Program & fronting specialist Spinnaker enters Louisiana with Acadian

Spinnaker Insurance Company, a program and fronting service start-up launched by ex-Arch Re Ingrey family members, is to gain access to Louisiana business thanks to an agreement with Acadian Managers, LLC which will underwrite and market Spinnaker products in the state.

Spinnaker Insurance Company launched last year with an A- rating from A.M. Best, as the carrier set out on a business strategy to provide program and fronting services to insurance and reinsurance capital providers.

This new arrangement with Acadian will position Spinnaker as its exclusive carrier for Louisiana business, enabling Spinnaker’s products and ultimately its capital providers to get into Louisiana with broad distribution access through Acadian’s network of over 250 agents.

Acadian will market and underwrite Homeowners and Dwelling Fire products for Spinnaker, with the policies transacted on Spinnaker’s rated paper.

“We are delighted to make Spinnaker’s products available to Louisiana agents and consumers. This agreement represents a significant step in the recovery of the Louisiana property insurance market,” commented Mike Toffoli, Acadian’s President.

Acadian said that it will begin offering Spinnaker products to the voluntary market in Louisiana in the early Autumn of 2016. The firm also said that it will work with Spinnaker during the next round of Louisiana Citizens Depopulation, suggesting that the pair are looking to participate in a take-out of property policies from that insurer.

Spinnaker is following a similar model to the well-known program service and fronting provider State National, by leveraging managing general agent networks to access risk and enabling insurance, reinsurance and perhaps ILS capacity to get closer to primary risks through its 45 admitted state licenses.

At this time no details of any capacity providers backing Spinnaker have yet emerged, but a common discussion point among ILS managers is the desire to create relationships with the likes of Spinnaker, as the model pioneered by ILS asset manager Nephila Capital, of bringing capital further up the value chain to reinsure primary business more directly, becomes an increasingly attractive way to access risk.

Spinnaker is focused on writing property catastrophe exposed programs from U.S. homeowners insurance and specialty business lines, as well as providing services to capacity providers seeking to access U.S. primary short-tail business lines as a fronting insurer.