My team teases me about being a little long-winded at times, so I'm going to try a different approach and start out with the concise summary: We want your brokerage property and casualty business. We've got a lot of exciting changes coming. Keep sending us your brokerage opportunities.

Now, here's the longer version. I have always liked the old movie Heartbreak Ridge starring Clint Eastwood in which he teaches his team to "Improve, Adapt, Overcome." It's a good attitude to have whenever good people face tough challenges. One could say that we're taking the same approach with our brokerage property and casualty products recently.

Due to multiple years of wind/hail losses, we've had to reposition our property book away from garden-style apartments on a primary basis. But there are so many other classes of business we can help you with. We want to be one of your go-to markets for excess opportunities, a primary market for the multitude of classes other than garden-style apartments and a home for unusual and hard-to-place first party exposures, including catastrophe driven accounts. Recently, we moved Jim Hemphill over to our Brokerage Property department to help Foster Wright, Sherry Hughes and Lee Koch in these efforts.

On the casualty side, we will soon roll out a new set of coverage forms and pricing parameters that will clearly separate brokerage casualty from binding casualty. This "true brokerage" approach will concentrate on construction, industrial casualty and products liability accounts (both occurrence and claims made) and will be underwritten by a separate team possessing a brokerage mindset and the flexibility to get tougher risks placed with Markel.

Contact your Regional Account Executive or your underwriter to learn more about these exciting changes. In the mean time, keep sending us your tougher property and casualty risks and give us the opportunity to show you what we can do.

Greg Rubel

Regional President, Mid South Region

469.241.3401

[email protected] 

Markel recently announced the launch of the new risk management portal for DataBreach policyholders. It includes information and technical resources that can assist in the prevention of network, cyber and privacy breaches and provides support in the timely reporting and recovery of losses if an incident occurs. The portal is powered and maintained by NetDiligence^�, a leading data breach response services company.

David Vanalek, Manager of Claims at Markel commented, "By providing access to our risk management portal, Markel is in a strategic position to provide a focused, robust, and dynamic platform to deliver fast, efficient and cost-effective risk management services to preclude the inevitable data breaches that plague organizations."

Markel understands that once an incident occurs, most clients need immediate help and expertise to respond and recover. Because incidents can be very complex, organizations need assistance across a broad range of disciplines, including legal/regulatory compliance, information technology (IT) security, privacy, disaster recover, computer forensics, public relations, credit monitoring and law enforcement.

Markel's DataBreach policy provides a unique coverage structure, including a supplementary payments section responding to notification and credit monitoring costs. This coverage is provided outside of the limit of liability and is not subject to a deductible.

Many of you have asked about insureds and prospective insureds that are in or heading to the Northeast to help clean up and rebuild after the recent storm. Please click below for a quick reference guide which summarizes our Binding appetite and flexibility within the construction industry. Don't forget that we write Builder's Risk and OCPs.

Please contact your Binding P/C Underwriter for additional details or if you have any questions.

Please note: Many of the rates also apply to the Mid South Region. Our contracting forms do not have a state restriction or state limitation; however we are not currently targeting contractors working the five boroughs of New York.