By David Bull

April 3 - (The Insurer) - CRC Group’s MGA platform Starwind has launched programs for the environmental, political violence and terror, cannabis and contractors' equipment insurance segments, led by recent senior underwriting hires and supported by strategic capacity partners with the backing of blue-chip reinsurers.

The company confirmed the quartet of launches to Program Manager. They will all begin writing business in April.

CRC Underwriting CEO Bill Goldstein and Starwind Specialty president Brian Norman told Program Manager the new launches are part of an active pipeline of programs.

They added that CRC's newfound independence following the spin-off from Truist Financial Corp and divestment of sister company McGriff is helping it to attract underwriting talent and forge deeper relationships with capacity providers.

Norman said: “It’s our relationship with capacity and our proprietary technology platforms, as well as the nimbleness we have from coming out from under the bank. We have a currency to attract and retain people, as well as support to grow the business and invest in resources to ensure outsized underwriting profits.”

Goldstein said the MGA platform is “laser focused on underwriting performance and rate”.

“We manage capacity centrally and we have a robust actuarial and data and analytics team. We spend a lot of time with key reinsurers focused on their appetite and desire as well as product.

“A lot of it comes from the consistency of performance of our underlying programs. We bring both consistency of underwriting performance and alignment with our Fractal Re sidecar, which makes us a differentiated platform to partner with,” he added.

Starwind Environmental Insurance Solutions, led by Michael Padula, offers up to $15 million of contractors' pollution liability coverage on AM Best A-rated paper supported by a panel of what the company described as blue-chip reinsurers.

The core contractors' pollution program is part of a full suite of environmental products, including transportation pollution liability, site pollution liability, contractors' and professional liability, combined general liability and environmental impairment liability, and follow-form environmental excess liability.

The offering provides bolt-on solutions to existing products offered by Starwind, for example in areas such as contractors' general liability where pollution coverage can be added.

As first reported by Program Manager in November, Padula left his position as head of environmental in the U.S. at Aspen to take up the role of program president for environmental at Starwind.

SMB AND LARGE LIMIT PVT PROGRAMS

Starwind PVT is led by Chris Kirby, a veteran in the segment who joined from Optio last autumn after serving as global head of PVT at the MGA.

The new Starwind offering includes two programs available via a digital platform, supported by highly rated reinsurers.

The first is a program targeting small to medium-sized businesses with a $25 million line size on any one risk for terrorism, protest and riot, and active assailant, which can be placed as a standalone policy or endorsed to a P&C policy.

The terrorism product provides comprehensive coverage for physical damage, business interruption and liability arising from bodily injury and death, while the active assailant and workplace violence cover provides extensions for assault and battery, sexual molestation, criminal acts, actions of employees in defence, and loss of attraction.

The second program offers large limits of up to $250 million for any one risk, written on a primary or excess basis and providing comprehensive coverage for property damage, business interruption and liability arising from bodily injury and death.

STARWIND CANNABIS

Led by former Liberty Company executive vice president Tony McIntosh, Starwind Cannabis has launched with a package program aimed at a wide range of cannabis-related businesses.

Target customers include retail and dispensaries, wholesalers, distributors and transporters, warehouse and storage facilities, manufacturing, processors, testing labs, landlords/lessor’s risk only and real estate investment trusts, and cultivators.

The program is available in all states where cannabis and hemp are legal, while all cannabis-related workers' compensation class codes are eligible for coverage, which can also be offered on a monoline basis.

Coverages include property with equipment breakdown with capacity of up to $5 million per location/occurrence; cannabis crop, goods in process and finished stock; general liability with up to $2 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate; products and completed operations with up to $1 million each claim and $2 million of aggregate limit; product withdrawal expense; crime; cargo and inland marine; and workers' compensation.

COMBO POLICY FOR SPECIALTY EQUIPMENT

The last of the quartet of new programs is led by Randi Glazer as program president, who joined last year from Arclight Underwriting, where she was founding CEO after recent stints at Liberty Mutual and IAT.

The Starwind Specialty Equipment Services program is aimed at small to mid-sized contractors. It provides up to $500,000 of limit per policy for contractors' equipment with the same limit available for extended service contracts.

The program is written on AM Best A-minus-rated paper and focuses on construction equipment.

The product is distributed through equipment dealers and lenders.

NIMBLE APPROACH

Commenting on Starwind’s pipeline of programs, Norman said the company is looking to launch at least a couple of programs every quarter, in addition to expanding existing programs.

Goldstein added: “We’re researching areas where we have a high conviction around accessing capacity, leveraging distribution relationships and creating a niche in the marketplace. This could be existing products or new products, identifying white space in the market and leaning into them.”

Target areas include property programs (such as high-value homes) that are not in segments that would overlap with Starwind stablemate AmRisc, a heavyweight in the catastrophe space.

The company is also targeting geographical expansion for its golf course and homeowners association/condo association businesses, and is aiming to add bolt-on products in areas of property such as flood.

With de novo programs, Starwind is aiming to build those that can generate $50 million or more in premium, that have a large addressable marketplace and bolt-on product opportunities, said Goldstein, as he highlighted collaboration across the company’s existing programs.

The quartet of new programs will not be supported by the current iteration of Fractal Re, Starwind’s landmark $270 million collateralised reinsurance sidecar vehicle, which was set up last year to take a quota share of its casualty portfolio.

However, the next edition of the vehicle, which is slated for autumn 2026, is expected to bring on additions to the Starwind portfolio since the initial Fractal Re vehicle was launched.