The program space isn’t just growing – it’s absorbing. Traditional lines that once moved through retail or wholesale channels are being pulled into program distribution as capacity models shift and fronting carriers look for efficient ways to deploy paper.
“Yes, we see the distribution continuing to grow within the program space,” said Chris Pesce, division president, Programs at One80 Intermediaries, when asked if market access is evolving in that direction.
Pesce leads the discussion on a recurring survey run by Target Markets and Zywave, which tracks many key metrics including distribution, appetite and overall administrator sentiment about the program space. The latest survey is currently live, but the results won’t be available for several months. Still, the pattern is clear. “Every year that we've conducted the survey – which began in 2011, – it’s demonstrated growth year over year in program business,” Pesce said. “We fully expect the new survey will show further growth in the program business.”
That growth is tied directly to how new fronting carriers are entering the space. With no internal retail arms of their own, fronting companies rely entirely on external administrators for access. “They’re not building out retail distribution,” Pesce said. “So that, I think, is fueling some of the growth in the program space.”
The rise of fronting models is changing what qualifies as program business. Historically, it has been built around narrow specializations. One80 has leaned into this model, assembling niche verticals including cannabis, marine, transportation and environmental, to name a few. But fronting models don’t necessarily require such expertise.
“Specialization’s always been hand in hand with program administrators' success,” Pesce said. “You don't see a lot of program administrators that are out there as generalists.”
That model isn’t going away – but it may not be the only one that works. “The introduction of the fronting companies… they very well might enjoy some of the … program distributed business that's not highly specialized,” he said. “It might water down, a little bit, the degree to which programs have to specialize in order to find capacity.”
This shift opens the door for less tailored, broader portfolios under the program label – an expansion that’s more structural than strategic. Capacity is seeking out distribution, not the other way around. That dynamic is changing how risk is matched to capital, and it’s redrawing where program business begins and ends.
While specialization remains a strength, it’s no longer the barrier to entry it once was. Administrators aligned with fronting carriers may find success moving lower-margin or less complex lines into the program model simply because that’s where access and paper are available.
Pesce doesn’t overstate what’s happening – but he doesn’t underestimate it either. “It’s alive and well, a healthy distribution,” he said. The mechanisms behind that health, however, are not static – and the companies that fail to adjust to that reality will fall behind.
