The key to success in 2024 for carriers is thorough communication with wholesale partners and really understanding the needs of the brokers they have partnered with, according to Cara Delestienne, Atain Insurance Companies’ vice president and head of binding authority.
“The E&S market is a mixed bag where we're constantly having to pivot and adapt, and that's not going to change in 2024,” she said.
Delestienne expects to see more risks continue to move into the E&S market, adding to its unpredictability.
Elsewhere, she noted that “as standard markets continue to redesign and pull back on their appetites, the property market is going to continue to be relatively hard in 2024, they're going to be slightly less rate increases.”
While rates may level out a little bit, capacity is still expected to be relatively tight in cat-prone environments.
In an interview with Insurance Business, Delestienne spoke about why carriers are needing to rethink their insurance to value (ITV) numbers in the face of challenging economic conditions.
She also revealed how working on the carrier side as a VP at Atain will allow her to explore new avenues and what other opportunities for growth that Atain is pursuing under her leadership.
With living and building costs increasing exponentially due to inflation, Delestienne has noticed that there is a general push from carriers to re-evaluate their ITV numbers.
“From conversations that I have had with multiple carriers within the last year, short term value is going to be a really big point of contention,” she said.
Additionally, carriers have found that 40% of the business they have written was undervalued in what they were covering.
If a building was insured for $1,000,000 five years ago, the value of that property has soared since the pandemic and the resulting inflation that has grappled economies worldwide.
“As a result, we're seeing them increasing their ITVs and trying to get buildings more to standard where they should actually be covered,” she said.
Having stumbled into the insurance industry on a whim after college, Delestienne ended up excited with the opportunities for growth that the E&S and wholesale market offered her.
“I started in the E&S industry about 21 years ago at USG Insurance, where I first started in an assistant role and then spent 17 years working my way up into different roles within the company,” she said.
After leaving USG, Delestienne moved to McNeill Group for another three years to head its Florida business, when a former colleague reached out asking if she would be interested in taking on the vice president and head of binding position at Atain.
“Based on my experience managing and working with multiple branch offices within my previous roles, they thought it would be a good fit for me, since I will be working directly with Burns & Wilcox branches across the nation in distributing the Attain products through the contract binding,” she said.
Delestienne enthusiastically took the position, which is her first foray into the carrier side.
“It’s going to be a slight challenge for me but I’m excited about it,” the VP said.
“Through my experience of working with so many carriers on the wholesale side, I think it's going to be a fun opportunity to learn and grow in new capacities.”
There are many chances for this role to play to her strengths as well, especially with her previous knowledge of working in the wholesale space.
“Because of Atain’s wholesale business model and my familiarity within that space, I know what wholesale brokers are looking for and what services they want,” Delestienne said.
To keep afloat in the challenging market conditions expected for 2024, Delestienne and her team at Atain are looking forward to tightening their relationships with wholesalers while also investing in new technological capabilities.
“The growth is going to be a result of the development and launch of a new underwriting portal, which is going to help us write more with Burns & Wilcox, because currently it's more of a manual process,” she said.
“It’s going to be really helpful for our focus in 2024 to be maintaining underwriting profitability.”
Since property capacity will still be problematic in states such as Floria, California, Texas, South Carolina and Louisiana, Delestienne is looking to pivot to a different product offering to expand upon.
“We see a lot of opportunity for growth in the general liability space for those in the property space this year,” the VP said.
“We're also expecting our brokerage casualty and excess business to be a really big player for us in 2024.”
While there may be less capacity to handle all the risks in the binding markets as binding carriers restrict their appetite, expanding into brokerage and accessible liability will offer new opportunities going forward.
