Excess casualty

Axis continues wholesale buildout with Navigators’ casualty specialist Tan

Axis Capital’s recent spate of senior insurance hires has continued with the arrival of Anna Tan from The Hartford’s Navigators to lead its wholesale casualty business.

Canopius enters US excess casualty with DiBattista hire

Canopius has announced its entry into the US domestic excess casualty market as part of a drive to expand its US footprint.

Hamilton Select adds to excess casualty roster with N2G’s Tague

Hamilton Insurance Group’s US E&S-focused platform Hamilton Select has added Daniel Tague to its ranks as senior vice president, excess casualty, with the new hire joining from N2G Worldwide Insurance Services.

Ledgebrook makes excess casualty and PL plays with Kessler and Lassiter hires

Ledgebrook has hired Nicole Kessler from Core Specialty to head up its excess casualty business while James Lassiter has joined from RSUI Group to lead the E&S-focused insurtech MGA’s professional liability operation.

CRC’s Insurisk launches $10mn XS casualty facility and plans MPL roll-out

CRC’s in-house MGA Insurisk has created a new $10mn excess casualty facility and is working on another miscellaneous professional liability offering as it continues to expand its underwriting capabilities and harness its data and analytics to bring exclusive product to its brokers, E&S Insurer can reveal.

WRB’s Admiral forms new Lineberger-led excess casualty unit

WR Berkley’s E&S focused Admiral Insurance Group has formed a new excess casualty unit led by recent recruit Brian Lineberger who joined the business from RSUI Group earlier this year.

Golden Bear hires ex-Nationwide exec Jurgens for senior casualty role

Golden Bear Insurance Company has recruited industry veteran Tom Jurgens as senior vice president of casualty, a role in which the former Nationwide E&S and Scottsdale Insurance executive will oversee underwriting in the California-based carrier’s primary and excess casualty divisions.

WRB hires environmental specialist Termini to lead new Berkley Specialty Excess unit

WR Berkley (WRB) has recruited ex-Hamilton Insurance Group executive John Termini to lead its newly formed Berkley Specialty Excess unit, a start-up platform that will offer excess liability coverages to certain specialized markets.

Markel trims Q1 PL and excess casualty writings over pricing concerns

Markel reduced its professional liability and excess casualty writings in Q1 2023 over growing discomfort with pricing trends, as the carrier’s insurance president Jeremy Noble warned the company will continue to let business that does not meet its rate adequacy threshold lapse.

XPT: Oil and gas casualty coverage facing price hikes as carriers scale back or exit entirely

Oil and gas industry casualty insurance renewal revenues are increasing by 30 to 40 percent with some auto and excess-focused carriers pulling back from the space entirely while others are scaling back the limits they are willing to deploy in response to rising nuclear verdicts, according to wholesaler XPT Specialty.

Vantage names Watkins head of excess casualty and BDA healthcare

Vantage Group has appointed Denise Watkins as head of excess casualty and Bermuda Healthcare, based on the island and reporting to the expansive carrier’s chief officer of insurance Alex Blanco.

Social inflation's effect on excess

Texas jury awards $301bn settlement in suit against bar. Jury awards $30mn in suit against California nursing home. These are headlines driven by the continued social inflation trend.

CRC launches e3 exclusive excess casualty offering with $10mn QS capacity

CRC Group has put together $10mn of exclusive quota share capacity for its brokers to deploy on excess casualty placements as it continues to roll out products through its expansive in-house MGA platform Insurisk, E&S Insurer can reveal.

Excess casualty stays firm as reinsurance and claims trends drive UW discipline

A tight reinsurance market and concerns over the impact of social and economic inflation on both prior-year reserves and current underwriting are blunting competitive forces in excess casualty, despite the wave of new entrants in the last couple of years, according to sources canvassed by E&S Insurer.

CRC REDY: E&S property pricing rehardens in November and December

Anecdotal evidence of a meaningful acceleration in E&S property pricing increases through the last couple of months of 2022 has been proven out in the latest REDY Index data from broker CRC Group, with the firm warning adjustments to terms and conditions and pricing should accelerate through 2023.

Kalepa restructuring underwriting business following Germano departure

Kalepa Insurance Services (KIS) has ceased writing its excess casualty product as its commercial insurance software provider parent looks to restructure the recently launched underwriting platform following the exit of Connie Germano, The Insurer can reveal.

Aurenity on course to go live in Q3 as Trainor confirmed CUO

Aurenity has confirmed Douglas Trainor as CUO as the tech-enabled MGA prepares to begin underwriting its initial excess casualty product in the third quarter, The Insurer can reveal.

CRC: Cyber leads September acceleration in REDY pricing indexes

The latest monthly REDY indexes from US wholesale giant CRC Group reveal September rate increases averaging 48.7 percent in cyber, 16.2 percent in excess/umbrella, and 12.9 percent in private D&O, with all three accelerating from August.

Westfield Specialty adds Rainone with excess casualty team from Vantage

Newly launched Jack Kuhn-led Westfield Specialty has added further senior underwriting talent from Vantage with the hiring of Joe Rainone and Steve Parker as part of a 10+ strong E&S excess casualty team from the Bermudian’s fledgling US insurance platform, The Insurer can reveal.

New CRC index shows moderating excess/umbrella rate increases

Wholesale giant CRC Group’s new monthly REDY index for excess casualty and umbrella business shows that rate increases eased back to 15.5 percent in June from 16.5 percent in April and 18.5 percent in May in the latest sign of moderation of hardening in the US commercial insurance sector.