Schiavone: Hub and SPG tie-up enabled SUIS to bring products to market quickly

The president of a subsidiary MGA to Hub’s Specialty Program Group (SPG) said his team’s tie-up with SPG and Hub allowed it to bring its product to market much more quickly and gain rapid adoption in the tough area of habitational buffer programs.

Derek Schiavone, who leads Specialty Underwriting Insurance Services (SUIS), made those comments while speaking with The Insurer TV on the sidelines of last week’s Target Markets Mid-Year Meeting in Tampa, Florida.

“We couldn't have found a better partner like SPG and being part of Hub. It really enhances our capabilities, and it allows us to be underwriters,” Schiavone commented.

The executive has a carrier background, having held senior underwriting roles at AIG, Zurich NA, CNA, Allied World, Catlin, Berkley-owned Vela, and GuideOne.

“Launching an MGA has had its challenges – a lot of surprises along the way,” Schiavone commented.

“But being part of SPG, it really helped us move quickly and get our products to market. So, we had our challenges, just like any other MGA but, again, having the partner that we have, it really enabled us to move quickly to get to market,” he noted.

SUIS’ lead product is HABX, which writes buffer layers for habitational multifamily occupancies, an area Schiavone acknowledged has been challenging in recent years, with real estate owners looking for solutions.

Schiavone said SUIS would soon be launching in the construction market, where his team “has a lot of expertise and history”, and may also explore the sports and hospitality segment.

Rather than just being difficult, Schiavone said habitational casualty market conditions have also presented opportunities.

“And we've seized on those opportunities [in a] habitational space that has been turbulent over the past few years. But we're providing real solutions in that buffer space, but we expect that to continue,” he commented.

“There will be additional capacity, as we always see, but we want to be a stable player there. And that's really what we provide to our distribution partners.

Schiavone said that SUIS’s habitational product has been well received.

“Our submission flow continues to grow – not just because of the demand in that space, but because of our product as well. It's humbling – we started as an MGA. Many people were familiar with us, but many weren't,” he commented.

“And now, constantly we hear people say, ‘Oh, we have to get this to HABX, we have to get it to SUIS’ – because our distribution partners know we provide a valuable solution to their clients,” he explained.

“So we continue to see submissions grow,” Schiavone added.

He also elaborated on the tough market conditions for habitational business.

“While we continue to see the challenges, and for the foreseeable future those are going to continue, we know that our distribution partners are relying on us and HABX to continue providing that solution, that lead buffer solution as they build out their casualty tower,” he commented.

Watch the full interview with SUIS’s Derek Schiavone to hear more about: