As risks evolve and exposures become ever more specialized, the excess and surplus (E&S) insurance markets are licking their lips with joy.
One company thriving in the excess markets is Midlands, a managing general agent (MGA) that’s celebrating its 27th anniversary. We spoke to Midlands executive vice president, Colin Caldwell, to find out how and where the MGA plans to grow in the future.
“Business is going really well at Midlands. We’ve had lots of positive growth in our specialty lines, product binding and brokerage areas – and we’re looking to continue growing and bring on more talent,” Caldwell told Insurance Business. “We’ve got so much good business coming in that we’re running out of man power – especially in our binding and brokerage areas – so we’re looking to expand there.
“We’re also planning to advance our technology. We work with many different carriers and it can sometimes be a long and laborious process to turn quotes around and give clients options. We’re looking at bringing everything together with one rating system so that we can enter information into one point and get as many returns as we want.”
Effective growth and continued relevance requires companies like Midlands to keep on top of industry trends and identify specific lines and markets with the promise of exciting returns.
Midlands specializes in excess workers’ compensation program administration and fee-based specialty TPA services. The MGA is looking to grow in the excess workers’ compensation channels in the restaurant and transportation industries, according to Caldwell.
“Our core business is excess workers’ compensation and we are constantly endeavoring to cross sale in that space,” he said. Keeping pace in the market requires innovation and automation. The aim is for Midlands to get to the point where it can generate quotes almost instantaneously, Caldwell added.
“I would love for Midlands to grow in its broking and binding capabilities,” Caldwell commented. “We need to keep up with some of the larger brokers and continue to embrace automation. I’m also interested in the idea of creating a ‘super binder,’ where general business (everything from simple property to general liability) can be bundled together into a generic binder.”
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