Case Study: Multi-Family Office Expands Its Broker Teams Regionally to Address Challenging Insurance Marketplace with Atténuer Risk

Summary

In this success story, we share how a large multi-family office (MFO) chose additional regional broker partners to provide their clients with local risk management experts to address the challenging insurance marketplace. Kate Norris, Principal of Atténuer Risk, worked with this MFO client to search and find regional brokers who brought local solutions and expertise to their platform of experts. The MFO’s clients also report peace of mind with having a local broker in place moving forward.

The Challenge

Today’s insurance market is challenging for both insurers and policyholders for several reasons, including the steady increase of severe weather events, such as flooding, hurricanes, wildfires and hailstorms, decreased market capacity among carriers for certain geographies, and the rising costs of nearly everything, from construction materials to labor and services. These factors and more are affecting personal lines coverages, and why one large multi-family offices (MFO) serving families of exceptional wealth engaged Atténuer Risk to help them vet and identify the right insurance broker partners on a regional level to help solve this challenge. The MFO had been collaborating with a leading broker in their local market, but given the unprecedented insurance marketplace, obtaining different options and resources in other parts of the country was becoming more and more difficult. The time was right to seek four new, additional broker partners in specific regions of the United States to help meet the unique risk management needs of the MFO’s clients in their respective geographies.

The Impact

Atténuer Risk crafted a comprehensive Request for Proposal (RFP) document that accurately reflected the MFO’s needs, objectives and service model. The RFP was built and distributed to selected potential broker teams in each region that met the firm’s initial criteria. The RFP responses were collected by Atténuer Risk and reviewed. Atténuer Risk was able to identify key differences between the proposals, including areas where brokers offered unique value added services, products or benefits. Atténuer Risk uses a proprietary scorecard to assess the strength of each RFP response and rank the submission accordingly. After evaluating the proposals, the top two firms from each region were asked to interview with Atténuer Risk and our MFO client firm. The interviews allowed the MFO leadership to ask questions, and they relied on Atténuer Risk to help guide the discussion, ask follow up questions to help clarify responses and uncover additional information that helped the MFO select the right partners.

The Outcome

Overall, the broker search and selection process allowed the MFO to identify and select four additional broker partners with regional expertise who aligned with their clients’ needs and risk management objectives. Atténuer Risk’s expertise, experience and knowledge about the differences in broker service models proved invaluable to the firm and helped ensure the entire processes was managed efficiently and effectively.