The First and Still the Best

For the past 25 years, our Directory of Excess, Surplus and Specialty Markets has been published each January and July. Beginning in 1998, we put that directory online at www.insurancejournal.com. Agents and brokers can access the online directory 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, for free. We then added a Program Directory, Workers Comp Directory and a Technology Directory. The directories have been reprogrammed in a database as opposed to linked html pages. This makes it much faster and easier to use. You’ll find over 340 different markets in our directory.

The Directories are nationwide, searchable by state and coverage. The listings will tell you who writes a coverage and whether or not they have the ‘pen’ for that coverage. Also, you can click on the market listing and connect directly to that market. If online quoting is available, a symbol will appear in that listing. It’s free because we make money on advertising, usually. So urge your markets to advertise with us, in print and online.

Markets can update their listing 24/7 which makes the online directory very current. Markets can modify their existing listing or add new markets as soon as they sign their contract. You’ll find the current print version of the Excess, Surplus and Specialty Markets Directory beginning on page 35 of this issue.

Rounding out the rest of the publication is Joe Mangan, our resident insurance scholar, with a feature on the current state of the excess and surplus market. That market is booming, as you undoubtedly know. For example, according to the Surplus Line Stamping Office of Texas, premiums for General Liability through May of this year total $404.9 million, compared with a May 31 total for 2001 of $247.9 million. This year’s May 31 premium total for Fire (including allied lines) is double that of the same period last year, coming in at $253 million compared with 2001’s May 31 total of $126.2 million.

In an interview with Stewart Eisenhart, Texas Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor lays out his views on the current state of the Texas insurance industry, as well as where it is headed. Eisenhart also interviews André P. Juneau, the new president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT), who was sworn in at the IIAT’s June convention in Houston. Our international editor, Charlie Boyle details the Lloyds market activity in the U.S. excess and surplus business.

Finally, our guest writer for Parting Shots is Joe Petrelli, president of Demotech. He talks about out-of-date carrier ratings and the problems they cause agents.

So we have a jam-packed issue for you and don’t forget, we always want to improve the magazine and welcome your comments and thoughts: good, bad or ugly. You can reach me at mwells@insurancejournal.com

Topics Texas Excess Surplus