Chubb, Hannover Re, the InsurTech Doma, and CRC Group were all among the biggest winners at the Inside P&C Honors event last night.
The awards, formerly hosted by Reactions Magazine, were held at the conclusion of the Inside P&C North America Conference, held virtually this year due to pandemic travel restrictions.
Among the biggest individual award winners was Ryan Specialty Group’s Pat Ryan. Honored with the Broking CEO of the Year award, the achievement capped a milestone stretch for the executive as he steered his company through surging volumes in the wholesale market, continued the integration of All Risks, and took RSG public.
In an interview at the virtual gala, Ryan said he accepted the award on behalf of “all my 3,400 teammates”.
“Focusing on commercial risk allows the economy to develop and creates jobs,” Ryan said.
“With the changing, much more complex risk and much riskier society we live in, we have every reason to believe the future is going to be riskier.”
“I love being a part of that. I love being a part of bringing solutions to help people,” he added.
Carl and Craig Lindner, co-CEOs of American Financial Group, were joint winners of Insurance CEO of the Year, and Weston Hicks, CEO of Alleghany, earned the Lifetime Achievement Award. All three emphasized that the talent of their colleagues was critical to their successes.
“We’re blessed to have a very talented management group that works as a team and operates with integrity, respect and discipline,” Carl Lindner said in an acceptance speech.
Hicks, who will be retiring from his position at year-end, called it a privilege to have worked alongside his colleagues at Alleghany, which include subsidiaries TransRe, RSUI and CapSpecialty.
Frank Tasco, the former chairman and CEO of Marsh McLennan who passed away in December, was honored posthumously with The Legacy Award.
Brokers
Within the broking categories, TigerRisk, Amwins, Marsh and Beecher Carlson took home the top prizes. TigerRisk won Reinsurance Broker of the Year, in recognition of the firm’s rapid growth, capital raising achievements, and the execution of a cyber ILS transaction.
Amwins was named Wholesale Broker of the Year for its breadth and depth of coverage solutions, strong financial results, client retention levels and business growth.
Marsh earned the Retail Broker of the Year prize, as the company was credited by judges for its focus on executing its strategy, generating historic growth figures, strategic hires and leadership on pandemic risk.
Insurer and Reinsurer awards
In the underwriting category, Truist-owned intermediary CRC Group took home two significant awards: MGA of the Year and M&A Transaction of the Year, which recognized its purchase of Constellation Affiliated Partners.
In an acceptance speech, CRC Group CEO Dave Obenauer said he was honored to accept the awards on behalf of his colleagues.
“This is a great recognition of their hard work,” he told attendees. “We remain excited and focused to help our clients solve some of their most challenging risk and insurance needs, while also partnering with a wide range of carriers and reinsurers across the globe to support those clients. We see a very bright future in the MGA/MGU space.”
Among the Bermuda-focused awards, RenaissanceRe was awarded Bermuda Reinsurer of the Year for providing a full-scale offering, broad trading relationships and thoughtfulness in its underwriting.
“We appreciate the market’s recognition of our underwriting discipline, commitment to excellent customer service and thoughtful capital management in challenging times with increasingly complex risks,” said Kevin O’Donnell, president and CEO of RenaissanceRe.
“Our cross platform, multifunctional execution produces the excellence, innovation, and service that our customers and partners expect.”
PartnerRe was named Casualty Reinsurer of the Year, recognized for its work to reposition itself under new leadership and its willingness to support the market during a difficult time.
Hannover Re was named Reinsurer of the Year for its focus on helping its clients and its consistency while competitors looked to reposition their books of business.
The Bermuda Insurer of the Year went to Arch Insurance, which was recognized for its willingness to provide capacity, its underwriting acumen and breadth of capability.
Chubb was named Insurer of the Year for the range of its offering, profitable underwriting and the flexibility to get deals done.
Best Supporting Player awards
Title insurance provider Doma – which was formerly known as States Title and went public earlier this year – stood out to judges for its ability to generate positive Ebitda and capture market share in its segment.
Karen Clark & Co was honored with the Catastrophe Modeling Firm of the Year award, reflecting the accuracy of the firm’s loss estimates, while Moody’s won Ratings Agency of the Year. Judges cited Moody’s for its forward-thinking acquisition of modeling agency RMS, and the development of the company’s cyber risk analytics.
Evercore was named Financial Advisory Firm of the Year for its involvement and successful execution on many of the industry’s most significant deals, while JP Morgan Asset Management took the Insurance Asset Management Firm of the Year award due to its commitment to the insurance sector and breadth of service.
Diversity and Inclusion awards
The Association of Professional Insurance Women (APIW) was recognized with the Diversity and Inclusion Award. The APIW was recognized for its leadership in advancing the cause of gender equality, its teaching of leadership skills and empowerment through education.
The Diversity and Inclusion Champion award was presented to Kael Coleman of Protecdiv, honored for using his voice and platform to bring attention to the critical need for the industry to support D&I initiatives.
Cat activity, rate gains define 2021
The program included insight from Amit Kumar, Inside P&C director of research, who noted that the industry, like much of the economy, is slowly recovering from the pandemic.
“Covid has helped with the pricing and demand equation,” Kumar observed. “What still remains to be seen is, how does this business perform over the longer term?”
One area of concern is cat losses, Kumar noted, as climate change makes hurricanes and other storms stronger and more frequent. Kumar noted that industry consolidation and the growth in capital – now nearing $1tn – means that bigger losses would be needed to change the pricing equation.
“The level of losses needed to change the market grows every year,” he said. “What has changed with all these hurricane losses and the catastrophe losses, there has been an emergence of a new business model, a balanced business model, which does not depend on one specific line or one pricing arena.”
Industry M&A is becoming more opportunistic as mega-mergers fail the anti-trust test, but there is “a lot of activist interest in some of the smaller insurance names, which is trying to cajole them into joining bigger companies,” Kumar said.
InsurTechs are likely to be increasingly targeted for acquisition in coming years, as the flood of new companies sees a “shakeout” in the industry, he added. “I think what will happen is as time progresses, and the better InsurTechs rise to the top, some of these would likely be acquired by the bigger legacy insurance companies.”
The awards were hosted by Meg Green, managing editor of Insider Engage, and James Thaler, news editor of Inside P&C.
The awards were sponsored by: AmRisc Group, Markel, Odyssey Group, RenaissanceRe, Ryan Specialty Group, Karen Clark & Company, American Financial Group, CRC Group, JenCap, Lloyds Bank, Sequel, Acrisure, Amwins, Arch Re, Ascot, K2 Insurance Services, Moody’s Investors Service, NSM Insurance Group, Payden & Rygel, Beecher Carlson, Hannover Re, Protecdiv, Risk Placement Services, TransRe and Wellington Management.
