Hamilton Select aims to have 12 E&S UW divisions in place by year-end

Hamilton Select Insurance is actively recruiting senior underwriters to build its platform to 12 underwriting divisions by year-end as it targets hard-to-place and distressed accounts in the small to middle market space, according to the newly formed E&S carrier’s CEO Clay Rhoades.

Bermudian parent Hamilton Insurance Group announced last month that it had established a new AM Best A- rated E&S carrier to support the growth of its US-based book of surplus lines business.

And in an interview with this publication, Rhoades said the new platform is already licensed in 21 states and expects to be in all 50 states by the end of the second quarter.

Commenting on the launch, he said: “It’s a great commitment by Hamilton at the group level to invest in the US E&S insurer which is part of the overall Hamilton strategy to build a global diversified company.”

Rhoades – who joined a year ago from E&S specialist Kinsale – has already been active in building out his E&S team on the ground in the US, which has initially operated as an MGA by underwriting on the paper of the group’s Dublin, Ireland-based subsidiary Hamilton Insurance DAC.

That business will be transferred to Hamilton Select as the carrier goes live.

The most recent underwriting head was added with the hiring of Devon Minarik from Amwins as head of its small business casualty division in January ahead of an expected launch in the coming weeks.

Professional liability was the first division launched last year, led by another Kinsale alumnus Jamie Secor.

Hamilton also began writing allied medical and management liability in 2021, before launching into medical professionals and excess casualty at 1 January 2022.

Allied medical is led by former Argo executive Kevin Price, with management liability also currently led by Secor.

Medical professional liability is led by Pam Gosslin and excess casualty by Diane Wisner, with both underwriting executives moving over from James River.

Other division launches in the pipeline include general casualty – focusing on small and medium premises-driven accounts, product liability, construction and life sciences.

The start-up will hold off on E&S property for a couple of years, although it may revisit that “if the right person comes along”, said Rhoades.

The E&S opportunity

Rhoades said the move to structure the platform by line of business reflected the focus on specialised underwriting at Hamilton Select.

“I like specialised underwriting with expertise that’s very deep so when our brokers come to us needing a solution we have underwriters and underwriting leaders that have either encountered that exact situation or something pretty similar.

“They know how to use every tool in the underwriter toolkit from exclusions to sub-limits to manuscript wording to the premium and deductibles,” he commented.

That positions the carrier to attract “market of last resort type accounts” where brokers need to fill a gap in a placement at the eleventh hour, he added.

Commenting on the longevity of the current broader E&S market tailwinds, Rhoades said that Hamilton Select’s positioning means that it may be able to buck broader cyclical trends.

“Tough accounts are always tough, so we’re often in a mini hard market just because of the type of accounts we write anyway, where we are one of only two or three markets rather than one of 20 looking at an account,” said the executive.

He added that by building a diversified portfolio with across 12 underwriting divisions the insurer will also have a spread of risk such that at any given time they would be in different states of the market.

And he suggested that there are a number of drivers that could sustain hard market conditions for some time in the broader E&S market.

Rhoades pointed to a backlog of court cases that have built up through the pandemic which could impact admitted carriers.

“We think some of the business may end up exiting over the next year or two and we may see a mini hardening again depending on lines of business and classes impacted. Some of that may make its way to an E&S market like Hamilton,” he commented.

Despite the potential opportunities to grow the portfolio, Hamilton Select’s focus is on the right selection to be a “sustained long-term carrier and not just flip to sell”.

“When that pressure is taken off you can focus on making an underwriting profit and everything else can take care of itself,” Rhoades concluded.