Why 3 Young Professionals Love E&S

Young professionals in the surplus lines industry call the excess and surplus lines (E&S) sector the best kept secret when it comes to a career choice. It’s an industry that provides eager young talent with opportunities to innovate and create solutions for difficult insurance coverage hurdles.

“It’s a very broad industry and there’s always a new challenge waiting for you if you’re willing to go try to find something new,” said Adam Care, business segment leader vice president, at The Hartford Steam Boiler, Inspection and Insurance Co. Care also serves as the president of the Wholesale Specialty Insurance Association’s (WSIA) U40 Group.

“I think that especially for young professionals or even potentially individuals looking to get into insurance for the first time … finding problems and bringing solutions, helping to manage risk with different disciplines … I think that’s what’s exciting about the industry,” Care said. “It’s just a very multifaceted industry that touches on different aspects of peoples’ lives and businesses that you can positively impact.”

Annie Dawson, director at RT Specialty – National Binding Authority, in Louisville, Kentucky, who also serves as a WSIA U40 board member, says the ever-changing environment in E&S is one reason she enjoys the wholesale side of the business best. “It changes every day and is highly dependent on relationships and problem solving,” she said.

After spending two years as an underwriter for an admitted carrier, Dawson realized that the more restrictive underwriting environment needed in admitted markets wasn’t the right fit for her.

“My manager at the time kept having to convince me why I needed to say ‘no’ to a particular risk,” she said. “I learned a lot in those couple of years and lessons that I will carry forward, but ultimately found my way back to wholesale where you can be more creative in trying to say, ‘yes,'” she said.

Wholesaler brokers are helping their agent partners more than ever in today’s hard market conditions where rising insurance rates, tight underwriting conditions, and fewer carriers in some tough classes of business can make insuring some risks a challenge.

“I love being on the wholesale side,” said 29-year-old Becky Tucker, program underwriter/broker at Sierra Specialty, an XPT company, who said being the “middle-man” between the retail agent and the E&S carrier is what she enjoys most. “Everyone I work with understands the quote and the coverages, the carriers and the agents,” she added. “I really enjoy finding a solution for my agents and learning about the insureds I am insuring.”

Pandemic Times

It hasn’t been easy doing business during the past year and a half but that has given young E&S professionals another opportunity to shine.

“The pandemic has brought in a lot of challenges,” Tucker said, including juggling home and work as a young parent. “As a mom of two it was an adjustment to working from home with two kids under four,” she told Insurance Journal. But that challenge has also been a benefit to many young professionals, especially those with families. “Overall, it has opened a lot of doors for people to either work from home or in an office which is great for families.”

Dawson said learning to work from home with children was a struggle, especially at the onset of the pandemic, but looking back she has found a few special “Pandemic Zoom” memories to cherish.

“With two young kids (five and two years old at the beginning of the pandemic) and two full time out-of-the-home working parents (one who worked in healthcare), adapting and adjusting, especially in the early stages of the pandemic, was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Dawson said. “The hardest part for me was finding dedicated time to each aspect of my life and battling the constant feeling that I was doing poorly at both of my jobs, in my career and as a mom.”

Work-life balance had never before intersected in that way for many insurance professionals.

“I can’t begin to count the number of emails written or calls taken with a two-year-old in my lap and/or playing ‘Guess Who’ with a five-year-old on the side,” she said. Then there was the one time that her “minimally clothed toddler” ran into Zoom view on a last-minute call with her division’s new president announcing that “he had to go to the bathroom,” she said.

While Dawson said it feels like there is a light at the end of a tunnel, she recognizes the pandemic is not over. She looks forward to seeing how this experience pushed the industry to make permanent changes in workplace settings everywhere.

Future Generation

Care, Dawson, and Tucker all agreed that working in surplus lines is where they fit best, but they advise other young people seeking a career in insurance to explore all the options the industry has to offer.

“I would recommend this industry because it’s a wonderful career option with lot of room for growth,” Tucker said. “It allows for a family life and a wonderful work environment.”

The job opportunities in the insurance industry are plentiful, too, Dawson added, noting the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 50% of the insurance workforce will retire by 2028, and another 25% over the next three years. “There is a wealth of knowledge from industry veterans and experts who are willing and looking to mentor a younger generation of rising professionals, she said.”

More than anything, Dawson says, it’s the personal relationships built throughout different stages of her career that continue to inspire her.

“I’m only just now realizing the full meaning behind relationship building, specifically that it is one thing you can’t force or fast forward,” she said. Her advice to other young professions: Invest in and nurture those professional relationships early.

“The E&S industry is small, what you do, how you act, and where you put effort into today will follow you throughout your career,” Dawson said.

The E&S sector is truly a best kept secret, in Dawson’s view.

“With the world changing so drastically all around us through specialization, new marketplaces and exposures, entrepreneurship, etc., the E&S sector creates a space for creativity to find solutions for our clients,” she said.

While there is plenty of opportunity, it still takes hard work to be successful. “To be successful you have to be willing to work the late hours and be available to your agents when they need you,” Tucker said. “And to care about what you are doing.”

One recommendation that Care often gives to other young professionals: Don’t give up.

“Keep trying to learn and get better every day,” he said.

“It’s important to understand technically the work you’re doing,” he said.

“Strive to get better every day and continue to ask questions throughout your career. That is likely the best piece of advice that I’ve received and something that I recommend to others.”