When businesses, individuals and insurance producers look for liability coverage, they want dependable insurance from a trusted, established company with experience handling their unique concerns. Some situations can make this level of coverage difficult to find. It can be disheartening to learn that an insurance provider refuses to cover someone because their coverage has been canceled or declined in the past, they have a claims history or their liability is an emerging risk.
At Prime Insurance Company, we understand that all insurance needs are unique. Our customized coverage solutions position us to provide coverage for insureds who may go unprotected by standard markets, giving them security when they need it most. We provide a broad range of coverage, from standard commercial and professional liability insurance to support for business owners with one-of-a-kind needs.
Prime Insurance Company can help your clients get the coverage they need at flexible rates. Learn more about the benefits of working with us.
The Benefits of Prime Insurance Company
Why work with Prime Insurance Company? Prime benefits insureds and insurance producers by treating them like partners. Take a look at the 11 ways that Prime is set apart from its competitors in the insurance market.
1. Customizable Policies
Finding a liability insurance policy for low-risk industries and organizations is relatively easy. Standard insurance companies will provide insurance more readily to companies with lower liability. If you have a client who works in an industry with inherently high risk, they might have a more challenging time securing adequate coverage.
However, clients with high risk need insurance as well, especially given their vulnerability to claims. For example, professionals like private investigators, lawyers and medical professionals need liability insurance because of their exposure to lawsuits. Clients in high-risk fields may also need auto liability, firearms liability and property coverage insurance. This combination of risks might make standard insurance companies reluctant to cover them.
When you look at Prime Insurance Company vs. competitors, Prime’s customizable policies stand out. Prime uses a partnership approach to work with insureds and create flexible coverage options that suit their individual needs. We set up a meeting with every potential insured to communicate about their options. Then we work with policyholders to build a comprehensive insurance package for everyone. If you don’t see your client’s product line or class listed in our suite of coverage types, we can more than likely work with you to provide a tailored solution that supplies adequate coverage.
2. A Two-Fold Approach to Writing Policies
Prime Insurance Company benefits insureds and producers alike. Rather than turning away potential clients based on their insurance claims history or vulnerability to risk, we use our experience with specialty risks to write policies for these challenging cases.
This approach benefits insurance producers by allowing them to provide fantastic customer service through tailored solutions. Producers can accept more clients and expand their business to offer the Prime True Umbrella along with excess casualty insurance. Prime’s True Umbrella writes coverage for the gaps, limitations and exclusions that other carriers can’t cover. As an insurance producer with greater flexibility, you have the opportunity to write more business for those who need a kind of better umbrella coverage.
Insureds also benefit from our ability to insure tough and unusual risks. When clients need extra coverage, we can step in to protect their assets. Clients can access policies for all the situations they may face, giving them peace of mind. When other insurance providers say no, Prime can say yes.
3. In-House Underwriting and Risk Management Teams
For underwriters to accurately assess a potential insured’s unusual risks and establish reasonable premiums, they rely on risk management to analyze loss exposure. An effective risk management strategy involves making events more predictable and reducing the cost of operational risk. Risk management aims to contribute to a client’s overall savings by reducing the frequency and severity of loss.
Prime focuses on providing the best solutions for clients with special risks. That mission requires a skilled team of underwriters and risk managers to identify and mitigate the adverse effects of loss effectively. Our risk management team conducts on-site evaluations to determine the insured’s potential risks. We keep producers informed about these assessments and propose custom recommendations to limit risk and avoid claims.
Prime’s disciplined underwriting strategy involves establishing a proper understanding of risk and claims management. The underwriters at Prime have decades of experience and keen knowledge of dozens of specialty risks.Our skilled underwriters work alongside the insured to write flexible policies. We believe open communication and connection are valuable aspects of creating a business relationship that benefits all parties involved.
4. A Broad Range of Coverage
For over 40 years, Prime has been providing insureds with a range of coverage for unique situations. From property and casualty coverage to excess casualty insurance, this suite of coverage options ensures insurance producers can find a policy that suits their clients.
Some business owners need standard coverage, such as commercial property and liability insurance. At Prime, we provide insurance for the following common risks, plus many more:
- Many industries use company vehicles and can benefit from commercial auto insurance that covers potential lawsuits they may face if an accident occurs on the road.This insurance benefits long-haul truckers, medical transport services and cab drivers, to name a few.
- Directors and officers liability insurance is another liability insurance that protects corporate and non-profit board members whose personal assets may be at risk in a lawsuit. D&O insurance protects the insured from potential lawsuits from staff or employees.
- Professionals like doctors, architects, police officers, real estate agents, firefighters and administrators can also benefit from professional liability insurance. This kind of insurance can cover alleged assault, commercial, malpractice and alleged negligence liability, among others.
We also offer product lines and classes for companies with specialty risks that may need specialized attention. Coverage is customizable for each class. Our underwriters and risk management team can assess a client’s assets to create a unique policy.
5. Coverage of Unique Characteristics
Because underwriters group insureds by shared features to establish premiums and write policies, unique characteristics can make placing them difficult. This is because hard-to-place risks have increased exposure to loss and liability. These hard-to-place risks are associated with higher average losses and usually carry higher rates in the standard insurance market. Insurance carriers may even reject them because they do not match their underwriting criteria. This is the standard carrier’s way of doing business, but not Prime’s.
Many insurance producers are forced to turn away clients with hard-to-place characteristics, partnering with Prime opens up a larger book of business for producers. Prime excels at writing policies for insureds with unique features. We closely examine every case and can often provide coverage that other markets deny. Our underwriting and risk management teams can likely personalize an insurance package for your client’s unique characteristics. These personalized plans are another reason why working with Prime Insurance Company delivers great results.
6. Insurance for New Ventures
Business insurance is vital for companies at every stage, especially startups. The federal government requires every business to get some types of insurance, and other types are an additional investment into protecting a company’s employees and assets. The common types of insurance for new ventures are general, property and professional liability insurance. These kinds of coverage can protect business owners from alleged assault liability, commercial liability and liability for special events relating to the policyholder, such as community cooking competitions held at a local restaurant.
Even with a limited liability corporation (LLC) structure, a business owner may still be named individually in a lawsuit. These businesses may be too small to pay for legal fees on their own, and a single lawsuit could be the difference between failure and survival. Prime offers several insurance options for small businesses to mitigate personal risk, including business owner protection — a single policy that insures small business owners against several liabilities. Business owner insurance can help safeguard businesses from the costs of injury, property damage caused by natural disasters and lawsuits from employees or clients.
7. Insurance for Those Previously Declined/Rejected
If other carriers have previously rejected or declined coverage for a client, the client will likely face difficulty finding insurance somewhere else. Rejection for insurance coverage can result from several factors, including a high rate or severity of claims or lawsuits resulting in a loss. Clients can mitigate many risk factors that go into adverse loss history, but others are part of the nature of a client’s industry.
Prime Insurance Company can write policies for those rejected for insurance coverage or who have previously had their insurance declined. As a leader in excess and surplus lines insurance, Prime thinks beyond the coverage limitations of the standard insurance market. While standard carriers may reject clients who have faced negative experiences in receiving coverage in the past, Prime can evaluate all of the circumstances involved in a client’s history and still deliver protection for specialty risks. The insurance packages that Prime provides are unlike any that producers can find anywhere else.
8. Coverage for Those Canceled/Non-Renewed
There are several reasons why a client might find their insurance carrier canceling their plan. Most of these reasons are due to oversights or negligence on the client’s part, though sometimes a carrier may cancel a policy due to the emergence of hard-to-place risks. Carriers in the traditional market have underwriting policies that often prevent them from taking on clients whose insurance has been canceled in the past.
Either clients or insurance carriers can choose not to renew a policy. Sometimes a carrier decides not to renew a policy due to reasons outside of the client’s control. For example, the carrier may stop providing that specific plan, or they may decide to write fewer policies for the client’s location. While non-renewal of a customer’s policy may not necessarily induce other carriers to raise the premium for them, cancelation and non-renewal can both create extra costs for the insured.
Prime is proud to offer excess and surplus lines insurance that covers those who have not renewed or otherwise ended their insurance plans. For these clients, their only option may be to go without insurance or to self-insure their risks. We are a trusted resource for helping insureds regain their needed insurance protection.
9. Insurance Despite Claims History
Standard insurance carriers check a potential client’s insurance claims history to assess their risk before issuing a policy. The higher the rate of claims, the higher the client’s premium. Carriers may also reject a client’s business because they have passed the acceptable threshold of claims for the carrier to insure them.
If your client has had a series of severe claims in recent years, they are at a disadvantage for finding an adequate policy on the standard insurance market. Some industries have a historically higher rate of claims, and your client’s claims may be due to nonpreventable issues. In other scenarios, a few lawsuits may keep a client from accessing better coverage.
Excess and surplus lines coverage addresses the problem of a lengthy claims history. Because excess and surplus lines insurance has greater regulatory flexibility, Prime can work with clients who have made insurance claims before and are no longer eligible for insurance policies on the standard market. Risk mitigation is an essential factor in limiting claims, and Prime’s risk management team works to develop a plan for preventing future lawsuits. Together, Prime supports insureds to reduce their risk of loss and prepare for potential liabilities.
10. Coverage of Misunderstood Risks
Many consumers choose not to purchase insurance against potentially risky scenarios. For example, only 30% of homes in the areas with the highest risk for flooding carry flood insurance, according to the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Some experts note that many consumers do not believe they will ever experience severe losses.
Even though many risks, like natural disasters and the threat of terrorism, are misunderstood by clients, they are still legitimate threats. For example, the risk of an injury occurring to a third party on a client’s property may seem slim. If such an injury or accident were to occur, however, the third party could sue the homeowner and endanger their assets and financial stability.
Misunderstood or special risks pose outstanding liabilities in all kinds of situations. Prime provides coverage options that include scenarios not usually represented in base policies. In the example above, recreational equipment like an ATV, which typically isn’t covered by traditional insurance, may have caused the injury. Animal liability coverage is another policy that covers a misunderstood risk, as pets or livestock can harm others and put homeowners at risk for a lawsuit.
11. Insurance for Emerging Risks
When new risks emerge whose hazard potential is difficult to assess, underwriters and risk managers have no historical data to rely on for creating policies. These risks may have been present for some time but are evolving into different threats. Although the implications of emerging risks are not yet known, they still pose a danger and must be dealt with appropriately.
Prime Insurance Company is committed to using innovative strategies to cope with emerging risks. Prime’s State of the Market Report for the second and third quarters of 2021 identifies several emerging threat categories that Prime is aware of and developing assessment strategies for. These categories include cryptocurrency businesses and temporary healthcare facilities treating migrants. Prime has also seen submissions regarding new industries such as cannabis and kratom. Prime is at the forefront of special risk insurance, insuring emerging risks like these.
Contact Prime Insurance Company for a Quote
Prime Insurance Company is an industry leader in excess and surplus lines insurance, placing specialty and misunderstood risks with the right policy. We have been in business for over 40 years and have a trusted team of professionals to help insurance producers find adequate coverage for their clients. From our first meeting with the insured to creating a customized insurance package for their unique characteristics, Prime will partner with them to deliver tremendous results. Additionally, our in-house claims team comprises attorneys and experts with experience in satisfactorily resolving claims for our producers and insureds.
Prime has an “A” (Excellent) rating with AM Best*, meaning you can trust us to provide stability for your client’s risks. Contact us today for a quote or more information about our coverage options.
* For the latest ratings, access www.ambest.com.
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Authored by Rick J. Lindsey, CEO, President, and Chairman of Prime Insurance Company
Rick J. Lindsey hails from Salt Lake City, Utah. He began working in the mailroom of his father’s Salt Lake City insurance firm, getting his introduction to the business that became his lifelong career. Lindsey quickly rose through the ranks while working in nearly every imaginable insurance industry job. As an entrepreneur, specialty lines underwriter, claims specialist, risk manager, and a licensed surplus lines broker, Rick Lindsey is highly skilled in all levels of leadership and execution. As he progressed on his career path, Rick discovered an urgent need for insurers willing to write policies for high-risk individuals and businesses. He was frequently frustrated that he could not provide the liability protection these entities desperately needed to safeguard their assets. He also formed the belief that insurance companies acted too quickly to settle frivolous claims. Lindsey decided to try a different approach. He started an insurance company and became the newly formed entity’s CEO. This opportunity has enabled Rick to fill a void in the market and provide a valuable service to businesses, individuals, and insurance agents who write high-risk business. Prime Insurance also specializes in helping individuals and businesses who live a lifestyle or participate in activities that make them difficult for traditional carriers to insure. If you’ve been denied, non-renewed, or canceled coverage, don’t give up quite yet. Chances are Prime Insurance can help.
