Orchid Underwriters unveils partnership with R&Q Accredited America

Against a backdrop of unsettled property catastrophe markets,  Orchid Underwriters Agency, a specialty underwriter of catastrophe-exposed property insurance, has unveiled a partnership with R&Q Accredited America.

Accredited announced the formation of its A- AM Best rated E&S business in 2020. Since then, it has been building out its executive team under CEO Patrick Rastiello and Paul Amrose, Property CUO.

Steven Carlsen, Orchid’s CEO, noted that the partnership allows Orchid and Accredited to direct fresh personal lines capacity to coastal markets that are under significant strain from recent catastrophic events. The program brings together an extended network of reinsurance capacity based on longstanding relationships with the two management teams.

"The frequency of severe coastal events is challenging for everyone, from insureds and their agents all the way through to carriers and their reinsurance backers," said Carlsen. "The creativity of our two companies has led to a program that will bring flexible solutions to the market in a sustainable way."

Ross Bowie (pictured), OUA Chief Underwriter, said the risk sharing agreement with Accredited is built on sound business practice in a time of volatile markets.

"Our risk sharing partnership with Accredited provides the ability to adjust pricing, structure and deductibles in order to deliver stable and consistent capacity to our agents and their customers," said Bowie. "We especially appreciate the support of our reinsurers, who stepped up to back a new program in a difficult market."

The Accredited program will be launched on Orchid’s innovative rating algorithm that adjusts in real-time to account for risk aggregation, protecting the portfolio from unwanted concentrations. "We have spent a lot of time updating our pricing view to adapt to the changing environment on both the attritional and CAT sides," said Harshali Dhabalia, Program Leader at Orchid Insurance. "We think the traditional models missed significantly in recent events, so we have had to make proprietary adjustments to better account for the risk we are underwriting today. There are going to be risks where we are not competitive, and we are ok walking away from those," added Dhabalia.

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