Wholesale Brokers


After years of enduring a soft market, wholesale brokers must work harder to differentiate themselves from the admitted marketplace by delivering specialized expertise and building deep relationships with carriers and retail agents.


“As a wholesale broker, provided you add value, there’s always going to be a need for you.”


James Drinkwater, AmWINS


Regardless of the pricing environment, wholesale brokers add value with expertise, knowledge and relationships in the market. They also deliver unique products that are not available in the standard market. To strengthen relationships with retail agents, they focus on revenue-generating opportunities and using technology to make the placement process more efficient. In relationships with carriers, the focus is on working with them to develop new products and, in some cases, underwriting, claims and loss control services.


One sign of an improving wholesale market is the large number of registrants for the NAPSLO convention in October. After four years of declining attendance following the record high of 3,600 at the peak of the hard market in 2006, the number is back up to about 3,300 for the 2011 convention.


Copyright © 2012 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means; electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise.


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