It is no secret that the pandemic – coupled with an increase of natural disasters – is having a transformative impact on the E&S Property market. Smart insurance companies are proactively strategizing how to mitigate and manage risk across multiple fronts, as economic and environmental uncertainty have led claims costs and policy premiums to steadily increase over the last year.
Michael Carr, head of E&S Property at AXIS Insurance, spoke to Insurance Business about the importance of staying agile in a volatile market.
“Clearly our industry has seen an increase in cat losses over the past five to seven years,” he said. “Even before the pandemic it was apparent to us that we needed to make adjustments to ensure that AXIS achieved rate adequacy while maintaining strong relationships with our brokers. The pro-active steps that we began several years ago, coupled with our productive and transparent dialogues with distribution partners, helped us create a more resilient portfolio and book of business that we can build on.”
Building on this momentum, AXIS has been well-positioned to work with its brokers to identify growth opportunities even as the market continues to shift.
“The landscape continues to be dynamic, and the key to our approach is to always maintain an active and open dialogue with brokers. Transparency is essential to ensuring we keep our partners up to date on growth areas or areas in which we need to make adjustments,” Carr explained. “We have a solid history in the marketplace, and we have to continually change and adapt to help both AXIS and our partners address the complex risks that arise.”
With favorable conditions in the E&S Property market expected to continue well into 2022, AXIS is ready to capitalize on growth opportunities.
“We pride ourselves on being agile as we see opportunities arise, which is the essence of the E&S market and mindset,” Said Carr. “As an example, we’re writing more excess business than we have in the past and anticipate that this will continue in 2022.”
“Agility is also core to how we manage our portfolio. We’re continually recalibrating our book of business to make sure it meets our risk and profitability thresholds,” said Carr. “This is where communications with brokers are particularly important. We’re deeply relationship-driven and regularly keep our partners current on the trends that we’re seeing so that they can understand our market position and benefit from our insights.”
Carr emphasized that having great talent is table stakes. Over the last year, AXIS has grown its team and added skilled underwriters with deep expertise and credibility in the E&S marketplace.
Carr added: “Having great people that match our culture and values and share our commitment to client service is paramount and core to everything that we do.”
