U.S. Risk LLC

The era of commercial insurance ‘generalists’ is fading as businesses operating in today's complex, interconnected risk landscape seek specialized expertise for comprehensive risk management.

U.S. Risk is at the helm of the industry, spearheading this change for over thirty years, consistently delivering substantial value to its partners and agents. It is a specialty insurance brokerage and managing general agency (MGA) focused on serving middle- and lower-middlemarket retail clients with best-in-class products, services, and deliverables. It offers coverage with the best options for each risk and presents them with value-driven context and insight.

As a Dallas-based privately owned company, it is strategically placed across the U.S. and internationally, with 20 domestic branches and a network of over 6,000 retail producers offering a wide range of products and services.

“We believe specialization offers real value to our retail clients as knowledgeable brokers and underwriters can offer expertise that a generalist broker simply can’t,” says Alex Furlong, President of the Wholesale and MGA Division of U.S. Risk.

Value is derived from offering the best products and insights that tell the entire story to a retailer and insured. Everyday U.S. Risk leverages its expert knowledge to provide a broader narrative for each risk and how market conditions affect the placement of those risks. This narrative and advanced technology-based delivery methods are the cornerstone of its growth trajectory – better products, enhanced insights, and superior delivery.

U.S. Risk aims to provide the best option on an account via one of its three channels – programs, contract-binding, and brokerage.

For its program business, it is constantly working with its carrier partners to deliver best-in-class options on multi-line placements where its underwriting expertise allows it to take on the most challenging risks in a given specialty program category. If the program is unable to offer terms, the MGA and Wholesale divisions step in to offer competitive options in the contract-binding or open market space. When the program underwriter cannot provide terms for an account, an industry expert steps in and places it within the binding or brokerage markets. This ‘waterfall’ approach ensures that the U.S. Risk explores all potential market options for an insured's specific risk.

To illustrate this commitment to value, consider a recent case where one of its largest environmental production teams and its retailer had lost all markets to ‘broker of records’ (BORs) and declinations, and the incumbent market had non-renewed after two large claims totaling $5 million in just one year.

The team convinced a market, an insurance contract company that had previously declined to reconsider its stance and got the CFO of the insured to agree to a mitigation plan. Additionally, its team identified a gap in coverage that the current and competing broker had missed, resulting in 25 percent of the insured's product mix remaining uncovered by foreign product exclusion. One product was sold directly from a foreign entity to the U.S. and other countries, and the team got its partners at the quoting carrier to agree to cover these products along with two other challenging products and help the client insure risks.

Navigating today's marketplace is complicated by shifting capacity and appetite in wholesale and retail insurance, as some lines of business hint at potential changes. Despite these challenges, its core value proposition remains unchanged, providing the best options and critical insights that generate tangible value for its retail clients and the insured.

This value manifests in various forms, and technological advances are creating numerous avenues to deliver a better product to its clientele. It believes that the future wholesaler will go beyond offering carrier terms by utilizing technology and training to empower retailers with resources, fostering an increasingly knowledgeable buyer who grows in expertise year after year.

U.S. Risk combines specialization, technology, and unwavering dedication to provide the best value solutions, establishing its reputation as a trusted risk management partner in addressing complex risks.