The managing general agent (MGA) sector in Canada has remained steadfast as hard market conditions in many lines of commercial insurance have driven insurers away from challenging classes of business. Innovative, nimble, and highly specialized by nature, many MGAs have stepped up to the plate through these challenging times, providing much-needed products and capacity in the Canadian marketplace.
CAMGA, the national trade association for property and casualty (P&C) MGAs across Canada, currently has 65 MGA members, handling more than $3 billion in premium transactions. This equates to about 80% of the total number of MGAs in Canada.
“Capacity changes from MGA to MGA, depending on their performance. There’s more than 65 of us across Canada, and I believe that what we’re doing helps the P&C industry as a whole,” said George Longo (pictured), president of Excess Underwriting, a Gallagher company. “MGAs bring products to the marketplace. We bridge the gap – that’s one of our key philosophies at Excess Underwriting – and we often participate with other MGAs and domestic insurers to bring solutions when perhaps a broker can’t fill the entire line of a particular risk.”
Founded in 2008 and based in Markham, Ontario, Excess Underwriting is a P&C MGA and Lloyd’s broker serving retail insurance brokers and their personal and commercial clients across Canada. The MGA was acquired by Gallagher on June 16, 2021, and has since assumed responsibility for several “specialty programs” that were previously managed in-house at the mega-brokerage.
One such program is DealerSure, a product built to address the risks Canadian dealerships face, both on premise and on the road. Catering to automobile, truck, motorhome & trailer, and motorcycle & powersport dealerships, DealerSure solutions include a broad range of insurance packages such as custom protection, road hazards, daily rental, legal expense, terrorism, and personal insurance.
As of June 2022, DealerSure reports directly into Excess Underwriting, allowing more brokers across Canada to access its suite of products. Longo commented: “We’re very excited about bringing this product on-board. It’s very unique to us, and it’s quite unique as an MGA because many choose not to participate in the automotive sector. We can take this product and offer it to the thousands of brokers we deal with across Canada.”
DealerSure is not the only Gallagher product that Excess Underwriting has taken over. In fact, Longo said there’s been “lots of activity” and “Gallagher program integrations into Excess Underwriting” since the merger a year ago.
“We’re taking on a lot of specialty programs that Gallagher Canada has, and we’re enhancing them, providing better coverages, and taking that specialty insurance business that Gallagher Canada has and putting it into one house under our company,” Longo explained.
Prior to DealerSure, the most recent example was the integration of GameDay, which provides custom-built recreational insurance solutions for the Canadian amateur sport and recreation marketplace. The reaction to that program announcement from brokers across Canada was “phenomenally positive and exciting,” according to Longo, reflecting the high demand among brokers for innovative solutions for complex and underserved risks.
Excess Underwriting has programs for a broad swathe of risks, from auto dealerships to sports associations, window cleaners, contractors, restaurants, healthcare professionals – the list goes on.
“Our team has enormous experience across all classes of business,” Longo told Insurance Business. “We have upwards of 15 Lloyd’s syndicates that support us, as well as domestic carriers. Having that market support or capacity gives us that edge, and it ensures that we’re able to tackle most quality risks that are presented to us. You can expect to see more specialty programs coming from us in the near future.
“As part of Gallagher, we have access to technologies that exist in other parts of the world, so that gives us an edge up. Within about a year, we expect to release technology that will offer tools for brokers [dealing with] all sorts of products. It’s a whole digital strategy, but it still has that customer engagement built into it.”
