Even before COVID-19, available coverage and capacity was becoming much more limited in an increasingly hardening market. But even as the pandemic made placing risk even more complicated, Canada’s managing general agents (MGAs) have stepped up to meet all the challenges head-on.
Insurance Business Canada is recognizing those MGAs that have continued to make an impact through its 5-Star MGAs 2022 award. One of this year’s winners is Agile Underwriting Solutions, an MGA based in Bedford, NS that was also recognized by IBC as 2021 MGA of the Year.
Read more: 5-Star MGAs 2022
This year was a very busy year for Agile, despite the world’s slow recovery from the pandemic. Earlier in 2022, Agile consolidated its two affiliated MGAs – Guardian Risk Managers and Exhale Insurance – under its banner. And in April, Agile rebranded its digital offering to Agile Sprint, with the goal of delivering more digital options to brokers.
For Brett Graham, president of Agile Underwriting Solutions, the post-pandemic lull is not a good excuse for an MGA not to try its hardest.
“If you’re not growing in the MGA space, there’s something wrong,” Graham told IBC.
The MGA is expecting double-digit growth in 2022.
“Technical capabilities and our team’s solutions mindset [are our strengths],” said Graham. “We operate our MGA like we are an insurer… a focus on governance, strong relationships, profitability, and a strong engaged team are critical to our success.”
The president added that Agile’s key aspect is its broad reach when it comes to product offering, market-leading capacity, and the company’s ability to source solutions for the most challenging risks and programs for its broker partners.
Many claim that the world is currently in a post-pandemic period, but COVID-19 continues to rear its ugly head in the insurance space, as Agile Underwriting Solutions senior commercial underwriter Jacqueline Tremblay explained in another interview with IBC.
“COVID has had a big impact on business interruption coverage, as many businesses had to shut down for certain lengths of time, which in turn saw many businesses lose a significant amount of their revenue,” said Tremblay.
“Unfortunately, many policies did not cover claims due to the impact of COVID shutting down the business. Going forward, insureds are likely to seek coverage for loss of income due to a pandemic.”
But rather than shy away from this difficulty, Agile is more than willing to assist with these hard-to-place underwriting needs – one of the many reasons why the MGA was awarded by IBC.
“We are solutions-oriented and will do all that we can to try and provide the best coverage available,” the senior underwriter commented.
Read more: 5-Star MGAs 2022
