UNDERWRITING CORNER
Tell Us Your Client ’ s Story
LOOK TO THIS SPACE IN FUTURE EDITIONS OF THE CONNECTION FOR MORE EXAMPLES OF HOW OUR UNDERWRITING TEAM LIVES “ FIRST , WE LISTEN ” EVERY DAY .
BY : KEVIN M . SNYDER , SENIOR MANAGER – UNDERWRITING , A . I . M . MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANIES
DURING A recent underwriting meeting , I asked our underwriting team the following : “ What is the most frequently asked question you get from your brokers ?” The two most common replies were : 1 . “ Will A . I . M . Mutual consider writing XYZ Company or ABC industry ?” Replace the “ XYZ ” and “ ABC ” with whatever company or industry you can think of : restaurants , food manufacturers , machine shops , general contractors , artisan contractors , social service agencies , dynamite storage warehouses . . . you name it , we ’ ve heard it .
And the other :
2 . “ Can you send me a list of class codes you will write or a list of prohibited class codes ?” And while we certainly have our list of preferred industry groups — in fact , you can find it on the broker page of our website at www . aimmutual . com / brokers /# preferred _ industries — we prefer to respond to those questions with a request . Tell us your client ’ s story .
To properly underwrite a risk , we rely on our agency partners to tell us their client ’ s story so we can make a responsible underwriting decision based on more than just an ACORD application , some loss experience , and a mod worksheet .
This underwriting approach is at the core of our company tagline , “ First , we listen .” But , you might ask , what does “ First , we listen ” really mean in practice ? Well , I ’ m glad you asked , because here are two recent examples of the A . I . M . Mutual Underwriting team applying this guiding philosophy . In doing so , they assisted our agency partners in addressing the needs of their clients .
THE SOUPMAN
When Underwriting Assistant Diane Belanger received a unique new business submission from Karen Forrest at Morse Insurance Agency , she decided to take a few extra minutes to investigate the story behind the account before rendering her underwriting decision . The submission was for Support the Soupman Corporation .
Based in Bridgewater , Massachusetts , The Soupman ( a real person named Peter Kelleher ) is a mobile support center for the homeless whose creed is to “ care , clean , clothe , connect ,
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