Uni-Ter Provides Better
Risk Management Uni-Ter has formed and manages risk retention groups that provide
F
general and professional liability
insurance to long-term care facilities, home health care, surgical centers, and malpractice insurance to physicians and surgeons in New York, and nurses throughout the U.S.
reeing up the cash, getting rid of risk and changing strategy fairly quickly on how to use the money that’s been tied up are some pretty good reasons for captive owners to be in a risk retention group, according to Uni-Ter President and
CEO Sanford Elsass.Best’s Review caught up with Sandy in his New York office to find out more. BEST’S REVIEW: Tell us a little bit about Uni-Ter. ELSASS: Uni-Ter is a wholly owned subsidiary of the interna-
tional financial services firm USRE Companies Inc. We got into the risk retention business in 2003 by building the first risk retention group in the nation for the long-term care industry. The RRG was in Florida where the industry was in a crisis at that time with the trial bar taking on the nursing home owners successfully. Build- ing on the Florida success, we branched out and have become a national provider. We’ve built five RRGs. Uni-Ter is an all-service RRG manager. We provide underwriting claims, risk management and administration. BR:Would captive owners be better off in RRGs? ELSASS: Many captive owners started 10 years ago when there
was an abundance of cheap capital and the regulatory environment was easier to form a captive. The reason they formed captives was because capital was available and premium rates for the health care industry were exceedingly high and rising, so they all got into them to create a little stability for themselves. Today the opposite is true. Capital is hard to come by, it’s expensive, return on investment is low and the price for risk transfer is as much 80% lower than it was 10 years ago. BR: Can you talk about how captive sponsors can realize their
capital investment while still providing stable, affordable insurance to members through a loss portfolio transfer to a well-financed RRG? ELSASS: If the business is well-written and well-priced, and
there’s an excess of surplus cash in these captives, and the owners are interested in freeing up cash, then we would go in and do an actuarial evaluation and analysis. If we thought there were excess reserves, we would become the taker of risk, replacing the captive. The captive owners could take their cash out to do other things to grow their business. We would assume the risk inside the captive with an adequate amount of money that would be funded from the captive and then the owner would buy traditional risk transfer insur- ance with retrospectively rated plans available. BR:What makes Uni-Ter Group a leading company when it comes
to captive and risk retention group facilitation? ELSASS: That’s all we do. It’s our only business—liability insur-
ance for the health care industry, general and professional liabil- ity working with captives and risk retention groups. It’s the only business we’re in, so everyone employed by Uni-Ter is an expert in one facet of the responsibilities we take on. Our eyes never leave the ball.
BR Click here to isten to the full interview Best’s Review August 2010
Sanford Elsass President and CEO “ We believe
that one way to free up working capital is to get out of the captive, get into an RRG and you still have ownership in the success.
”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15