The Future of Insurance – Jeff Radke, Co-Founder & CEO, Accelerant

Jeff Radke is CEO and Co-Founder of Accelerant, a technology-fueled insurance platform that empowers MGUs to more effectively and confidently serve small and medium enterprises. He has spent his career working across all areas of the insurance value chain, from underwriting to reinsurance in global markets. Prior to Accelerant, Jeff spent a decade at Argo Group International Holdings, but he became frustrated with thelegacy system’s antiquated technology and emphasis on maintaining their position in the value chain over doing right by the customer. This inspired him to co-found Accelerant to enable data-driven innovation and collaboration that puts customers first. Accelerant rebuilds the way that underwriters share and exchange risk to improve outcomes for everyone, with a focus on the SMBs that power our global economy and their niche insurance needs.

Highlights from the Show

• Jeff started his career in Reinsurance, which gave him an interesting perspective on insurance having looked at it from the end of the value chain
• Accelerant runs a risk exchange, meaning they connect MGAs/MGUs/Program Administrators (who they call Members) with risk capital on the other side of the platform that likes the kinds of Specialty risks these members are writing
  • In between those parties, Accelerant's platform tries to make the regulatory and system complications as uncomplicated as possible by solving for them for their members
  • It's almost the opposite of what a fronting carrier is, and is more of a portfolio manager of risk
  • They try to provide stability of capital and appetite and the ability to capitalize on every opportunity an MGA finds
• They've also become a way for existing insurers to get into the E&S or Specialty space without having to build the technology stack, distribution relationships or underwriting talent
  • It's very hard to build a business that can write large, esoteric, specialty risks and the higher volume E&O/PL, BOP and GL
  • It's a completely different human skillset and tech capability to keep a tight watch and understanding on how small, Specialty Lines portfolios change over time
• They do monthly deep dives with their members to see if anything has changed with appetite, underwriting review, etc. to see if there's a potential driver of performance changes so they can react before it's ballooned out of control
• Traditionally, program administrators haven't gotten the detailed data they need on things like regulatory compliance, loss trends, filings, etc., and Accelerant has worked to be as transparent as possible rather than treating their information as proprietary or something not to share
• One reason Jeff thinks E&S will stay strong and not just be a fill-in for what can't go Admitted at the moment is because of the need to keep flexing on product and rate at a speed that the regulatory path cannot keep up with, especially with resource constraints there

This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance Volume III. The Collaborators, part of the Future of Insurance thought leadership series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk.

Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.

Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.