Alternus Qorus Innovation in Insurance Awards 2018 - Winner

Organizations with large property exposures rely upon stable, high quality capacity at competitive pricing. While capital market solutions have played a pivotal role in the reinsurance property market for years providing an alternative source of capacity to insurers, they had yet to provide capital directly to US property insureds. The Schinnerer Group, changed that in early 2017 by creating Alternus, the first-ever retail property insurance solution backed by alternative capital. To do this, an underwriting team from the Schinnerer Group along with property brokers at Marsh, approached Allianz Risk Transfer (ART) and asset manager Nephila Capital Ltd. to engage in the development and launch of this new capability. Alternus’ innovation involves providing risk managers with greater diversification in the capital supporting their insurance programs. In addition to providing risk managers 10% property capacity on eligible accounts, Alternus also provides a pricing discount from alternative capacity providers that is passed directly onto the insured and serves as a benefit of the lower cost of capital as well as following the lead market’s terms and conditions along with a guarantee of capacity availability for a second year. This gives the risk manager greater stability, greater predictability, greater control, and greater financial benefits than has ever been directly available to them in the past. Since Alternus launched, the program has grown quickly. The penetration rate has tripled since the launch and clients have reported great satisfaction with the product, pricing, and speed of service.