FM Affiliated’s risk appetite: how to protect your clients from premium cost and risk exposures
When insurer and client align on proactive risk management, commercial buildings coverage is enhanced
There's one question we get asked a lot. After brokers hear how we simplify processes, provide superior and broad commercial buildings insurance coverage, streamline claims management, and help build lasting client relationships, most ask: "Okay, great! How do I get my submission to the top of the list?"
The answer depends on your understanding of our risk management and mitigation philosophy. As a prevention-focused insurer, we protect clients from premium cost and risk exposures by identifying strategies to keep their premises safe and their businesses running.
Aligning clients' risk appetite with our own is a key part of the process (in fact, why not look at our Risk Appetite Snapshot). We want clients to be as proactive about risk management as we are, so we can partner with them – and you – to co-develop solutions that deliver optimal value and resilience.
For brokers, risk improvement is the key to securing lower premiums and a stable insurance policy. It can also save clients time, hassle, and money over the long term by preventing foreseeable losses.
In this article, we'll share how we evaluate the submissions we receive, so you can guide clients through this journey and help them unlock the benefits that come with our risk prevention philosophy.
Understanding the business we underwrite
FM Affiliated is a monoline commercial property insurance carrier. As part of FM Group, we are backed by $20 billion in capital, and our whole capital base is dedicated to this line of business. A typical client will have a minimum premium of $100K or be a company with $1B in annual sales.
Verticals we specialise in include soft occupancy buildings, such as apartments, condominiums, hotels, senior living, office buildings, retail, and healthcare facilities. We also deal in light manufacturing and warehousing facilities, where we would expect to see a level of sprinkler protection in place to manage the property’s risk. (Meanwhile, FM can assist with high-hazard industries such as the chemical or pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, mining, molten materials, power generation and semiconductor sectors.)
We provide in-house 100% capacity up to $500M for any insurance policy and we can also write up to $1B in total using treaties. But before we do, we may send an engineer to inspect the site in person and ensure it aligns with our risk appetite. Where we find a preventable risk, we may make recommendations on how to fix the issue and enhance the client's resiliency.
When provided with options and an understanding of how to mitigate potentially substantial losses, clients will soon discover how the recommendations we make will deliver cost-efficiency and greater resilience over the long term.
What to include in your submission to FM Affiliated
When we receive a broker submission, we assess the client's risk profile based on their property's construction, occupancy, protection measures, and risk exposures (COPE). To get yours to the top of the list, be sure to include this information, along with a statement of values and requested coverage limits and deductibles. We also need the client's five-year loss history, financial year statements and a business interruption worksheet indicating the coverage type they require.
Unlike other underwriters, we don't rely on actuarial charts or vendor risk models to conduct this analysis. As part of our location-based approach, we will dispatch a Field Engineer to visit the premises in person, and review and assess its risk profile. This unlocks several benefits for you and your clients, including:
- Greater certainty. We provide the clearest picture of your clients' risk profiles, helping you to understand accounts in depth
- Enhanced resilience. We'll use our unrivalled expertise and science-based approach to help your clients minimise losses and maximise resilience
- Lasting relationships. Clients that buy into our risk philosophy typically develop a consultative relationship with both FM Affiliated and their broker, which helps everyone unlock deeper value over the long term
- Better change management. As clients evolve and expand their facilities, we will review their plans, help to ensure an understanding of the new environment, and review work after contractors have completed
Our experts help provide clients with confidence that there will be no surprises once work has been completed. Ultimately, our approach is aimed at empowering brokers to meet and serve their clients' evolving needs.
On average, FM Affiliated clients experience fewer losses and greater resilience the longer they partner with us, as they embed risk prevention best practices into the DNA of their business. This results in stable, long-term relationships between us, our clients, and their insurance brokers.
If you have a client that could benefit from our services, we'd love to hear from you. Click here to submit a new business inquiry or email FM Affiliated Marketing to contact a member of our team.
This is the second in a series of articles FM Affiliated is producing to help insurance brokers understand the value we can provide to their commercial property insurance clients. Look out for the next post in this collection, which will explore how our engineering-led approach unlocks unique benefits for your clients.