New ASPN links provide market clout for MGAs, retail agents BISYS Specialty Programs/Tri-City Brokerage and PWIB wholesale brokerage, underwriting operations join ASPN Network By Dave Willis
In January 2006, executives from BISYS Commercial Insurance Services’ Specialty Programs and Tri-City Brokerage divisions and executives from PWIB (Pacific Wholesale Insurance Brokers) were putting the finishing touches on contracts to align each of their organizations with ASPN (Agency Specialty Product Network). ASPN partners with provider companies like BISYS and PWIB to market those companies’ products to independent retail agencies throughout the United States. Before long, both firms were seeing results from the new relationship. For instance, John Jennings, president of BISYS Specialty Brokerage and Tri-City Brokerage says his operation experienced some very quick successes after joining ASPN. “We were able to step in and fill a couple of holes for retail agents,” he says. One was a small builders risk policy, where, as Jennings says, “the broker was just stuck, and needed something turned around in a very short period of time—a day or so.” Tri-City’s property department was able to get a quote and bind a policy in a matter of about 24 hours. According to John Hahn, BISYS Commercial Insurance Services president, the operation also was able to find E&O coverage for a captive insurance operation specializing in medical malpractice, and a GL policy for a residential contractor involved in condo conversion work. And these were accomplished in just the first couple of weeks of the partnership with ASPN. To help ASPN meet its goal of helping independent agents and brokers serve clients better, BISYS Commercial Insurance Services, which handles in excess of $1 billion in annual premium, brings specialized resources and new revenue streams to the independent agency network. BISYS Tri-City Brokerage, founded in 1985, is a five-office independent P-C wholesale broker that handles multi-million-dollar transactions.
It boasts strong casualty presence in allied health care, construction, environmental, habitational, nutraceutical, wrap-ups and project policies, among others. On the property side, strengths include auto physical damage, builders risk/renovations, DIC/flood and earthquake, equipment breakdown, high hazard wind exposures and warehouse legal. The firm also has a strong position in financial services coverage, including crime, D&O, E&O, EPLI and fiduciary liability. Jennings notes, “We’re not purely a transactional broker. We deal with the retail broker, partnering up with the insured and bringing expertise and a consultative approach to each account.” Complementing Tri-City Brokerage is BISYS Specialty Programs, a group of MGAs that offers in-house underwriting for specialty markets, including transportation, workers comp and professional liability. BISYS Specialty Programs president, David Tooley, says his 20-year-old, eight-location operation does about $500 million in premium, with a large chunk of that coming from commercial auto. “We have 11 major programs,” he says. “Our largest is long-haul trucking, with public auto being a very close second.” Public auto includes charter bus, limousine, airport transit, school buses and the like. The unit also does quite a bit of waste-haulers and business auto in general, he adds, and even writes paratransit risks. Workers comp is another BISYS Specialty Programs forte, as are EPLI, E&O, wholesale distributors and a recently added towing and recovery program. The operation not only covers a broad range of products and specialties. It also handles the full spectrum of account sizes. “One thing that separates us from our competitors is our smallest account probably pays us $500 in premium, and our largest account pays $10 million or so,” he says. “We’re not afraid of handling either—or anything in between.” Tooley says that even though the partnership with ASPN was just formed in January, his offices are seeing activity already. “We’re starting to see the applications flowing in,” he says. Retailers from around the country are tapping his shop when they encounter risks—whether charter bus or long-haul truck or something else that they can’t service themselves. Second organization brings additional resources
Pacific Wholesale Insurance Brokers (PWIB), a wholesaler operation and MGA, was the second firm that teamed up with ASPN earlier this year. PWIB chalked up $100 million in premium last year, an impressive number for an operation with just two full calendar years of operation under its belt. PWIB is an independent partnership of seasoned insurance professionals who bring together diverse backgrounds and specialty areas. Mike Murphy, PWIB president and chief operating officer, served with alphabet-house brokers from the mid-1980s until 2003, headed a TPA claims operation and held financial posts with insurance companies. And Joe Filardo, a PWIB managing partner in New York, has nearly three dozen years’ experience in domestic and international insurance, serving at the carrier, broker and, most recently, reinsurance level. As a young organization, PWIB works to demonstrate a fresh, entrepreneurial spirit. “We are in some ways the new kids on the block,” Murphy says. “And we are not complacent about where we are.” He believes his organization brings an energy level and excitement that, in many ways, matches that of ASPN itself. “I believe we replicate that energy, because we’re hungry,” Murphy notes. Today, the organization’s energy and expertise are spread throughout nine locations from coast to coast—up from two offices that made up PWIB when it opened in mid-2003. The $100 million in 2005 premium is just a start. “We have some big growth ahead of us,” Murphy says. Expansion plans cover products, services and geographic presence. Among these locations there are branch offices located in Dallas, which is managed by Robin Stough, and New York City, managed by Gary D. Ricker, Jr. Presence in both Texas and the Northeast Region strategically positions PWIB to increase market share in these regions of the United States, the company says. By the end of the decade, he explains, the group aims to quadruple its premium volume. That growth will come in a couple of ways. “The first strategy will be hiring additional brokers,” Murphy says. “We’re aggressively looking to hire a dozen this year.” The second will be in expanding the number of offices. For starters, PWIB expects to create a new Midwest physical presence this summer. PWIB’s wholesale brokerage operation—which currently does the lion’s share of the firm’s overall business—covers a range of property, casualty and professional liability lines. “Retail brokers need access to the E&S market,” Filardo says. And PWIB is there to deliver access. On the MGA side, the organization has in-house binding authority for a number of lines of business. “We have one very unique MGA that writes property and casualty coverage and business interruption for poultry farms and swine operations,” Filardo says. These are generally smaller farms and cover a variety of specialties, including egg-laying facilities and hen houses. The MGA that runs that business brought to PWIB some 35 years of industry experience, coupled with expertise that’s hard—probably impossible—to find in retail agencies and brokerages. In California, where the “Pacific” part of the firm’s name originates, the organization has carved out a niche with residential contractors. “Our flagship operation has had great success with a somewhat unique product,” Murphy says. The product combines a warranty product for the contractor and the buyer of the home. “We have a CGL policy for the builder that provides a buffer, if you will, for any construction defect claims that may arise from the warranty,” he explains. This product is also offered in 15 states and will soon expand to several other states, the company says. In both sunbelts—the Southeastern United States and the West Coast—PWIB has found success in providing wrap-up programs for condominium, town home, and single-family developments. It’s another area where Murphy sees growth potential, and an opportunity to help retail agents and brokers better serve their clients, and profit as a result.
ASPN, a unit of Aon Corporation, has as its charge to support the independent agency system. And it works to do this by partnering with quality, credible, aggressive provider companies that can help independent agents and brokers bring quality products and services to their clients. ASPN CEO Jerry Tegan is quick to point out how these new partners support ASPN’s goals. “BISYS/Tri-City and PWIB are two wholesale brokerage and underwriting operations that exemplify the innovative, professional, customer service-oriented, specialty product/niche companies we bring to agents and brokers,” Tegan says. “Both have significant expertise in both their wholesale brokerage and also in their underwriting units,” he adds. “And both are exactly the type of wholesaler organizations ASPN was looking to partner with and add to its network of provider companies to better serve and meet the needs of the independent agency network and its clients.” Despite the fast market acceptance, the BISYS and PWIB partnership with ASPN is about much more than quick success. “It’s about an ongoing relationship that helps both parties and, more important, independent agents and brokers,” Tegan concludes. ASPN serves as an additional marketing arm for BISYS and PWIB as well as 35 other provider companies, including carriers, wholesalers, and managing general underwriters and specialty providers. These include non-Aon-owned and Aon-owned companies. * The author |
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