Howden’s Dual secures Munich Re backing and Swiss Re underwriters to enter new market

Dual, the international underwriting arm of Howden Group, has entered a new market in partnership with Munich Re Syndicate Ltd. (Lloyd’s 457), having hired a team of 11 veteran underwriters and a claims professional from Swiss Re Corporate Solutions.

Dual North America is launching a crisis management underwriting programme offering product recall and contaminated products insurance products. in partnership with Munich Re Syndicate.

The programme will be offered by a team of 11 veteran underwriters and a claims professional, who all joined Dual last year from Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. The team is led by three managing principals: Mark LeBlanc, Christian Waeldner, and Robley Moor. LeBlanc and Moor brought the team to Swiss Re in 2016.

Dual Crisis Management is quoting new business beginning in January 2022. The team will underwrite and provide specialty claims handling for a broad array of Food & Beverage, Agriculture, Consumer Products, and Manufacturing industries. Worldwide coverages for US-based risks will include Accidental Contamination, Government Recall, Malicious Product Tampering, Product Extortion, Adverse Publicity, Defect, Error in Design, Epidemic Failure, Workplace Violence and more.

Dual noted, the team that joined from Swiss Re is the “largest writer” of these crisis management products in the US market.

LeBlanc, managing principal of Dual Crisis Management, said: “The Dual team has been working hard to build top quality carrier support for what will be a unique subscription offering in the US Crisis Management space. We plan to build on the market leadership we demonstrated over the last five years with more products and international reach. It was really important to get support from both U.S. and London carriers to provide top service to brokers and insureds in both key markets. Dual and Howden Group provide the ideal platform for this vision. We look forward to announcing additional partners soon.”

John Johnson, CEO of Dual North America, added: “We are delighted to be launching this product with such a respected partner as Munich Re. The DUAL Crisis Management team is well-known as an industry leader in this space. Having an in-house claims expert is a real differentiator in the marketplace that allows us to provide a faster, more thorough service to our clients. Between the team’s services and undoubted underwriting expertise, and our partners’ strength, we are excited to continue expanding this offering.”

Dominick Hoare (pictured), chief underwriting officer of Munich Re Syndicate, said: “We too are excited to be partnering with DUAL on its new program. Having worked with the team previously, we know that they are experts at what they do and that goes for their crisis management experience as well. As the chosen carrier in London, we look forward to the opportunity of providing global coverage more effectively for a wide variety of risks, across a number of important industries.”

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