier relationships rely on consistency and trust in the quality of an agent's work. As E&S submission volume continues to grow, carriers will rely on partners who can deliver complete, decision-ready submissions that align with their underwriting appetites.
Modern placement platforms, such as MarketAI, the tool we are currently building at Xchange - Powered by SIAA, can validate submission completeness, route risks to the right markets based on current appetite and package accounts in an underwriter-ready format. When submissions arrive with concise exposure data and fewer gaps, underwriters can spend more time evaluating risks and less time sorting through incomplete submissions.
Easing agent pain points in E&S placement
Unlike admitted markets, where rate and underwriting changes often shift slowly, non-admitted markets can change quickly during major losses, catastrophic events or as new exposures emerge.
For example, in California, where wildfire risk exposure has prompted carriers to pull out of admitted markets, E&S insurers accounted for 14.2% of California's property insurance market's total direct premiums written in 2023. By comparison, E&S insurers fell into the ~5% range from 2014 to 2018 for the California property insurance market as reported by S&P Global. In response, agents and brokers must constantly adjust to carrier appetites and capacity needs while also managing the insureds' expectations.
Without the right tools and workflows in place, agents may send submissions to markets that are no longer accepting the risk or do not align with a carrier's current underwriting appetite. Incomplete submissions and misrouted placements can lead to repeated back-and-forth with underwriters, delaying the quoting process and adversely impacting an agent's relationship with both carriers and clients.
Technology can help reduce this friction by guiding agents through the submission process, validating key data points and helping align risks with markets that are more likely to have appetite. Technology's role in the placement process serves as an optimizer, rather than a replacement of an agent's involvement. However, this process, coupled with thorough human verification, helps ensure forms, exclusions and coverage layers align with clients' intent and reflects the current appetites of carriers.
Reducing administrative friction
One of the greatest sources of friction in E&S placement is the time agents spend on administrative tasks and research. Multiple submissions, repeated data entry and subsequent follow up emails can significantly delay the process, especially in a market where underwriting appetite may change quickly.
Technology can help reduce this burden by accessing data from third-party sources and validating key details before a submission is sent. Property records and other verification tools can help confirm information that might otherwise require manual research, reducing the need for assumptions during the submission process and preventing delays later. At the same time, it frees agents' and brokers' time to focus less on repetitive administrative work and more on client service.
The era of technology as a value-add for agencies is long over. With insureds expectations aligning with the digital age, incorporating technology to support agents in building on their success while reducing obstacles to business growth is an operational imperative.
Technology is no longer simply a value-add for agencies placing complex risks. Used correctly, it helps reduce administrative friction, improve submission quality and strengthen the connection between agents and underwriting markets. In an E&S market defined by evolving risk and shifting appetite, those capabilities will play an increasingly important role in helping agents deliver coverage solutions for clients.
Moss is CEO of Xchange–powered by SIAA, where he leads the development of E&S and specialty underwriting platforms that connect underwriting markets with the SIAA – The Agent Alliance (siaa.com) distribution network through proprietary technology, data-driven product design, and targeted MGA partnerships. Learn more about Xchange (www.siaaxchange.com), or follow the company on LinkedIn (@siaa-xchange).
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