180 Park Ave., 1st Floor
Florham Park, NJ 07932
www.usi.com
AT A GLANCE
Year founded: 1994
Number of New Jersey employees: Over 150
Number of New Jersey-based brokers: 35
Areas of expertise in real estate: Providing competitive and consultative risk management solutions to real estate Owners, Developers, and Managers
OUR ADVANTAGE
USI truly serves the risk management needs of the broadest spectrum of real estate clients including Office, Industrial, Manufacturing, Retail, Multifamily and Condominiums. We specialize in geographically diverse portfolios, especially in Catastrophe-prone areas of the country. USI has invested heavily into Catastrophe modeling tools, providing an advantage to our clients in the form of reduced premiums, more creative program design and broader coverage.
TREND WATCH
Construction activity, especially industrial and multifamily, continues at a furious pace. This creates the need for Builders Risk coverage and that marketplace has been stressed, especially frame construction. USI’s exclusive Builders Risk program addresses the expensive and limited market with broad coverage and terms, high sub-limits for Flood and earthquake and other enhancements at highly competitive pricing.
EVOLVING EXPOSURES
Cyber exposures, especially Ransomware and Cyber Hurricanes. There is the perception that the Real Estate industry is not a target, which couldn’t be further from the reality. Ransomware attacks are becoming more common and the financial demands higher. Cyber Hurricanes involve an attack on a vendor that cascades to customers of the vendor. There is an intense focus on critical information security controls and practices.
TRANSACTION SPOTLIGHT
Many real estate companies growing by acquisition purchase insurance policies individually to satisfy the transaction requirements for each property instead of buying as a portfolio. This approach typically results in higher premiums and coverage gaps, and is generally an administrative challenge as the portfolio grows.
We recently embarked on a portfolio consolidation project for a national commercial shopping center organization operating in a dozen states, including coastal exposures in Florida, South Carolina and Texas. Our initial analysis uncovered significant inconsistencies in coverage, insufficient Flood limits including locations they assumed were covered but excluded by policy language, and low sub-limits for important coverages such as Building Ordinance and Demolition. USI’s solution was to consolidate the portfolio with one insurer offering significantly broader terms and conditions while also using our Catastrophe Modeling capabilities to improve Flood coverage. Our new client experienced a 16.5% premium reduction in a market where most are experiencing premium increases. We also worked with their legal counsel to standardize subcontractor and vendor contracts while implementing an online portal to coordinate certificates of insurance from these service providers.
