Large commercial and layered programs
Above $25 million in total insured value, the question stops being price.
At this size the program is layered, shared, or both. What matters is whether the layers agree with each other, and they frequently do not.
Why the line is real
Below the line you buy a package. Above it you assemble a tower.
A single carrier can hold a mid-size habitational account on one form. A $60 million schedule usually cannot sit with one carrier at a price anyone will pay, so it gets built: a primary layer, excess layers above it, sometimes quota share participation across a single layer, occasionally a separate placement for the catastrophe exposed addresses.
Every one of those pieces is a separate negotiation with a separate underwriter, and the pieces are only as good as their agreement with each other. Which means the failure mode at this size is almost never an uninsured building. It is a tower that does not respond the way the summary said it would.
What goes wrong
Six things we look for in a layered program.
- 01
Valuation methodology that is not consistent across the schedule
Replacement cost on some addresses and actual cash value on others, usually as an artifact of when each building was added.
Which means two identical buildings on one schedule settle differently, and nobody finds out which is which until one of them burns.
- 02
Margin clause and occurrence limit of liability endorsements
These quietly convert the blanket limit you believe you bought back into a scheduled limit, building by building, at the values on file.
Which means the blanket you are paying for pays out as a schedule, capped by a number somebody typed years ago.
- 03
Excess layers that do not follow form
A layer that grants narrower terms than the layer beneath it creates a gap in the middle of the tower.
Which means a loss large enough to reach that layer stops at a term nobody knew was there.
- 04
Sublimit erosion across a shared layer
Flood, earthquake, and named storm sublimits stated per occurrence in one place and in the annual aggregate in another.
Which means the second event in a season is covered on paper and not covered in fact.
- 05
Ordinance and law that is not consistent layer to layer
The coverage most likely to be needed on an older asset is the coverage most likely to be inconsistently granted above the primary.
Which means a code-driven rebuild is funded at the primary and unfunded above it.
- 06
Time element assumptions that do not match the rent roll
Business income limits and periods of indemnity set years ago against a rent roll that has moved substantially since.
Which means the income replacement stops months before the asset is back in service.
The offer at this size
The same five days, scoped to a program review.
Send the layer schedule, the declarations for the primary and each excess layer, the statement of values, and five years of loss runs. In five business days you get a written structural read: where the layers disagree, where valuation is inconsistent, and where the summary you were given does not match the forms underneath it.
If we look at the program and conclude we are not the right shop to place it, we will say so and tell you what kind of shop is. At this size that is a more useful answer than an enthusiastic one.
How we place
Admitted and surplus, direct and wholesale.
We place through admitted carriers and surplus lines markets, direct and through wholesale brokers, including layered and shared placements. We service accounts above $25 million in total insured value.
We do not publish carrier names. Appointments are not exclusive, a logo is not an argument, and putting a carrier's name on a marketing page implies an endorsement that no carrier has given us.
Fit
Where we are the wrong shop.
Programs that need captive or alternative risk structuring
If the right answer is a captive, a group captive, or a structured retention program, that is specialist work and we will say so rather than sell around it.
Accounts already brokered by a national firm where the incumbent is performing
If the tower is well built and the service is good, moving it is churn dressed up as diligence. Have us read it, keep the report, and stay where you are.
Owners who want a market approached before the program has been read
Going to market without a structural read is how a program gets priced on the incumbent's assumptions for another year.
Send the layer schedule. Get a written structural read in five business days.
Declarations for the primary and each excess layer, the statement of values, and five years of loss runs. You keep the read whatever you decide to do with the program.