The Value of a Specialized Insurance Partner

Securing insurance isn’t about checking a box – it’s about making sure you have the protection and resources you need to manage your risks. For many businesses (especially in industries with unique exposures), a generic policy won’t cut it. A specialized insurance partner can help businesses secure tailored protection – often at better rates.

How a Generic Policy Could Backfire

Many people assume all insurance policies are the same. With this mindset, a business owner might think that whichever policy is easiest to obtain and cheapest to buy must also be the best. To see why this is not true, consider the following scenarios:

• A nonprofit opens an animal shelter and secures the cheapest liability insurance policy they can find. Then, when a volunteer is bitten by one of the dogs at the shelter, they discover that their policy doesn’t cover volunteers or the breed of dog involved. They thought they had found a good insurance deal, but now they realize that these exclusions make the policy useless.
• A new portable sanitation company is launched. The CEO works with his personal insurance broker who can offer business insurance but does not have access to a portable sanitation insurance program. So, they settle on a generic commercial insurance policy that doesn’t provide high commercial auto limits, or inland marine coverage. Later that year, when one of their trucks transporting multiple portable toilets is involved in a motor vehicle accident, damages vastly exceed the coverage provided by the policy.

How a Specialized Insurance Program Manager Can Help

Since most business owners aren’t insurance experts, they can benefit from working with an insurance broker who can guide them through the process. Those brokers, in turn, can benefit from working with a specialized insurance program provider/manager.

Specialized insurance program manager doesn’t provide generic insurance policies that meet the needs of most businesses. Instead, they offer programs designed for specific niches. If you operate a business in that niche or you’re a broker trying to find coverage for a business in that niche, a specialized program manager is an easy way to secure coverage that’s the perfect fit.

When you work with a specialized program manager, you receive:

• Access to top specialized carriers. Oftentimes, general brokers may not have access to or even know about these markets. After all, the world of insurance is big and many brokers don’t have experience placing coverage for specialized businesses.
• Better rates. Securing specialized coverage doesn’t have to cost more. In fact, thanks to exclusive coverage options or niche-specific programs, it may cost less to secure tailored coverage that meets your unique needs. With a specialized policy, you only pay for what you need, and not for other coverage types that are thrown into the policy to protect general businesses with different exposures.
• Access to risk management resources designed for your industry. Avoiding claims is in everyone’s best interests. Insurance professionals that normally deal with retail stores and restaurants may not know how to manage the risks involved in other industries (like security or assisted living facilities), but a specialized insurer will have the experience necessary to provide effective risk management support.
• Specialized insights. It may be hard to keep up with all the legislative changes and litigation trends impacting businesses. It’s much easier to stay abreast of evolving industries when you focus on a specific niche. Specialized insurance program providers work with a lot of accounts similar to yours, meaning they can provide tips about emerging exposures as well as cost-containment strategies to deal with those exposures.
• Focused claim service. If you need to make a claim, an appropriate response will make a world of difference. You want a claims professional who is familiar with the types of claims your industry faces and who knows what to look for, how to contain costs, and how to resolve issues quickly. When you work with a specialized program provider, you can rest easy knowing that you’re in good hands.

Tangram has been providing specialized insurance programs for 25 years. We have programs designed to meet the needs of hard-to-insure industries, including animal welfare, artisan contractors, entertainment, franchised equipment dealers, janitorial and building services, personal care and assisted living, portable sanitation, fuel dealers and distributors, security guards, and social services. We also offer cyber insurance, kidnap, ransom, and extortion insurance, and a group captive option.

We make it easy for brokers to find specialized coverage. Contact us.