Rising up with a father who was an underwriter at Lloyd’s of London and a grandfather who ran a big P&C company may arrange a transparent skilled path to comply with, or it simply as simply may ship you in an wrong way. For Albert “Nickel” Lietzau V, CPCU, it might have gone both manner.  

“You both fall into this trade flat backwards otherwise you’re born into it,” he stated. For Lietzau, who’s now an account govt at Oxford Danger Administration, it was the latter. “I received out of school and didn’t have my coronary heart set on a job, so when Dad stated, ‘hey, come on board’, I believed, ‘why not give insurance coverage a attempt?’”

Beginning on the ‘household store’ – an impartial insurance coverage company – in 2010 helped him be taught the trade from the within out. Lietzau might dabble in varied facets of the enterprise, from technical insurance policies and kinds, to consumer relations. Then, throughout the pandemic, his father’s agency merged with a bigger regional agency. Lietzau’s stint there, nonetheless, was short-lived.

“In 2022, I came to visit to Oxford Danger Administration Group, leaping into the captive area,” he stated. “We get to do issues that ordinary conventional carriers can’t do since we’re serving to type non-public insurance coverage corporations.”

The distinctive trifecta

Particularly what makes Oxford distinctive is that it has the “trifecta”: being a captive supervisor, having its personal A-rated paper, and in addition being a reinsurance facility. That mixture permits it to tailor-make options which may not be possible with conventional insurance coverage merchandise whereas additionally giving shoppers a monetary upside for sound danger administration. Self-insurance is a rising pattern amongst companies, particularly in corporations seeking to pivot from conventional insurance coverage fashions. Locations like Oxford Danger Administration Group may help companies assess if the mannequin is true for them.   

When requested concerning the course of a enterprise takes to type a captive Lietzau said: “Step one is training. Many of those enterprise house owners haven’t heard of the idea of a captive or have preconceived notions on what a captive actually is. Forming your personal insurance coverage firm as an alternative of paying a third-party insurer will be mind-blowing to enterprise house owners as soon as they grasp the risk-reward.”

After training, the method dives into evaluation. Oxford’s group examines the consumer’s claims historical past, losses, and strategy to danger administration. “Let’s determine the place you presently are,” he stated. “What’s your claims historical past? What brought on these losses?  How have you ever improved?  What’s your general danger administration technique?”

The outcomes of this evaluation might dictate the feasibility of self-insuring. If a enterprise has been paying substantial premiums however has had minimal losses, they’ve inadvertently been boosting the earnings of conventional insurance coverage corporations, which, Lietzau playfully notes, are “not non-profits, by the best way.”

Protection design

However Oxford’s function doesn’t finish with training and underwriting (this mixture is known as ‘feasibility’ within the captive insurance coverage trade); subsequent comes protection design.  “On the finish of the day, correctly manuscripted coverage kinds ought to get comparable, if not higher, insurance coverage to what that they had earlier than. However typically bespoke protection will be extra complete for what the enterprise must handle their danger in comparison with ‘off the shelf’ insurance coverage merchandise.” Lietzau added.

Oxford isn’t just a guide however a supervisor of captives, so the following step is implementation. “We take it from soup to nuts,” Lietzau stated. It guides companies by way of licensing and even manages the captive, making certain it matures into an energetic, licensed insurance coverage entity.

When a captive implementation is full, a consumer joins Oxford’s huge reinsurance community of shoppers who share danger with one another.  When requested about the kind of shoppers, “We work with companies all around the nation in a wide-variety of industries, however all are dedicated to loss management, security and easily, strong danger administration. That has resulted in an excellent loss ratio, and we’re not making an attempt to muddle that,” added Lietzau. Earlier than anybody joins the Oxford fold, they need to endure a stringent underwriting and due diligence processes.  Akin to “Prime Gun” – solely the very best of the very best make the lower.

“Our CEO, David DiMayo, describes a key trait that we search for in potential shoppers: these with ‘the chance administration mentality’,” Lietzau stated. Beginning with that trait and the need to rethink insurance coverage, mixed with a relationship based on belief creates a strong basis for excellent monetary alternative. 

“The relationships with not solely the brokers who convey us their insureds, but additionally our long-term partnerships with the insureds themselves is paramount to a profitable insurance coverage program,” he defined.

These phrases ring true in an trade the place belief is as helpful as forex. Within the insurance coverage sector, relationships aren’t simply transactional – they evolve over time, transitioning from easy coverage discussions to detailed consultations about enterprise dangers and development alternatives. 

“When somebody comes on board to Oxford, we grow to be a real enterprise associate,” Lietzau stated. “We’re serving to enterprise house owners higher handle the dangers of their enterprise for their very own success as a result of, on the finish of the day, if they’re profitable in managing these dangers to their enterprise, they get to maintain a very good portion of their premium again as revenue to themselves.”