IAT building out management liability unit for 2021 launch

US specialty insurer IAT Insurance Group is hiring an underwriting director and several other underwriting executives for its John Passaro-led management liability unit, as it looks to launch a suite of products and begin writing business at the start of Q2 next year, The Insurer can reveal.

The Raleigh, North Carolina-based carrier hired Passaro a year ago from Travelers with a mandate to build a team and infrastructure to support a new management liability business unit over the next 12 months to target improving market conditions.

At the time, IAT CEO Bill Cunningham said the company would look to enter the market with a competitive product designed for privately owned companies and not-for-profit organisations.

The insurer added that the unit would develop a comprehensive suite of management liability products that provide protection for directors and officers who can become personally liable for issues such as theft of intellectual property, misrepresentation and workplace law compliance.

Sources said the product offerings will include private and not-for-profit D&O, EPLI, fiduciary, crime and cyber. The potential account size would range from SME to large, but the unit will not be doing public company D&O or financial institutions business.

It will predominantly distribute via wholesale brokers.

Passaro spent a decade at Travelers, most recently as regional president for the New York Metro area and senior vice president of national distribution in the business segment.

Broker sources said the timing of the official launch may have been impacted by Covid-19 as well as the lengthy process of building out underwriting systems and other infrastructure, but that the unit is now actively hiring.

As well as an underwriting director for the new division, IAT is looking to hire a vice president of underwriting, a senior underwriter and an assistant vice president of underwriting, with further hires expected in the coming months.

The underwriting director will be tasked with partnering with wholesalers, retailers and aggregators to grow a profitable management liability book.

Accelerating rate increases

The last 12 months have seen a significant acceleration of hardening in the management liability space amid tight capacity.

Sources have said that accounts are experiencing double-digit rate increases across the board. A senior broking executive told this publication that the average increase on their portfolio is currently around 30 percent, as well as limits being slashed.

They added that in segments of the mid-to-large account space it is commonplace for premiums to be doubled as limits deployed by carriers are being halved.

Excess markets are also typically refusing to put down a line size bigger than the limit the primary market is prepared to deploy.

IAT declined to comment on this article.