RKH Speciality News

A restaurant insurance program designed in conjunction with a leading US-based international specialty insurer is showing remarkable growth in the fiercely competitive US restaurant sector.

With over 170 restaurant brands under its belt the Restaurant Recovery Program includes some of the leading American fast food chains providing against claims for food contamination. Take up of the programme has rocketed with the total gross written premium up over 80% since the programme’s launch. Furthermore, with the restaurant industry sales up 16% in the last 4 years, this is a market set to continue growing.

Designing bespoke insurance programs and facilities with international insurance markets is the core skill of RKH Specialty’ casualty team. Key to the success of these programmes is a process of continual review, a matter of examining performance data for every aspect of its performance at any point in the chain as well as its overall performance against competitors.

‘It really is a collaborative effort as much a competitive one. We work with the client to understand the challenges and bring the right partners to bear to address particular challenges and support the clients’ aims long term. Success is attributable to the high levels of understanding throughout program participants.‘ says Mark Colgate, Executive Director of the Casualty team.

RKH Specialty Casualty team provide tailored insurance solutions across a wide range of industry sectors and casualty lines. Find out more here, or contact Mark Colgate on 020 7456 9370.

The Wall Street Journal reports on an important artwork at San Francisco’s de Young Museum, thought lost in 2011, but now been repaired thanks to a lucky find and some extraordinary cooperation.

RKH Specialty’s Sir Mark Bowen, who died unexpectedly earlier this year, worked on the deYoung account, considering San Francisco his ‘home away from home’. The return of the statue to the de Young will be dedicated to his memory in a ceremony to take place in October.

Subscribers can read the full story here

A ceremony held at London’s famous Old Billingsgate market confirmed RKH Specialty as 2014’s Insurance Broker of the Year for the second time in three years.

The awards, organised by industry publication Insurance Insider, were judged by a panel of industry experts that tasked entrants to demonstrate their ability to grow business through client-focused expansion. With a track record of fourteen years of consistent growth, RKH Specialty showed how the stability of its employee-ownership structure provided a platform to focus resources on the design and delivery of consistently better results for clients.

RKH Specialty has placed a new healthcare and life science facility on behalf of Ryan Specialty’s Healthcare underwriting businesses. Support for the facility comes from the leading healthcare markets including Amlin, Chaucer, Catlin, Hiscox, Atrium, Renaissance Re and Dale. The facility creates the largest, single healthcare coverholder arrangement in Lloyd’s.

The facility can encompass a very broad array of healthcare and life science businesses including long-term care, allied healthcare, specialty and rehabilitation hospitals, as well as generic pharmaceuticals, branded pharmaceuticals, medical products, nutritional supplements and clinical trials. The facility offers limits for both healthcare and life science up to $25m.

Commenting on the deal Al Carter, RKH Specialty’s head of Healthcare said:

“This facility is the result of a detailed and pragmatic process. It provides Ryan Specialty’s Healthcare underwriting division with a platform to further grow its successful Sapphire Blue and Life Science Risk (LSR) programmes via the US broker community. In addition, it provides the Lloyd’s market with a stream of healthcare business underwritten by the recognised leading underwriters in their respective fields that otherwise would not naturally flow into Lloyd’s.

“The commitment from Ryan Specialty Group and the Lloyd’s underwriters broke new ground in terms of the integrated programme’s scope, breadth and ability to bring together leading underwriters under a single programme with two distinct classes of business.”

You can read more about the new healthcare and life science facility in Insurance Journal, Business Insurance and Insurance Insider.

In addition to Healthcare, RKH Specialty’s expertise in every aspect of the design, placement and servicing of successful programmes has led to work across many specialist industry areas, including:

• Agriculture
• Financial Institutions
• Habitational
• Public entity
• Retail
• Hospitality
• Real Estate

For more information about RKH Specialty Healthcare, contact Al Carter.

For information about Facilities, contact Nigel Bridgwater.

In 2011, the American government signed the Food Safety Modernisation Act into law. It was the biggest change to US food regulation since the 1930s, giving the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) greater power to recall food and the resources to instigate a more extensive inspection regime.

The FDA is clearly taking its new role seriously, resulting in a notable increase in both the frequency and scale of food recall events in the last year, which is why Mark Colgate, Executive Director of RKH Specialty’s Casualty division, chose to write about how this change is affecting the insurance market in a special report on corporate risk management in Insurance Day, published on Monday, 28^th April to coincide with RIMS in Colorado.

The legislation has generated an increase in interest in food contamination insurance, Mark writes, a greater focus on risk management as well as a change in the way risk managers approach their dealings with the regulator.  The full article can be read here.

An estimated 34 million people in the US are killed or injured each year as a result of product-related accidents, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Tough products, which range from e-cigarettes to sofas and shampoo, account for more of these incidents than others; toys and playground equipment, for example, caused 524,587 injuries between 2008 and 2012, and bicycles caused 556,660.

Consumers and regulators increasingly blame companies for compromising product safety and go through the courts to seek redress. The total annual claims bill in the USA is now estimated at $12 billion. For tough products, like toys and bicycles, this has resulted in higher insurance costs and, in some cases, the inability to find cover.

RKH Specialty has launched a new facility that provides cover for tough product liability classes like these, with the ability to provide unusual or unique enhancements that assist clients in mitigating and controlling their product liability exposures. It is underwritten at Lloyd’s and offers up to $5 million capacity for any one risk.

Contact Justin Whitehead to find out mor

London, UK – 6th March 2013

Since 1995, over 15m U.S. automobiles have been recalled each year.

RKH Specialty’s leading product recall team is offering specialist auto recall insurance to global companies that supply parts to the automotive industry.

Every automobile is comprised of thousands of parts, which may have to be recalled by their customer if they fail to perform as expected, or could be subject to a forced safety recall by organisations such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For the suppliers who make these parts, auto recall insurance, providing product guarantee cover, contributes to their financial sustainability as well as providing reassurance to their customers. RKH Specialty Head of Product Recall Mark Colgate commented, ‘As the economy has struggled, we have seen product recall insurance increasingly become part of the contractual obligations imposed on the parts supplier.’

The insurance available covers first and third party recall expenses, costs associated with advertising and communication, disposal, extra staff and transportation requirements as well as replacement expenses, including reinstallation. There is also an option to purchase a customer financial loss extension.

Please contact the Product Recall team, product.recall@rkhspecialty.com, to find out more.

London, UK – 2nd October 2012

RKH Specialty and Conosur Corredores de Seguros Y Reaseguros (Conosur) have reached an exclusive agreement to cooperate on all new business emanating from Chile. The agreement covers both insurance and reinsurance opportunities that require international market placements.

Conosur is Chile’s largest independently owned broker. Its association with RKH Specialty builds on an existing relationship between the firms and recognises a growing need from Conosur’s Chile-based clients to access international insurance markets to provide a wide range of specialist insurance and reinsurance products.

Chile is consistently ranked as one of Latin America’s most stable and prosperous nations with high per capita GDP and a long term focus on developing global trade links. It was the first Latin American nation to join the OECD in May 2010.

Commenting on the association, Barnaby Rugge-Price, Head of Property & Casualty at RKH Specialty said: “RKH Specialty has always looked to partner with leading independent brokers to combine their regional knowledge with our expertise in specialist global markets. It provides a strong basis for the development of relationships products and services that stand the test of time.”

Alberto Covarrubias, Managing Director of Conosur Insurance Brokers added: “There is strong momentum behind economic growth in Latin America generally and Chile in particular, so our clients increasingly compete in a global arena. With RKH Specialty’s support in international markets, the combined experience, expertise and innovation we bring ensure they can compete with even greater confidence and success.”

London, UK – 10th September 2012

RKH Specialty scoops Broker of the Year accolade.

On Thursday 6 September RKH Specialty was recognised as Broker of the Year at the inaugural Insurance Insider Honours.

The awards were judged by a panel of industry experts, including Rolf Tolle, former Lloyd’s Franchise Director, and Jim Bryce, non-executive director of CV Starr Managing General Agency. They examined the short listed brokers’ financial performance and growth, as well as other business initiatives and the delivery of client service to decide on their winner. RKH Specialty’s record of sustained growth through a client focused expansion of specialist products and services saw us beat off stiff competition from Aon Benfield, Guy Carpenter and Howden to take the award.

We are very proud to have received this recognition of our progress in building one of the UK’s leading, independent, specialist insurance brokers.