Special Section sponsored by TMPAA |
||||||||||||||
|
Fireman’s Fund Specialty Programs Program categories written include, among others: general liability, professional liability, inland and ocean marine, excess and umbrella The following is an open communication—by Jack Russell, executive director and national leader, Fireman’s Fund Specialty Programs—to insurance program professionals who are contributors and/or readers of this annual Target Markets Program Administrators Association (TMPAA) special section in Rough Notes magazine. Building relationships, getting programs done: why the industry is talking about Fireman’s Fund Specialty Programs “What’s your secret?” It’s a question I hear at virtually every industry gathering. Agents, brokers, competitors, program executives—they all want to know how Fireman’s Fund is able to deliver qualified programs to market in 85 days or less. In fact, by any standard, we’re providing one of the fastest, easiest ways for wholesalers and program managers to get coverage in force for affinity group members. Rethinking programs, enhancing service Fireman’s Fund launched its Specialty Programs Unit in 2006 with two staffers, three legacy programs, and gross premium written of about $7 million. The beginnings were small, but the mandate was huge: to totally rethink and re-engineer how programs are designed, launched, and serviced. Of course, we had some advantages, including more than a century of experience in handling virtually every type of coverage, from ocean cargo to casualty. Another significant advantage is our relationship with our parent company, Allianz SE. It’s one of the world’s largest financial organizations and a leader in property and casualty insurance. This relationship gives Fireman’s Fund access to capacity and resources on a scale few, if any, carriers can match. Programming our resources So the secret to our success was in simply combining the wealth of resources we had available. We’ve built an agile, highly talented team of specialists that delivers virtually unmatched speed in program development. Today, our underwriting team has grown to 20 professionals, and we run a profitable book of 35 programs with $2 million in premium. We offer many admitted and nonadmitted products for administrators to customize the exact kind of programs they want and need—general liability, excess and umbrella, professional liability, property, inland and ocean marine, even auto for incidental exposures. The future—innovation and relationships Going forward, we’re continuously innovating to improve our products and services. And we’re going to keep doing what’s been working for us: leveraging the deep underwriting talent of our team and the immense sales power of our program administrators to deliver speed and responsiveness. It’s how we build relationships, get programs done—and how we’re changing the programs landscape...for good. Fireman’s Fund Recent Program Successes
|
|
|||||||||||||
