News

I flipped to the last page on my Tuscano calendar this morning and it suddenly hit me very hard - it is December! Wow! Next week I am heading to London to visit with my Lloyds brokers as well as meet my daughter Grace who is wrapping up her semester abroad at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Needless to say in her pursuit of a robust and well-rounded education, my daughter has added to her skill set: the ability to read a bus schedule, navigate the Underground, book travel to nearby EU countries, and order a Guinness in 3 languages. I don't think I've always gotten it 'right' as a dad, but I am proud that she has a sense of adventure and the confidence to explore the world. Hopefully one day (soon?) Grace will discover what drives her to be successful, and the vocation that will challenge her to use her gifts and talents.

I was reading a Marsh-Berry Insurance Services report this week prepared for the 'Specialty Distributors', aka MGAs and Wholesalers. This quote, related to the challenges concerning growth, jumped out at me: "The status quo is generally a recipe for a slow and predictable path to obsolescence". I personally recognize that there are many ways to get trapped by the status quo - whether it is technology, training, hiring, or marketing. And nothing gets my hair up like someone on my team saying, "That's the way we've always done it." What the status quo is good for is an opportunity to innovate and improve.

If your status quo has been to avoid brokerage business you may want to reconsider. According to insurance industry news reports, the E&S segment of the market continues to grow where other lines seem stagnant. Tuscano's role as a wholesaler and MGA in partnership with you is to help you experience some of that growth and revenue by writing surplus lines business. We are more than an intermediary though. At Tuscano, we adhere to certain standards and values to provide expert advice. We empower our staff to guide you through the process and we help you sell the account. We don't shy away from difficult accounts - that's our core business. Providing insurance solutions is our meaningful vocation.

I mentioned I will be visiting our Lloyds brokers, so it seems like a good opportunity to remind you of our ability to write property business either packaged or monoline. We can quickly turn quotes around for you with our in-house binding authorities. Some of our target risks are habitational, vacant property, and mixed-use buildings. For those high value property accounts, there are several markets we access. Distressed property, large schedules of dwellings, and chain restaurants are a few of the accounts we've recently written. We are also writing a great deal of coastal and wind-exposed property for both commercial and personal lines. Give one of our property team underwriters a call - they will be happy to review the account with you over the phone and provide advice on how to submit the business.

Have a great day!