As agents and brokers well know the traditional marketplace carriers tend to shy away from risky clients, but a new program could help you access these niche markets and expand your book of business.
“We’re a niche in regards to what we do, and our niche is very unique. You have the traditional markets with guaranteed costs for all standard carriers. Let’s say you’re a company that cleans windows on skyscrapers, which is higher risk so the carriers are looking and thinking ‘well if someone falls that’s going to cost us a lot of money,’” explained Curtis Prince of Alternative Market Insurance Services. “What happens with these carriers is they have a very rigid appetite and they try to avoid excessive risk so if you work on a bridge, an oil rig or something that isn’t standard it ends up in our sphere, alternative markets.”
In short, people who don’t fit the traditional mold have to look at alternative options because the carriers don’t want all the exposure so they need to have some form of financial support.
That’s where a business solution provider, like Alternative Market Insurance Services comes in.
Their niche solution is designed so the company fronts a very large deductible, allowing them to sell the insurance of the carriers, yet still have the leeway to insure some of the riskier exposures.
“We want to be able to offer competitive workers compensation to our business partners so what we’re willing to do is put up a very large deductible. We are then are able to sell their insurance because we’re self-insuring the first million to million and a half, so for them it is like clipping coupons because they don’t have that first dollar exposure that they do in the guarantee cost market,” said Prince.
In essence the solution is similar to a captive except the end users don’t have to pay the million dollar deductible.
“We have complete control of the pricing, which is unheard of,” stated Prince. “That’s where we capitalize on the alternative markets, acting as a wholesaler.”
AMS’s primary partners are insurance agents and the communication is driven by agent/client relationships. Agents and brokers come directly to the company when they have trouble getting coverage in the traditional markets.
“Whatever the risk may be we take that opportunity to go through our program and we’re usually able to find a financially viable solution.”
