Lloyd’s America opens new office in Atlanta
Mon 25 Apr 2011
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Lloyd’s has opened an office in Atlanta, Georgia to facilitate education and outreach to the many Lloyd’s stakeholders in the Southeastern US, the fourth and newest region within Lloyd’s America.
Lloyd’s Chairman Lord Levene opened the new office at a reception hosted by the British American Business Group and Atlanta chapter of RIMS. The event was attended by government officials including recently elected Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens and his staff, representatives from a wide variety of insurance brokers, carriers and related service providers, local business leaders, risk managers and several members of the Lloyd’s America team.
This latest Lloyd’s representative office was established in a vibrant city at the heart of a region that includes Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. These states account for a quarter of Lloyd’s US business, with six of them ranked in the top 10 by premium volume.
Atlanta is home to branch offices of the largest global and national insurance, reinsurance and wholesale brokers as well as local and regional offices of the many Georgia-based firms who do business at Lloyd’s. In the years since the 1996 Summer Olympics, the capitol of Georgia has become an international business centre and natural site for a Lloyd’s representative office.
“Everyone who works in our business has an office here. A great deal of Lloyd’s business is produced from this area and we wanted to ensure that the market is promoted more actively across the region than it has been” says Rodney Smith, Director of Lloyd’s America Southeast region.
“If you’re a broker based in Atlanta and have a risk to place you are likely to think of underwriters that have offices here in the city, often because you’ve run into them recently. We’re now here to help those brokers think of Lloyd’s.”
Lloyd’s: a household name
The Lloyd’s brand is already well known in this part of the country as a leading provider of surplus lines insurance and reinsurance capacity for a wide range of commercial and residential risks.
The market is accessed by brokers on an open market basis and via a network of more than 200 coverholders, managing general agents with authority to bind coverage on behalf of Lloyd’s syndicates.
“I meet people every day, many from outside the insurance industry, who know Lloyd’s and have a very positive view of the brand,” says Smith.
This view was cemented following Hurricane Katrina, which wreaked devastation across the Gulf Coast in August 2005. “Many insurers ceased writing property business after the 2005 hurricane season but Lloyd’s continued to offer surplus lines policies in the region. As a result, a lot of people appreciate that it was offering coverage when many others were not,” says Smith.
Smith hopes to build on Lloyd’s strong image and introduce more local insurance professionals to the benefits of doing business with the market. “It has a great reputation, but quite often agents and brokers don’t know how to access the market. One of our main purposes here in the Atlanta office is to demystify Lloyd’s and to facilitate contact with the market.”
Smith sees bright opportunities in this corner of the US for the world’s largest specialist insurance market. “Lloyd’s has done a tremendous job already in this region, however there’s more that we can generate from the Southeast. We can do more to penetrate this market by letting agents and brokers know that Lloyd’s is a great market for a broader range of clients and prospects than many have previously believed. ”
Photos of Lloyd's reception in Atlanta.
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