Guy Carpenter’s new E&S practice to help clients access capital markets

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter has launched a new Excess & Surplus Lines Specialty Practice to focus on the needs of these specialist insurers and to help educate them about their use of capital and options for risk transfer, including the capital markets.

Guy Carpenter has put together a team of professionals with significant experience gained helping Excess & Surplus Lines insurers optimise capital use, risk transfer and reinsurance.

Excess & surplus lines companies face competitive pressures and a changing marketplace, according to Guy Carpenter, as well as increased demand for technology-enabled modelling and actuarial services designed specifically for the excess & surplus business.

Because of these pressures and demand, Guy Carpenter is positioning this new team to provide qualitative and quantitative insight into profitable portfolio management, how to access the capital markets, peer analysis and predictive and risk modeling that will enhance their competitive position.

“The Excess & Surplus Lines Specialty Practice will provide solutions addressing these areas and demonstrates Guy Carpenter’s commitment to this specialty market,” commented William M. Allen, Chairman of the new Excess & Surplus Lines Specialty Practice at Guy Carpenter. “The members of our team provide an unparalleled depth and breadth of knowledge about the Excess & Surplus Lines market. They deliver Guy Carpenter’s full suite of state-of-the-art products and solutions to clients who are looking for insight, knowledge, and strategic thinking specifically focused on Excess & Surplus Lines insurance companies.”

“Excess & Surplus Lines insurance companies have unique business characteristics and needs that are distinct from the standard market,” added Andrew Marcell, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Operations at Guy Carpenter. “As the leading reinsurance intermediary for Excess & Surplus Lines insurance companies in the United States, we are using our years of experience working with Excess & Surplus Lines insurers to deliver specialized products and services designed to help our clients succeed.”

Guy Carpenter will call on the skills of dedicated units such as its capital markets specialists GC Securities, its analytics experts at GC Analytics as well as its facultative abilities to bring strategic advice and solutions to E&S clients. Interest in capital market solutions, such as catastrophe bonds and ILS, has been on the rise in the E&S space, so Guy Carpenter sees one role of the new practice being to educate the E&S market on ILS and alternative reinsurance capital options.

William M. Allen, told Artemis; “At Guy Carpenter and GC Securities, a division of MMC Securities Corp., a US registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/NFA/SIPC, we understand the E&S property risk characteristics and utilize appropriate technological applications to analyze each client’s individual needs. Excess and Surplus Lines insurance companies because of their catastrophe concentrations find GC Securities products – such as catastrophe bonds, private cat bonds, and collateralized reinsurance – a welcome supplement to traditional market catastrophe covers. The alignment of our services assures that we collectively find the best individualized solution in the market for each client.”