By Dennis Pillsbury
Christopher J. Timm is executive vice president of Columbus, Ohio-based Century Insurance Group.
"We recognize that we're small and try to capitalize on our size," says Chris Timm, executive vice president--Property/Casualty of Century Insurance Group, Columbus, Ohio. He continues, "We can offer markets to agents with a program that might not capture the interest of a larger company. For us, a specialty program with half a million dollars in volume could be a home run in many states."
Century Insurance Group uses both wholesale and retail brokers to market its products. For its "normal" surplus lines products, "we use general agents and brokers," Chris says, adding that the company currently does business with 105 wholesalers. The specialty products "are produced by retail agents who have a specific expertise." The company also writes workers compensation in six states (Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee and Connecticut, and Virginia), using a special managed care product that is marketed by retail agents. The comp business was purchased from Anthem in Indianapolis.
The company currently is owned by five community banks, which hold 50% of the stock, Stonehenge Opportunity Fund, LLC, a private equity investment firm with 18%, and the balance by management. The companies comprising the group--Century Surety Co., Evergreen National Indemnity and Continental Heritage Insurance Co.--were purchased by this group in October of 2000 from Century Businesses Services, which had decided to leave the risk-bearing business and concentrate on its core strength of providing outsourced services to businesses.
Roswell P. Ellis (standing), who recently assumed the presidency of Century, plus John A. Marazza (left), executive vice-president, and Chris Timm make up Century's top management team.
--Chris Timm
Roswell Ellis, who has continuously served as chairman and has now assumed the presidency, had served as president of Century Surety Co., prior to his retirement. He came out of retirement to fill his former position. John Marazza, who was with Century prior to the acquisition, completes the top management team. He serves as executive vice president-administration and directs the workers comp operation. Chris Timm had been president of Environmental and Commercial Insurance, an MGA that did business with Century. "I have an 11-year relationship with Century and this was a natural move," Chris says.
The group operates in 49 jurisdictions on a non-admitted basis and is admitted in five states. "We have a definite preference for surplus lines because it allows for freedom of rate and form," Chris explains.
"One of our biggest advantages is that we can be very responsive to agents," Chris continues. "We are able to move quickly when we see an opportunity and we don't require a large premium volume. For example, when we start out working with an agent, we want to know that he or she understands the risk and will be able to provide better-than-average clients within that group. Our key to success is being selective. If a particular specialty looks attractive, we're looking to reach only around $300,000 in premium within the first year from the agent. But we want to be one of that agency's top three companies within three years. We're really looking for partners and a long-term relationship."
On the surety side, "we're obviously looking for agents who know the surety business," Chris says. In addition to general surety business, Century also writes environmental surety, landfill closure bonds and bail bonds.
He concludes by pointing out that Century uses quota share and excess of loss reinsurance to protect itself from large losses. (The company has about $100 million in volume.) However, he adds, "our core of business has always been profitable so we're not seeing the huge increases that have been reported in some of the trade papers. We got a little pop, reinsurance premiums are definitely going up and that will have to be reflected in our renewal rates, but we don't anticipate dramatic increases because we have such a good track record."
Tim Gordon, assistant vice president--operations, adds that the company has been working with electronic media aggressively in order to reduce costs. "We have an electronic underwriting manual and offer policy issuance on line. We're working with the ACORD XML standards so we can transfer data back and forth with our agents and brokers. Our whole electronic objective is to make it easier for our producers to use Century. Over time, we expect this to result in a snowball effect that will help to drive down our costs and the costs of our agency partners. We're looking toward "one-and-done," which will mean less chance for error and greater efficiency. And success in this area means that agents will be able to share in our success." *
For more information:
Century Insurance Group
Phone: (800) 878-7389
Web site: www.CenturySurety.com