CORE INSURANCE, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
PRnewswire | March 21, 2023
NSM Insurance Group, the nation's leading specialty insurance provider with more than $1.5B in premium across 25+ niche insurance programs in the U.S. and U.K., today announced the completion of its acquisition of Sequoia Reinsurance Services, LLC, IOA Re, LLC and its divisions Rockport Benefits and Insurance Resources and Auditing Services, LLC, subsidiaries of ELMC Risk Solutions, LLC ("ELMC"), a portfolio company of J.C. Flowers & Co. ("J.C. Flowers"). J.C. Flowers is a leading private investment firm dedicated to investing globally in the financial services industry.
"We're entrepreneurs at heart and we seize compelling opportunities to partner with high-performing companies with a proven track record of profitability," said Bill McKernan, President of NSM Insurance Group. "We're excited about the synergies we have with the individual teams and the significant growth potential for each business. Our team is committed, motivated and laser focused on driving the continued growth and innovation of these three businesses."
"J.C. Flowers is proud to have supported ELMC's growth over the years to include some of the most well-respected managing general underwriters in the industry," said Eric Rahe, Managing Director and Co-President of J.C. Flowers. "This is a positive outcome, and we believe these companies will continue to thrive as part of NSM."
Richard Fleder, CEO of ELMC added, "Sequoia Re, IOA Re and Rockport are remarkable MGUs with terrific management teams. We are very happy to have found a great home for them!"
The acquired businesses are industry leaders in the field of medical stop loss insurance and managed care insurance — delivering robust and innovative insurance solutions to their clients and broking partners.
"We're thrilled to join the NSM family of best-in-class insurance offerings that truly lead the way in delivering comprehensive products to our distribution partners," said John Parker, President and CEO of IOA Re. "NSM is well respected throughout the industry for building successful businesses and their unparalleled expertise, resources and capacity will help take our collective businesses to new heights."
Dan Bolgar, President and CEO of Sequoia Reinsurance Services added, "The Sequoia team is delighted to join forces with NSM. Not only is this validation of what the team has built over our short history, but we are joining a firm whose very foundation is delivery of product and consistent value to its risk partners. We know NSM can help us navigate marketplace change while we continue to enhance and innovate our product offerings."
Rockport Benefits is co-led by managing directors Amy Argeros and Heidi Herlihy, industry veterans with extensive experience in the medical stop loss industry. "We are truly energized about partnering with NSM to expand our presence in the marketplace," said Ms. Argeros and Ms. Herlihy. "As a highly-respected and reliable managing general underwriter known for delivering unparalleled service and creative stop loss solutions, we believe the future is very bright with NSM."
Over the past 32 years, NSM has developed a winning formula for building the industry's most successful and sustainable programs, consistently outperforming competitors and driving industry-leading growth and profitability over the last four years. These acquisitions complement NSM's robust portfolio of specialty insurance programs and brands for the commercial P&C industry and consumer insurance — backed by the company's state-of-the-art resources, including IT, operations, marketing, HR and finance.
About NSM Insurance Group
NSM Insurance Group is the nation's leading specialty insurance provider, exclusively focused on building successful insurance programs. For more than 30 years, NSM has been committed to delivering industry-specific insurance programs that help agents meet the unique needs of their customers and fuel market growth through innovative development, underwriting, distribution and claims expertise. The company has built more than $1.5 billion in premium across 25+ specialty insurance programs and brands in the U.S. and U.K. focused on collector cars; pets; social services and behavioral health; addiction treatment; coastal condominiums; towing and garage; trucking; sports and fitness; professional liability for contractors, architects and engineers; habitational; staffing; and workers' compensation. For more information on NSM, visit nsminc.com.
About J.C. Flowers & Co.
J.C. Flowers is a leading private investment firm dedicated to investing globally in the financial services industry. Founded in 1998, the firm has approximately $4 billion of assets under management. J.C. Flowers has offices in New York, London and Palm Beach with a 21-person investment staff who have a combined 300+ years of experience. Over its 25-year history, J.C. Flowers has invested more than $17 billion of capital in 65 portfolio companies in 18 countries across a range of industry subsectors including banking, insurance and reinsurance, securities firms, specialty finance, and services and asset management. For more information, please visit www.jcfco.com.
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LIFE INSURANCE, INSURANCE TECHNOLOGY
PRnewswire | March 20, 2023
MIB, the life insurance industry's most trusted and secure partner for data-driven insights and digital services announced the launch of a new suite of solutions that leverage a unique database consisting of in force and pending application data as well as terminated policy data to provide new critical insights to the industry.
The MIB In Force Data Solutions portfolio leverages a contributory database, maintained by MIB on behalf of the life insurance industry, to provide insights that address a critical industry challenge – the need to understand an applicant's total coverage exposure. The only data solution of its kind, the database was developed in partnership with TAI (Tindall Associates, Inc.), the premier reinsurance administration software in use in the U.S., and in conjunction with carriers and reinsurers who are MIB's members.
The first services available within the portfolio enable the industry to identify potential risks and behavioral trends tied to total coverage exposure while minimizing hidden financial risks:
The MIB Jumbo Service enables participating carriers and reinsurers to take a retrospective look at their highly insured individuals to proactively identify and resolve jumbo treaty breaches during the contestability period. Launched in April of 2022, the service to date has helped the industry identify over 600 insureds with combined in force and pending coverage levels near or above jumbo treaty limits, helping mitigate more than 16 jumbo treaty violations, and saving the industry an estimated $75 million of unanticipated claims.
Newly launched, the MIB Total Line Service provides total coverage exposure data at the time of underwriting. With this new data, underwriters can verify an applicant's reported coverage level, and also proactively identify risk patterns and behaviors that may warrant further investigation. Based on initial MIB case studies, the service has significant potential to help identify behavioral risk of applicants and producers.
Since the In Force Solutions contributory data vault leverages existing system interfaces that many carriers already have in place with TAI and MIB, most MIB members can take advantage of the new services without the burden of an IT spend. In force data is contributed through TAI's reinsurance software and pending application data is contributed through MIB's Code Solutions platform which is e-connected to 99.0% of the insurance companies in North America.
Committed to developing innovative solutions that address the life insurance industry's evolving needs, MIB sees significant future potential to leverage the database for services that extend beyond fraud prevention. "As our access to data continues to grow, there are many opportunities to introduce new services and deliver additional insights," said Patti DeWitt, Vice President of Member Services at MIB. "We are excited about the possibilities for new innovative solutions, leveraging protective value studies, data analytics and behavioral sciences that can safeguard against fraud, improve claim processes, inform underwriting rules, and more."
"Before now, the industry lacked the opportunity to see a full picture of in force, applied for, and terminated coverage. Now that we can examine the picture in full, there is great potential to uncover novel insights and valuable learnings for the industry," said Chris Murumets, CEO, TAI. "This is a perfect example of how data and analytics can be leveraged to help move the industry forward."
About MIB
MIB Group Holdings, Inc. is the insurance industry's most trusted and secure partner for data, insights and digital solutions that support underwriting and actuarial decision making and improve industry efficiencies. With deep connections to the life insurance companies who are its members, and a sole focus on improving the insurance industry, MIB is uniquely positioned to provide data-driven solutions that address common industry challenges and enable clients to gain efficiencies, manage their risks, and grow profitably. MIB Group Holdings, Inc. provides services through its wholly owned operating subsidiaries, MIB, LLC, MIB Services, LLC and MIB Solutions, LLC. For more information about MIB, visit www.mibgroup.com.
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CLAIMS, RISK MANAGEMENT
Shift Technology | March 16, 2023
Shift Technology, a leading provider of AI-driven solutions for the insurance industry, announced on March 15, 2023, that General Insurance Association of Singapore (GIA) would be expanding its use of Shift Claims Fraud Detection to assist its member insurers in detecting travel insurance fraud.
This strategic expansion is a testament to the success of General Insurance Association of Singapore's (GIA) Fraud Management System (FMS). This move comes at an opportune time, with global travel gradually returning to pre-pandemic levels. Shift and GIA have been working together since 2017 to combat insurance fraud. Initially, the collaboration involved the use of Shift Claims Fraud Detection to identify suspicious motor and travel insurance claims. However, due to the significant success achieved in both areas, the solution's use has been expanded to include the detection of various types of travel insurance fraud.
Kai Weng Ho, Chief Executive of GIA, stated, "Recent significant successes in insurance fraud detection using FMS resulted in the conviction of multiple insurance fraudsters. This planned expansion allows us to maximize the potential of the travel module and comes at an opportune time of rising global travel."
He added, "Our collaboration with Shift gives us an important way to detect and manage fraudulent claims at scale. It also augments our sector's existing fraud detection and management efforts."
(Source - Cision PR Newswire)
Jeremy Jawish, CEO and Co-Founder of Shift Technology, remarked, "Fraud is not simply a problem for individual insurers, but rather a challenge for the entire insurance industry, which is why industry-level solutions like ours are so impactful."
He added, "Bad actors do not limit themselves to a single target, especially in the case of organized fraud networks. By providing associations like the GIA with a comprehensive view of what's happening with claims across their membership, fraud detection and mitigation activities are scaled exponentially, to the benefit of all."
(Source - Cision PR Newswire)
About Shift Technology
Shift Technology offers AI decisioning solutions to insurance companies and their clients as one of its many services. These solutions automate and optimize decision-making processes from underwriting through claims, resulting in improved client satisfaction, higher operational efficiency, and lower costs for insurance companies.
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