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

“You both fall into this business flat backwards otherwise you’re born into it,” he mentioned. For Lietzau, who’s now an account government at Oxford Threat Administration, it was the latter. “I acquired out of faculty and didn’t have my coronary heart set on a job, so when Dad mentioned, ‘hey, come on board’, I assumed, ‘why not give insurance coverage a strive?’”

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

“In 2022, I came to visit to Oxford Threat Administration Group, leaping into the captive area,” he mentioned. “We get to do issues that standard 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 purchasers a monetary upside for sound threat administration. Self-insurance is a rising pattern amongst companies, particularly in corporations seeking to pivot from conventional insurance coverage fashions. Locations like Oxford Threat Administration Group may help companies assess if the mannequin is correct for them.   

When requested in regards to the course of a enterprise takes to type a captive Lietzau acknowledged: “Step one is schooling. Many of those enterprise homeowners haven’t heard of the idea of a captive or have preconceived notions on what a captive actually is. Forming your individual insurance coverage firm as an alternative of paying a third-party insurer may be mind-blowing to enterprise homeowners as soon as they grasp the risk-reward.”

After schooling, the method dives into evaluation. Oxford’s workforce examines the shopper’s claims historical past, losses, and method to threat administration. “Let’s determine the place you at the moment are,” he mentioned. “What’s your claims historical past? What prompted these losses?  How have you ever improved?  What’s your total threat administration technique?”

The outcomes of this evaluation may 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 income of conventional insurance coverage corporations, which, Lietzau playfully notes, are “not non-profits, by the way in which.”

Protection design

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

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

When a captive implementation is full, a shopper joins Oxford’s huge reinsurance community of purchasers who share threat with one another.  When requested about the kind of purchasers, “We work with companies everywhere in the nation in a wide-variety of industries, however all are dedicated to loss management, security and easily, strong threat administration. That has resulted in an excellent loss ratio, and we’re not attempting to muddle that,” added Lietzau. Earlier than anybody joins the Oxford fold, they have to bear a stringent underwriting and due diligence processes.  Akin to “Prime Gun” – solely the most effective of the most effective make the reduce.

“Our CEO, David DiMayo, describes a key trait that we search for in potential purchasers: these with ‘the danger administration mentality’,” Lietzau mentioned. 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 deliver 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 business the place belief is as precious as foreign money. 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 progress alternatives. 

“When somebody comes on board to Oxford, we develop into a real enterprise associate,” Lietzau mentioned. “We’re serving to enterprise homeowners 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 superb portion of their premium again as revenue to themselves.”