Applied Underwriters to Acquire UK Yacht Insurance MGA, Concept Special Risks

February 4, 2021

Applied Underwriters announced it will acquire Concept Special Risks, a UK-based international managing general agent, which provides coverage for a variety of nautical vessels and operators across the globe.

Based in Yorkshire, UK, and founded in 1999 by Tony Usher, Concept Special Risks is a licensed Lloyd’s coverholder. The company has a leading market position in the U.S. and Caribbean markets for motor yachts, trailer craft, sailboats and catamarans covering both private/pleasure and charter.

Concept Special Risks will continue to write business through retail agents in the U.S. and Caribbean. It has offices in the UK and in Florida.

The acquisiton of Concept Special Risks is another step for Applied Underwriters into the luxury market sphere, commented Steve Menzies, chairman of Omaha, Neb.-based Applied Underwriters.

“We are finding heightened demand among our growing customer base in the private clientele sector for thoroughly knowledgeable, truly experienced, and acutely specialized underwriting,” added Menzies.

“We are answering that demand with an assembly of top talent in important market classes, of which the latest is Concept Special Risks and its exceptional 20-member team created and developed by Tony Usher over the past 20 years. We welcome these fine professionals to the Applied family in the service of our growing clientele,” he said.

“Together with my staff here in Yorkshire, we see immense opportunity in this consolidation with Applied, its remarkable marketing strength and its depth of focus in specialized sectors,” commented Usher.

“Our plans will be finalized this quarter once the [UK Financial Conduct Authority] issues its approval, and we will be ready for the coming season for yachts, recreational vessels of all types and for commercial excursion operators,” he continued.

Since November, Applied has launched:

  • Applied Specialty Underwriters to focus on select casualty E&S risks across the country, with an initial focus on large construction in New York;
  • Applied Financial Lines to provide a variety of D&O coverages in the U.S., Europe, and Israel following its acquisition of the renewal rights of StarStone’s financial lines book of business;
  • Applied Fine Art & Collectibles to move toward the preeminent global position in the provision of coverage and risk management solutions for fine art, jewelry, collectibles, and collector automobiles.

Source: Applied Underwriters