In the wake of the 2008 crisis the importance of financial strength and a trustworthy profile cannot be understated for brokers and providers alike, and it just so happens both are something Navigators Group Inc. knows best.
Recently A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s affirmed Navigators stellar reputation through ‘A’ (Excellent) and ‘A’ (Strong) ratings, respectively.
“There are really three key areas with financial strength as we’re looked at by the rating agencies,” explained Stan Galanski, CEO of the Navigators group. “The first one is the capital structure; while we’re a small company we always maintain capital levels that are significantly redundant with an AA rating. I think this gives both the rating agencies and our brokers and policyholders a great deal of confidence in the strength of our balance sheet.
He went on, “Secondly I think the investment portfolio and the losses behind that, it is very tempting these days to reach for yield in a very low interest rate environment, but we’ve really continued to focus on quality.
“Finally, I think with that is the specialization and the combined ratio, typically we beat the insurance industry on the underwriting profit level in terms of combined ratio anywhere from three to seven points. Our objective is always profit, not cash-flow, not market share and I think that factors into the way the insurance agencies think about us.”
Adding to the list of accolades, Navigators were named one of “America’s 100 Most Trustworthy Companies” by Forbes in 2013, and one of “America’s 50 Most Trustworthy Financial Companies” by Forbes in 2014.
Galanski again weighed in on why Navigators continually ranks among the most trustworthy companies not only within the financial industry, but the American economy as a whole.
“I would start right with the governance structure. One of the things that has been important to us is to split the role between the chairman and the CEO. We think it is important to have a non-executive chair,” Galanski said.
“Secondly, we have a long-term perspective in the company. I’m very fortunate to not to get pressured for short-term earnings growth by our board. Instead, our management team is more focused on long-term growth of book value and we think that is the right way to run an insurance company. It causes you to do the right thing in terms of making sure your reserves are strong and really build the business for the future”
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