Canadian MGA rebrands to emerge as a carrier

After a strategic transformation, a long-established MGA, and most recently a Lloyd’s syndicate company, rebrands itself as a specialty carrier serving Canadian brokers.

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As of July 1, 2015, Elliott Special Risks (ESR) will operate as Markel, following an acquisition by Markel Corporation in October 2009.
 
There is more to this shift than a name change, however. Accompanying the rebranding is a strategic transformation intended to improve Markel’s capabilities, and bring new life to the organization.
 
“Historically in Canada, ESR produced very good results and provided extremely good service, a legacy to certainly be proud of. However, the premium volume was shrinking and the business relationships had remained constant over the years rather than expanding,” said Karen Barkley, President, Markel Canada.
 
Part of the reason for this was due to the company’s legacy as a reputable employer.
 
“Traditionally ESR hired seasoned individuals which was great from a knowledge and marketing perspective. However, this ongoing practice does produce a highly paid team versus the average policy premium size. So we had to revitalize that and bring some balance to the equation,” Barkley said.
 
As a result, regional leaders began to concentrate their efforts locally to ensure that each area where Markel operates is sufficiently staffed with a versatile underwriting team.
 
“Because every region has the ability to be different, we tried to balance out the talents of the underwriters so they could have authorities in various lines of business and provide brokers with a full product scope capability instead of just focusing on the specialty area,” Barkley said.
 
This has provided Markel with the ability to offer a comprehensive product line within various spheres of business, while also allowing brokers to obtain everything they need in a “one stop shop” location.
 
“In the past, we would write the most difficult area of a business like the design build or architects and engineers’ errors and omissions, and then the broker had to go to someone else to have the property and casualty placed around it,” said Barkley. “So what we’ve done is expanded our products to the broker community to incorporate the whole package, instead of selecting against ourselves and just writing the tough portion of the risks.”
 
In addition to increased product selection, the insurer hopes to assist brokers by offering “more of our global capabilities to our existing client base and make it easier for the broker by not requiring the account to be split over various insurers.”
 
Finally, Markel hopes to remain a competitive solution by way of its services and delivery model. It now offers a completely online platform for miscellaneous E&O and D&O, allowing brokers to rate, quote, bind and issue policies in a matter of minutes.
 
The insurer hopes that all of these broker-focused business initiatives will be its biggest differentiator from competing organizations.
 
“Unlike most of our competition, we will conduct business with any licensed broker. We don’t insist on a broker contract, nor do we insist on a minimum amount of premium,” said Barkley. “We perform our due diligence in the background.”
 

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