 |
 |
 |
Special Section Sponsored by Target Markets Program Administrators Association Program Administrators By Bob Bloss The program administrator in today’s market appears to be enjoying some welcome opportunities—opportunities to interact on a level playing field with carriers and to design new programs that will benefit retail agents. Part of the reason is that the property/casualty industry has entered a soft market, which makes program business more appealing to carriers. Then, too, in recent years program administrators have grown in status throughout the P-C industry, as their role in designing specific programs that cover the unique exposures of particular industries has become more widely recognized. “There is a strong appetite among carriers to create programs, primarily because of the soft market,” says Michael Schofield, president of the insurance division of MiniCo, Inc. “In the last few years, carriers have been in and out of the program market. However, with the soft market, carriers are looking for the profits that programs can generate.” Established in 1974, MiniCo provides insurance for the self-storage industry. Its two main products are insurance for customer storage and a BOP for storage facility owners. “Program administrators provide specialized coverages for specific classes of business, and they are profit driven,” says Schofield. “Carriers like that. At MiniCo, we preach underwriting profitability.” Sylvia Beckerman, vice president and senior operations manager for Mercator Risk Services, Inc., says that the program admini-strator arena has changed a good deal in the past 12 months. “We’re seeing more of a need for program business,” she says. Mercator provides programs for clients in such areas as construction, energy, financial institutions, habitational real estate, health care, manufacturing, telecommunications and transportation. Coverage lines include builders risk, coastal wind, critical flood, contractors’ equipment and earthquake. “In the last 10 years, more MGAs have become partners with carriers. Those that did not partner with carriers are no longer around,” Beckerman says. “Those that remained are enjoying the benefits of new underwriting tools available, such as benchmarking and new underwriting models. All of these tools are geared to underwriting profitability.” Nora Stransky, president of Special Markets Insurance Consultants, says that in addition to working with carriers to establish profitable program business, program administrators provide a number of benefits to retail agents. “We provide programs for the independent agency force that are custom made and not straight from a cookie cutter,” she says. “This allows the agent to place business faster because the coverage is designed for a particular niche. In addition, we can provide the retail agent with multiple carriers,” Stransky continues. “Agents don’t want to shop around. They prefer to work with a program administrator who can collect premiums, issue the policies and handle claims.” Special Markets Insurance Consultants provides programs for special events and activities, such as arts and crafts shows, dances, presentations, seminars, auctions, charity benefits, pageants, weddings and more. General liability coverage in the special events program protects the named insured, including volunteers and employees, for claims of bodily injury and property damage. Accidental medical coverage protects all insureds in the activities. All three agents interviewed stressed the importance of the Target Markets Program Administrators Association in establishing program administrators’ goals. Paramount among these goals is networking. “Target Markets brings to the program administrator a venue for meeting new carriers, new providers of new programs and vendors who provide specialized services,” says Stransky. “When you attend the association’s convention and its seminars, you realize that nowhere else can you find this many carriers and vendors all under one roof.” Beckerman agrees. “The networking opportunities at the annual convention are amazing. And the TMPAA convention, unlike other conventions, is a working forum where program administrators can talk to their peers to compare success stories and failures, and can talk to carriers and to vendors.” Schofield also says that the networking opportunity afforded by TMPAA is valuable to program administrators. “Program administrators meet with other program administrators to discuss things such as standard policy procedures,” he comments. “The educational opportunities through membership in Target Markets abound.” → |
 |
|
|||||
|
|||||||