Modern Specialty Insurance (MSI), one of Insurance Business Canada’s 5-Star MGAs for 2022, is known for its customer orientation and innovative approach to business.
Anthony Passarelli, president of MSI, told Insurance Business that the company’s win was due to the presence of “strong staff, primarily having technology that enables us to provide services as expected by both the brokers and their customers, the policyholders.” Another key factor is its range of useful products and services that other companies do not provide.
In the thriving MGA marketplace, MSI is making a strategic move by launching a more advanced platform that will allow it to “expand [its] product offerings, retain more policy and customer data, and enhance services to brokers and customers,” said Passarelli.
Although MSI has already been recognised for the quality of its service to brokers, the company’s new platform will make its processes easier and improve its ability to “manage the profitability of business at the policy, product program and broker level”.
Passarelli said that in the current inflationary environment, which puts pressure on both brokers and policyholders, MSI is intensifying its communication to help customers understand the impact of inflation on insurance premiums and property values. In addition to inflation, other interrelated challenges are the difficulty of recruiting qualified staff and brokers’ “less-than-adequate response [to] claims situations”.
For brokers who deal with hard-to-place risks, Passarelli’s advice is to work with MGAs that have a “nimble and flexible nature [and an] ability to place risks that would otherwise not be handled by standard markets”.
He emphasized that MSI’s underwriting experience enables its team to understand risks and price them accordingly. “I take pride in our team at MSI, and our brokers obviously see our ability to assist them with their customers. [This] will only get better as we go forward.”
