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00:00 I think ultimately the mission is uh how to go from that transactional policy selling organization to a data-driven
00:09 you know advisory business. We want to feel small in the ways that it's beneficial to our clients for us to feel
00:16 small to feel accessible to feel personal.
00:20 Hello everyone and welcome to Insurance Business TV as we spend some time with one of this year's five-star wholesale brokerages and MGAS. Excess Brokers was
00:29 among this year's winners, claiming votes from their retail broker partners for the standard of service they provide. Now to tell us more, we welcome
00:36 CEO Eric Workers and President Shaw McVicker. Um, so welcome both. Obviously Excess Brokers has built a strong
00:43 reputation around speed and service in today's ENS market that's become increasingly critical. Just tell us about that. How critical is
00:51 responsiveness in in both winning and retaining retail broker relationships, Eric?
00:58 Well, first off, thank you, Paul. It's uh it's an honor to have this opportunity to sit and speak with you for a little bit. Uh and it's also an honor to be one of your five-star award
01:06 winners. We take it with great pride and uh it's something that uh we publish internally and externally and uh we strive to achieve each year. So, it's a
01:14 it's an absolute honor to be nominated and uh a winner via our clients and the other industry professionals that select us. And uh thank you again for this
01:22 opportunity. To your question, I don't think that any of our businesses, our positions can exist
01:29 without a focus on the delivery speed, the responsiveness, and the service aspect of what we do. You know, I think
01:37 the hard market potentially gave opportunity for people to be transactional middlemen, uh, particularly on the carrier side. If
01:45 someone were able to get a quote, chances are that had a high likelihood of of bindability. As we transition into more soft conditions, this aspect of
01:53 servicing I think is more important than ever, it will drive the success of any organization that embraces it. And I think that time and time again when we
02:01 look at metrics of what wins business for excess brokers or any of our competitors, it is speed to market. And we look at metrics that say yep, you
02:10 know, despite all things being equal, 80% of the time the first quote wins.
02:14 And uh that may be disappointing on a lot of levels that as professionals in our industry, we strive to give the best terms and conditions and analyze everything to the nth degree to make
02:23 sure every contingency is covered. But if we are responsive and we have a relationship that uh targets, you know,
02:30 what the expectations are of the insured and the retail agent, uh chances are if we meet those, we'll have a good opportunity of winning that that business. So still to this day,
02:38 regardless of market cycle, I don't see a change in that. I think that uh speed, service, they will be the tenants and the core uh positions of our business as
02:46 we move forward and will be huge drivers of our success.
02:50 Yeah, I think speed and service has been crucial, hasn't it, throughout the whole ENS market? That ENS space, Sean, continues to absorb uh more complex and
02:57 emerging risks right now. So, from your perspective, what types of business are increasingly flowing into the wholesale channel and and why is that?
03:06 Well, first and foremost, Paul, it's it's an honor to be here, especially uh receiving an award that is voted on by our clients, the the ultimate judge that
03:15 we're here to serve. Um, and to the question about the the different types and and and nature of accounts that we find ourselves fielding today, I I can't
03:24 help but you know, almost table the traditional answer that would veer in the product direction or the class of business direction. I think that the the
03:32 area that overwhelms our uh our senior leadership team and our strategy sessions is maybe more so the way that
03:40 we are engaging with our client community. Of course, technology is is driving all things and in the age of AI
03:47 that's something that uh can almost become cliche to point to. Um but what I don't think is cliche and where I do think the differentiation will occur is
03:56 who can adopt it the fastest. And I think that maybe that's easy to say. Um it's certainly harder to do. And in
04:03 terms of leaning into that, uh one of the things that I'm the most proud of is in our 47year history, I don't think there's been a year more more so than
04:12 the past year where we've evolved as an organization more than we have uh over the past 12 months. And uh the thing that I'll point to more than anything is
04:20 the personnel at the leadership levels and particularly in the technology space. Um, we've got Jason Brnik, uh, as
04:27 our chief information officer. Uh, Andy Jameson as our chief technology officer.
04:32 They're really changing the game for the way that we think about our business, the way that we think about how we can best serve our clients. Um, you know, we
04:41 have a a director of digital enablement that I must humbly admit I didn't quite know what that meant until she was here
04:48 and we were brainstorming and strategizing and it felt like every conversation would have ended even just
04:56 a year ago with a bunch of us figuring out what we thought the best solution was. But now we find ourselves in a
05:03 moment where a CIO, a CTO, a director of digital enablement, an in-house capability set around coding and app
05:11 development allow us to say you could do that or you could approach it this way.
05:16 And so I think that in terms of the way that clients can access us, which is elective by design in terms of portals,
05:24 um, direct to retail, self-service functionality, um, everything from submission intake to quote bind issue to
05:31 the the financial side of things in terms of agency statements, you know, premium financing, the whole, you know, direct bill to ensure it as we kind of
05:40 refer to it internally. um that we as a non-admitted purveyor of product has has long tried to deliver a a process that's
05:48 as smooth as the admitted direct bill functionality that our clients um obviously appreciate uh when we're able to reduce the friction in our business.
05:57 And so those are the areas that I I don't mean to not, you know, jump straight to what types of accounts and classes are we seeing. Um, but I think
06:06 that it's the nature of how we're fielding and and bouncing solutions and advisory service and and speed back to
06:13 our clients. That's really where our our our brain power is really focused and our talent recruitment is is uh I think really pointed at more than anything.
06:24 Um, but yet we are still wholesale brokers fielding the risk that the standard markets are not looking to to
06:32 take on. uh we have an incredibly dynamic environment where particularly over the past number of years where the
06:39 fronting and hybrid uh mechanisms that allow MGAs to come to market so quickly uh really uh have put us in a position
06:48 where take the casualty space there's been you know more MGAs coming to market over the past 3 four years than at any
06:56 point in the history of our industry and now you throw the the property dynamic in play where that capacity
07:03 uh is now finding itself uh also searching and participating in the casualty space in a way that it wasn't
07:11 um even just a year ago. And so I think that there's there's hard market strategies that a hard uh that a wholesaler must employ. Um there's soft
07:18 market strategies and and those strategies all create an opportunity for us to deliver real value to our clients.
07:26 But we got to match the model and and the service for the moment that we're in. And so as we now find ourselves
07:33 going from a historically hard market particularly in the property space to now uh a market that is moderating rebalancing uh whatever headline word we
07:42 want to use. Um it's it's taking that moment leveraging the ability to continue to develop and bring product to
07:49 market uh amidst those softening conditions uh and then to throw technology on top um and deliver in a way that reduces friction. Um that's
07:58 really the areas that we're spending time on more than anything. Uh focused on producing new and differentiated solutions for and that work never ends.
08:08 Well, it's one of the the keys to your model as well, Sean, is that you operate across both brokerage and binding authority. So, how does that dual
08:16 capability change the way that you approach risk placement and indeed client service?
08:21 Well, I think that uh nobody's ever won their next great client because they told that client or that prospect what makes them the same uh as their
08:30 competition. But I do think that the the table stakes uh in our wholesale space have elevated materially uh over the
08:38 past uh few years. Uh it really started you know 101 15 years ago and the the fact that that pace continues to
08:45 accelerate uh is exciting for the industry. Um, and so I think that when we look at any of the top wholesalers that are uh recipients of the five-star
08:54 award this year, I think that there's a lot that is the same and and some of those boxes would include broad market
09:01 access, industry vertical expertise, technology uh coming more and more to the four. And so where I would point to
09:09 our differentiation is um maybe the concierge model where we balance that independent private privately held uh
09:18 boutique look and feel uh with the national size and scale that we must have if we want to be able to participate in in the echelons of this
09:26 industry that we actively are. And so what that looks like in a real life example is something that we often times uh refer to internally as our concierge
09:34 model where we want to feel small in the ways that it's beneficial to our clients for us to feel small, to feel accessible, to feel personal um but to
09:43 feel big and powerful in all the ways uh that they also require as well in terms of product expertise, strategic
09:51 relationships um and market access. And so the way that we bring all that together is by bringing a concierge
09:58 delivery model to our clients that is backed and flanked by the full firepower that you would expect from any top 10
10:06 national wholesaler. And I think one measure of success that I often think about internally in in my own mind is
10:13 how much does the entry point and the the area of intake at our firm impact
10:20 the breadth of the ENS space that is accessed and considered in matching problem with solution. And I think that
10:28 uh one of the areas that technology among other things puts us in a position to accelerate is our ability to not feel
10:35 like we're only we're only considering 15% of all of the possible solutions, markets, products um that are out there.
10:43 I think that um the way that we are bringing AI to the four and putting it at the the desk level of all of our new
10:50 and renewal teams allows them to have better information that they can then add the human touch to and and deliver in a more elite fashion. Um but but that
11:00 human touch uh never goes away as we all know and I think that for us to be able to provide that white glove service that boutique look and feel flanked by the
11:08 firepower and really make sure that if there's a a product in in the ENS ecosystem that is the right product for
11:16 that problem that we more often than any of our peers are finding that solution matching risk you know problem with
11:23 solution and doing it the fastest that we possibly can and with the least amount of friction.
11:29 makes a lot of sense. And Eric, Sean has spoken quite extensively there about that investment in technology and operational scalability. So just from
11:37 your perspective, where are you seeing the biggest gains? Is it around submission intake? Is it speed to quote? Or is it something more strategic?
11:46 You know, I hate to say that the answer is all three of those things, but it it it is. and and I think it's a it's a comprehensive view of what we need to do
11:53 as a business to stay at the forefront of where the market is going and how our clients can enjoy trading with us. I think ultimately the mission is uh how
12:02 to go from that transactional policy selling organization to a data-driven you know advisory business that is
12:11 augmented by great technology and provides that boutique experience to our clients to engage with us at the most modern of platforms similar to the
12:20 banking industry or any of the other platform driven uh industries. Uh all that said relationships still dictate everything. uh any investment we're
12:27 making with within the technology space is to augment and further enhance the relationship aspect of our brokers, underwriters, and sales teams uh with
12:36 the retail agent clients that are in the space dealing with us on a day-to-day basis. Uh you know, the the the reality is is that there are efficiencies as we
12:45 continue to invest in our technology space. Um that is not my my core tenant.
12:51 What I believe and I believe everyone in our organization understands from me is that every submission that we receive will at some point get to the right
12:59 market it deserves to be in. Our mission is to be that firm that identifies that first. And uh so when we supplement and
13:08 we augment our technology, it's all driven with that purpose. We want to be as fast and as knowledgeable about every submission we take, understand the
13:16 market appetites that exist out there and be the first ones to deliver a solution in what we believe to be the market that will reside for a long time.
13:24 Uh the ENS space has done nothing but expand from an appetite perspective. We continue to see standards happy to shed
13:31 uh market share to the ENS space. So our job is to fully understand what markets will be taking the business and when and
13:38 we see technology as being something that will greatly enhance that. Uh and not to mention that all brokerages are
13:46 sitting in on top of profitable segments of business that they probably are not leveraging to the best extent that they should. uh we feel that as we continue
13:53 to mine our data to speak to the the carrier support that we have as to what they truly want to write and how they want to place that uh there's
14:01 opportunity to not only take our existing book make it more uh performing for us and our our our carriers but to also look to grow them um so is and then
14:10 that call comes with scalability without head headcount growth so there are a lot of positives in in into why we are investing in our technology suite um
14:17 security of course compliance these are all areas that are not getting smaller uh we we see them as things that we have to stay at the forefront of and we've
14:25 made some great uh strategic hires in that area over the past fiscal year that I think are separating us at a great level. Um and and I think that at the
14:33 end of the day all of these investments again back to my point about relationships we are just simply trying to compete at a bigger better level uh
14:41 than our competitors. Uh Sean mentioned the boutique feel that we have as an organization but we have a national presence. uh these technology products are going to have to be important to us
14:49 as we go and and try to to capture more share.
14:53 Yeah. And of course that concept value beyond placement, I mean that's become key, hasn't it? Sean, from your perspective, of course retail agents
15:01 often talk about wanting more than just market access from their wholesale partners. So what does that phrase mean in practical terms?
15:10 Well, I think that there's uh there's not many ivory towers in the wholesale business. And this is one of my favorite things about this this space is uh you
15:18 really have to love rolling your sleeves up every day and living and breathing the day-to-day of operating a wholesale platform. Um and so I think that what
15:27 that's led to at our firm is leaders who have all worked a desk who have all
15:34 engaged with clients in any you know many many different types of settings um both you know exciting settings and the
15:42 problems that arise in our business. Uh, and I think that that really brings a a level of understanding and experience uh
15:49 that positions us as leaders to try to scale what really matters in this business. And one of the things I would point to that might not sound all that
15:57 remarkable, um, but I think it's as important as anything is when a when a retailer reaches out to any wholesaler
16:05 and they have an opportunity that maybe they've been chasing down for a year or two, and they've got it hooked and they
16:12 now need to see what they can do with that fish on the hook, so to speak. when they hang up that call with a wholesaler, what degree of confidence
16:20 that they have that they just reached out to somebody that lives and breathes in the space that that is just deep into
16:28 this specialty, you know, vertical or class or product line that understands the competitive marketplace, not even exclusively the ENS uh side of that
16:37 marketplace, but what's happening underneath at the foundational level within the admitted within the program space so that we can understand with the
16:46 full context text and purview how we can provide the best advice and solutions to our client. I think that that level of
16:53 expertise which often times reveals itself in the form of a retailer saying to a competitive suitor uh in the
17:01 wholesale seat that look appreciate you reaching out but I've got I've got my team. I've got my group and they're they're they're reliable. They never let
17:10 me down. They live and breathe in this space. They're absolute experts. Um, I think that those things never get old.
17:16 And so the the value beyond the placement um is is one that I must start by kind of pointing to that, but there
17:24 certainly are more expansive uh value sets that we're trying to continue to provide and expand every day. I pointed
17:31 to the technology already. Um, I think that you can't overstate the the impact that the new tools that we can deliver,
17:39 not just the quality of them, but the pace of delivery and deployment across every single team at our firm. Um, you
17:46 can't overstate that. Um, but I also think at a broader level, you know, that's maybe pointing to producers and account managers at the retailer at the
17:54 retail level where that they're appreciating that they've got speed, expertise, partners that can provide solutions. But I'd also point to the
18:03 executive suite at the retail firms and and and think about what what they appreciate and what I hear them um
18:10 saying to us as as we continue enga to engage with them and expand relationships within the top 100s in particular. And I think that our
18:18 independence um but really the unique flavor of our independence is the one thing that I would point to specifically us being privately held. Um
18:26 institutional capital is not a bad thing. It's been a boon to this industry and it has created uh an incredible opportunity for us to live and operate
18:35 every day in an incredibly vibrant space. Um our client base has been bolstered and and and it's exploded in a
18:43 positive way aided very much by the institutional capital and interest in our space. Um but that's not us and that
18:51 doesn't make us better. It just makes us different. Um, and I think that what that turns into is a very clear purpose,
18:59 a clarity of mind in terms of who we show up here to serve every day and who we answer to in terms of that kind of classic stakeholder analysis and there's
19:07 one answer and it's our it's our retail clients. Um, sure our employees are very much baked into that. Um, but there's
19:15 nothing but pure alignment in the way that we are working to serve our employees so that they can serve our
19:22 retail clients. And that every day is what we're focused on. Bringing that private boutique look and feel with the firepower of a national player to
19:31 deliver it with that unique flavor of independence that really is is is bringing that privately held nature to
19:38 it. um and to really win the level of Airbnb at the end of the day to take the expertise, the product access, the proprietary product that we're
19:46 continuing to bring to the market, um the technology, the the independent nature, um to bring all those things, but but wrap them up with a staff who
19:55 simply wins the the level of care competition. I think that clients can feel that. I think that our upstream carrier partners and underwriting
20:02 partners can feel that. Uh, and I think that's something that every single employee at Excess Brokers uh, shares a pride in is the way that we share a a
20:11 collective reputation through an amalgamation of all of our individual reputations in the industry and and we're excited to continue to bolster that as time goes on.
20:21 Well, obviously doing something right with your retail partners, judging by the fact that you are a a five-star award winner. So Eric, just to to wrap
20:29 things up, what do you believe truly differentiates excess brokers in what is a a crowded marketplace and indeed where are you focusing next as competition in the ENS channel continues to intensify?
20:40 It does continue to intensify and I I don't think that the it's a unique proposition for our space. I I look around the
20:48 business landscape of the world and I there's consolidation at all levels at all times and you know you could point
20:55 to airlines, banks, hotels, a lot of industries where there are you know top brands that that that govern that space
21:02 but certainly within that competitive landscape there are quality brands that provide value to many uh clients and consumers and we feel the same about the
21:11 wholesale space. Sure, there are uh national brands that do have larger presence than us. Uh we're increasing
21:18 our share every day against them, but we feel that the the proposition that Sean talked about in his last answer about
21:26 our independence means a great deal as to what matters to our clients. Uh independence from private equity, independence from Wall Street,
21:34 independence from our goals being dictated by anything other than what our leadership team wants them to be. And frankly, we get those goals from our
21:42 staff at every year. Uh, you know, Sean, myself, other leaders in the company will sit down in the fourth quarter of every year and we will essentially budget our company based upon what our
21:51 staff and our team feels is possible at their individual desk. We'll bring that up to the top level and uh we'll we'll come to an agreement of what we want to be as a company the following year and
21:59 and subsequent to that. And I don't think it gets more complicated than that. We we express that to our retailers. The the channel conflict does not exist from excess brokers to any of
22:08 our retail agent clients. uh we're not owned by a competitor, we're not preferred by a competitor. Uh and we we we always want to be make sure that that
22:16 is known by our retail base. You speak to our carrier support, they acknowledge that uh the leverage that we have is, you know, at a level that they feel is
22:24 very appropriate. There is no whale tail wagging the dog in our scenario. Uh we are a gainful partner with our carriers and we're a gainful partner with our
22:32 retail clients. Um and I think that that translates on all levels as we look at what we want to be as we move forward.
22:38 Um, you know, it's easy to sit here and say, "Boy, we're we're doing what we want to do and we want to continue doing that, but that's just not modern. That is not an an acceptable response. We
22:46 think that geographically we have a great opportunity to expand our business." We are not inquisitive. We are not the type of firm that is looking for other firms in our industry to
22:54 acquire. Uh, our model tends to be let's find opportunity, let's find talent, let's try to build from the ground up, knocking on doors, uh, the the
23:02 oldfashioned way for lack of a better term. We will continue to do that. Uh we've partnered with some great RMI college institutions that are great
23:10 feeders for us from the educational perspective into our business. We have a wonderful training program that has been a great uh just gardening area for us to
23:20 find new talent. Um you know this has been something that we will continue to do. We think that those RMI schools should continue to invest and and we're
23:28 hoping that more of them sprout up as well. Um I mentioned the geography, we've talked about technology ultimately. So much of what we want to
23:36 accomplish is already with people we know. Uh I think that you know there is an effort in the industry to consolidate books to consolidate business. Uh we want to make sure that we're at the
23:44 forefront of asking for those consolidations too. If you like trading with excess brokers or maybe you're thinking about trading with excess brokers let's have those conversations.
23:51 Uh opportunity is a is a plenty and uh you know without departing from any sort of boutique service model that we've long built our business on. Uh that is
23:59 what we want to accomplish as we move forward.
24:02 Yeah. Clearly some exciting things planned. No doubt you'll be in the running again for an award next time around. But Eric and Sean, huge thanks
24:10 for your time and of course thanks to you for watching. We'll see you next time right here on Insurance Business TV.