Articles

Environmental Growth Opportunities

Beacon Hill's Bill Pritchard on Key Trends in Environmental Insurance

PC360 speaks with Bill Pritchard, president of Beacon Hill Associates, a wholesale broker specializing exclusively in environmental-insurance solutions for commercial insureds. He addresses capacity, pricing, emerging risks, and top-of-mind concerns among both buyers and carriers.

Filter Through the Pollution Market

By William Pritchard Jr., ERM
Printed in the February 2012 issue of American Agent & Broker

Environmental experts agree that 2012 will be the year of the rate increase for pollution-related coverages. This presents both challenges and opportunities to independent agents, who must help customers understand the realities of the marketplace.

Environmental Insurance Market Broadens to Meet Growing Needs of Today’s Contractors

By Bill Pritchard, President of Beacon Hill Associates
Printed in the June 20, 2011 issue of Insurance Journal

The insurance needs of contractors continue to become more complex as the economy works its way out of the recession. Part of that increased complexity involves a company’s environmental exposures and how it chooses to address them. What was once a small concern has become one of the most important exposures a contractor needs to manage. Contractors are responsible to their clients for the environmental ramifications of their work, and the work of their subcontractors. Properly insuring that exposure is critical.
 

Pollution Solution

Published in the February 2011 issue of American Agent & Broker
By Beacon Hill's President, Bill Pritchard

2010 saw a rapid expansion of the environmental/pollution insurance marketplace in the face of daunting conditions. Why this growth has occurred, and what it means to an agency, are important to understand. The performance of this niche clearly illustrates the efforts being made to find success in our evolving market, and agents that can correctly tap into it will see significant return on their investment.

BP Oil Spill Disaster Creates Opportunity for Environmental Contractors’ Market

Published in the August 2010 issue of Insurance Journal
By Beacon Hill's Assistant Vice President, Michael Tighe

No matter which television channel or website you turn to, the Gulf oil spill has dominated the news. This is an environmental crisis that will affect the region’s economic capabilities and natural resources for years, if not decades, to come. Between 2 to 4 million barrels of oil have spilled into the gulf, compared to 257 thousand barrels during the Exxon Valdez event[1]. The fishing and tourism industry, which was depressed before the tragedy, is now virtually non-existent. Gulf coast economies from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida have all been affected, and scientists are predicting that the Gulf current may carry containments along the Florida Keys and up the east coast.

Awareness Prompts Growth for Environmental Insurance

Published in the July 2010 issue of American Agent &  Broker
By Beacon Hill's President, Bill Pritchard 

The dramatic economic events of the last several years have had a profound impact on the insurance industry. As a naturally cyclical business, insurance has suffered the double whammy of a softening market cycle coming during an economic meltdown never before seen in our lifetimes. Such a historic set of circumstances will leave an indelible mark on our industry. But while there are many challenges yet to be overcome, there is certainly reason for cautious optimism; much like the American spirit, the insurance industry is infinitely resilient and creative.  A key beneficiary of the bounce-back we expect to see can be found in environmental insurance. How it can help an agent become more successful, and why agent must know about it, are topics worth considering.

Environmental Insurance: Emerging Risks, New Coverages

Printed in the January 2010 issue of Rough Notes
By Phil Zinkewicz

“Insurance coverage is not concerned with the known, but rather with the unknown.” That observation was made by William Pritchard Jr., president of Beacon Hill Associates, Inc., in a recent Rough Notes magazine interview. For more than two decades, Beacon Hill has prided itself on being a leading provider of environmental liability insurance nationwide. Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, the firm has two divisions—Beacon Hill Brokerage, a wholesale brokerage unit that places coverage for agents through several insurers, and the PartnerOne Environmental underwriting division, which assesses risks and offers an array of environmental insurance products.

Perfectly Paired: The E&S Market and Environmental Risk

Printed in the August 2009 issue of American Agent & Broker
By Bill Pritchard, President of Beacon Hill Associates, Inc.

The movement of business from the standard market to the excess and surplus market and back again is a continual process. Whenever rates soften and capacity is underused, standard carriers entertain more and more environmental risk. While a degree of this is certainly acceptable, there is a point where the standard market cannot adequately address the coverage needs of the environmental insured. Agents and brokers need to be careful to identify, and not cross, this line.

A Regional Tour of Environmental Opportunities

Printed in the February 2008 issue of American Agent & Broker
By Bill Pritchard, Jane Saliba, Amanda Duncan, Mike Tighe, and Chris Young

In 2007, independent agents and brokers saw the soft market dig in its heels. Unusually good underwriting results, fewer hurricanes than expected and an absence of other catastrophes led once again to a turn of the underwriting cycle. New carriers entered the industry as existing companies countered by lowering rates. As usual, the soft market feeds on itself, creating a larger problem over time.