Special Section sponsored by

PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR

Leisure/Sports Specialists, LLC

Key market served: specialty leisure and sports operations

Ask Matt Sackett about his business and be ready to relax and listen. “Specialty leisure and sports business is about as exciting as it gets for insurance,” he says. And that’s not just when he’s talking with fellow insurance professionals.

“At a cocktail party, when people ask what I do for a living, I say my company insures participant liability and spectator liability exposures nationwide—things like motor sports venues, events and sanctioning bodies; amateur sports sanctioning bodies, teams and leagues; family entertainment centers; fitness centers and instructors; horse racing tracks and other venues,” explains Sackett, president of Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Leisure/Sports Specialists, LLC (LSS).

People don’t change the subject after his explanation. “They typically stick around and ask follow-up questions,” Sackett notes. “Nobody outside the industry can believe there’s a way to provide insurance for cars that race at well over 100 miles an hour.”

Coupled with Sackett’s passion for the business is knowledge. “To be effective in the sports and leisure insurance industry, you need industry-specific knowledge of the exposures insureds face, along with in-depth knowledge of the ISO CGL coverage form,” Sackett notes. Without these, it’s not possible to craft endorsements that provide coverage that responds to the insured’s exposures. “It’s a challenging exercise,” he adds. “It keeps work both interesting and fun.”

LSS is more than just fun. There’s a serious side, of course. Actually, the firm was created to fill a lagging marketplace void resulting from 9/11. “We believed the industry needed a privately held sports and leisure insurance organization that would distribute products exclusively through retail and wholesale insurance brokerages, would focus on middle market operations and smaller, and wouldn’t compromise premium volume for underwriting profitability,” Sackett explains. He believes his organization entered the marketplace at the right time, bringing additional capacity to a niche market that was substantially undercapitalized.

Retail agents and brokers seem to agree. “Since our inception four years ago, we’ve grown to be an organization with more than $10 million in premium volume,” Sackett notes. “Our brokerage partners made all the difference. They understand that we are a market for insurance, not a competitor or potential competitor—we don’t operate on a retail basis.”

Sackett believes this goes a long way to enhance communication and trust, and to create a teamwork environment where all parties are focused on servicing the insured. “LSS services are intentionally designed to compliment those offered by the brokerage community,” he adds, “not replace them.”

Communication and trust mark Leisure/Sports Specialists’ carrier relationships, as well. “The insurance companies we work with recognize that we are sincere advocates for underwriting profitability,” Sackett notes. “We’re not a publicly traded firm and we do not have to report quarterly revenue increases that might only come from increasing premium volume at any cost.” He believes this allows LSS to better communicate with its carrier partners and increase the efficiency by which it can respond and deliver new products and ideas to the marketplace.

Target Markets Program Administrators Association provides Sackett and his team an opportunity to learn and grow. “It lets me keep my finger on the pulse of the marketplace,” he says. “It is a great organization that provides an opportunity for me to strengthen relationships, form new ones, hear great speakers and get a range of opinions on the state of the insurance industry.”