Program Market’s ‘Best in Class’

Four Program Administrators Join the Ranks of Best Practices Organizations

Just two years ago the Target Markets Program Administrators Association launched the TMPAA Best Practice designation as a way to encourage members to look for greater efficiencies in the way they currently do business and ultimately be recognized by program business professionals as a best in class operation.

Today, just 12 program administrators hold the designation with four new firms joining the ranks this year, including Willis HRH Programs, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Oryx Insurance Brokerage, and Synergy Professional Associates. Past Best Practices designations were awarded to: Professional Underwriters, The Mattei Cos., The Distinguished Programs Group, Allied Insurance Brokers, Thomco, Venture Insurance Programs, Insurance Services and NIP Programs.

The process to apply for the TMPAA Best Practices designation includes surveys, onsite evaluations by experts and a final report — all at the cost to the program administrator seeking the designation. But the investment and time to pursue the designation are well worth it, say this year’s new designees. Here’s what they had to say.

Glatfelter Insurance Group

Pursuing the TMPAA Best Practices designation seemed like a natural fit for the Glatfelter Insurance Group, which long before anyone in the insurance industry talked about niche markets or program business began a program for volunteer fire departments.

Glatfelter’s Founder and Chairman Arthur J. Glatfelter saw an unmet need for accident and sickness coverages, and a substantial funding stream, in the volunteer fire department industry segment. “No one was paying attention to this group,” said Anthony Campisi, president and CEO of Glatfelter Insurance Group.

Arthur, an independent agent, helped to manuscript a policy, and began visiting local volunteer departments to present his specialty product. “As he visited with them, and gained their confidence, he slowly built his credibility and business throughout the early ’70s.”

Today, Glatfelter’s VFIS program provides insurance, education, training and consulting to more than 15,000 emergency service clients in 49 states and Canada. Glatfelter Insurance Group also operates programs for industry segments such as car washes, hospice and home health care agencies, small town and village public entities, rural districts that treat, distribute, or store water, and metal casters.

Campisi said the audit to earn the Best Practices designation touched on the important elements for any successful program administrator, “basically a very clear focus on the market, and a clear strategy for reaching that market — your expertise, the coverages, your understanding of that market, and your understanding of the evolution of that market.”

Earning the seal of approval has been exciting, Campisi said, and he hopes that it will motivate others to pursue the best in class award. “Certainly it’s a symbol … over time it will be recognized as a symbol of a high quality program manager and it will equate to value for the program administrator and the customer. We think this designation will continue to grow in its prominence.”

Synergy Professional Associates

The definition of synergy is: two things coming together where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. “That’s what we are trying to do … create value for our producers and our markets,” said Ira Dawer, president of Synergy Professional Associates based in Kinnelon, N.J.

With a slim staff of just nine, Synergy operates four specialty programs in professional liability, including: a proprietary national association program; a hard-to-place lawyers’ liability program; a managing general agency, program underwriter, insurance agents and brokers professional liability program; and a mold inspectors program, all of which are with Lloyd’s, Beasley Group, or led by Beasley Group.

Becoming a best in class program manager by pursuing the TMPAA Best Practices designation may seem like an arduous task for a firm with limited staff, but according to Dawer, Synergy had already met the designation’s standards before hand.

When Dawer purchased the agency he originally founded in 1991 (formerly known as Concord Insurance Brokerage) back from Black/White & Associates in 2006 (then called Black/White of New Jersey), he found that to continue to be competitive he needed to make a few changes.

“We purchased a new system, we instituted internal controls, we had to form an accounting department, we revamped HR and administration … ultimately we opted to run this as a sustainable company and not a brokerage,” Dawer said. “Instead of treating this as a sole proprietorship, I made this into a company that is more about us.”

Those changes paid off by streamlining the firm’s operations and creating greater efficiencies. Those same changes also put Synergy into standards that made them eligible for the Best Practices designation.

“I made the changes unilaterally,” Dawer said. “I wasn’t forced to do them, but the changes were absolutely necessary.”

Dawer admitted that Synergy could not have earned the Best Practices designation without those changes and going through the designation process simply validated the agency’s decision to streamline and improve efficiency standards. “That’s why I did it,” he said.

Would he recommend other program administrators pursue a Best Practices seal of approval? “Yes, absolutely,” Dawer added. “Best Practices is a journey and not destination.”

Willis HRH Programs

For David Hampson, national partner for Willis HRH Programs, no news is good news. After completing the Best Practices designation process he found no surprises through the survey and onsite audit by outside experts, but instead it validated what was already in place at Willis HRH Programs.

“We felt going through the process and obtaining the designation would, No. 1, let an independent party validate that what we are doing is the right way of doing things, and give us that so-called Good House Keeping seal of approval from this independent assessment,” Hampson said. “It’s like any designation; it shows the external world that you do things a certain way.”

Willis HRH Programs operates 30 programs — in industry segments such as hospitality and recreation, home health care, heavy industries, and environmental specialties, new car dealerships — with about $500 million of premium under management with 230 employees in seven locations. This year’s merger between HRH almost doubled Willis’ program business, Hampson said.

Hampson believes insurers that are members of TMPAA already understand the value and purpose of the Best Practices designation but as program administrators strive to earn the title, it will become the gold standard in the program world.

“I’d recommend that program administrators seriously consider going through the process and consider the designation,” Hampson added.

“It will allow them to validate their processes and protocols are what they should be. The process of preparing the application and going through the audit alone is a worthwhile.”

Oryx Insurance Brokerage

Serving as one of the country’s few managing general agencies solely focused on the construction industry, Oryx Insurance Brokerage Inc. decided to pursue the TMPAA Best Practices designation as another way to stand out from the rest, said Timothy J. Cappellett, Oryx’s vice president of sales and marketing.

“We’ve always focused on construction,” Cappellett said. “It puts us apart from any other program manager because we really understand the market … that’s all we do.” The decision to become a Best Practices program administrator was viewed as another way to set the agency apart from its competitors, he added.

“We looked upon it as being the best in class,” Cappellett said.

High standards are a must to be profitable in the turbulent construction market. Current economic conditions have made the construction industry a tough sector, but not for Oryx, which has enjoyed profitable times in recent months thanks to carrier downturns in New York where about 50 percent of its program business is concentrated.

“We are very well known within the territories that we operate in and we are a trusted source for the guaranteed cost work comp product that we serve and offer,” Cappellett said. “There’s always going to be construction and there’s lot of opportunities out there; it’s just picking the ones that are most profitable.”

Oryx Insurance Brokerage, based in Binghamton, N.Y., provides underwriting, claims administration and loss control for artisan and trade contractors in the Northeast, and will write close to $35 million in premium this year, most of it in monoline comp. Oryx’s programs have remained profitable partly because the firm concentrates on lower hazard classes. “Probably 85 percent of the premium is within 20 to 30 classes of business,” Cappellett said. “We’re not looking at any high hazards.”

The designation process helped Oryx validate a few things the firm knew all along. “In the end there were a lot of components that we already knew,” he said. “We had combined ratios that were well below what I believe our peers to be, and our loss ratios are exceptional for the type of business that we are in.”

Cappellett recommended other program administrators investigate the designation process as well. “It does make a better and h3er company,” he noted.

Topics Agencies Construction