We’ve all experienced the wheel of doom, the funny little hamster wheel that appears on our computer when we make a request that simply isn’t going to take place. It appears when the computer doesn’t want to let you know that it cannot comply so it occupies our attention with the ‘wheel of doom’ whilst it pretends to work behind the scenes. But we all know the end result of the wheel of doom. Frustration.
The creation of a Captive Cell can be a little like that. We were given two pieces of property business the other day both of which fitted nicely into one of our Captive Programs. They were very straight forward and fitted all our criteria so we were able to provide the broker with quotes in under an hour. We received back, almost immediately, an email from the broker ‘When can we get on a call?’
We arranged the call for the following day. The first question, after the introductory politenesses, was ‘So how come Hartwell can quote in under an hour whilst two other Captives that we approached over 3 months ago haven’t given us anything?’
Sadly this ‘captive wheel of doom’ scenario is something that we often hear of from brokers who have tried to dip their toe into the world of captives. Brokers are solutions driven individuals, often working under extreme deadlines and they need a service from their Insurers that enables them to deliver options to their clients.
The standard response from most Captives is that the broker and the client needs to fit into the often protracted and costly onboarding process that Captives seem to deem necessary to impose upon would be ‘buyers’. It’s an attitude of ‘You do it our way or it’s the highway’.
The market is full of insurers who are able to issue quotes and accept millions of Dollars of risk within days of receiving the broker information package but in the closeted world of Captives decisions can often exceed 6 months or even a year or more!
Of course, the structure and capital bases are different and Captives are self insurance solutions vehicles but the fundamentals still apply. To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw: ‘Those who can, DO, those who can’t cover it up with a convoluted, arcane application process’.
Hartwell was started by two Insurance market lifers with more than 65 years of hands on market experience between them. We like to hire former brokers who understand timely and value added service. The fastest that we have onboarded a client into one of our programs was 48 hours, not 48 days, or weeks but hours.
Our process is aimed at making things easy and cost effective. We explain what we do in plain English so everyone understands what is happening. We use our background and knowledge to help the broker win business.
If you are thinking of a Captive solution come to Hartwell where you get fast, reliable service… or you can enjoy the wheel of doom.
Roland Horton
Hartwell Insurance.
Nashville Tennessee