Michigan-based wholesaler Burns & Wilcox announced this week that it’s launching a new brokerage unit headquartered in Chicago. Headed by Vice President Daniel Rossen, Burns & Wilcox Brokerage is charged with expanding the national scope, depth and presence of B&W’s current brokerage business.
Rossen was previously senior vice president for Neace Lukens, a top-tier retail insurance brokerage in Chicago. Prior to that, he co-founded a national wholesale brokerage firm, headquartered in Chicago, which was subsequently sold to Wells Fargo. He then served as vice president of its American E&S Division. He also served as president of CEM Insurance Co. and vice president of underwriting for the large property division of CNA Financial.
Read AA&B's August feature "Wholesale brokers, ready willing and able."
AA&B spoke with Rossen about his plans for Burns & Wilcox Brokerage and why he is uniquely qualified to deliver.
AA&B: What’s B&W’s thinking behind establishing the new brokerage wholesaler?
Rossen: Burns & Wilcox Brokerage is expanding the Burns & Wilcox commitment of offering high-level service to producing agents and brokers by focusing on more complex accounts. Burns & Wilcox Brokerage can unite its tens of thousands of producing brokers throughout the county with its hundreds of available markets. Burns & Wilcox Brokerage operations’ typical solutions may involve securing capacity from many markets around the world, manuscript forms for coverage, designing highly customized risk transfer solutions or developing unique solutions for association programs.
AA&B: Is there a strategic reason for the Chicago location?
Rossen: Chicago is a strong trading center for many insurance carriers, so it provides an excellent base to access many of our core markets. It is strategically located to service the producer base of Burns & Wilcox in the Midwest, and allows for the expansion of our existing operations in Chicago.
AA&B: How many staffers will be at that location? Will you be expanding to other regions?
Rossen: Initial staff will consist of a core group in Chicago with support from our centers of excellence located in many Burns & Wilcox offices. We are looking to use Chicago as a base and grow the operations throughout the country.
AA&B: Are there any particular lines of business you’re going after?
Rossen: Large property, complex casualty, environmental and program business.
AA&B: How does your background on both the retail agency and insurance carrier side of the business qualify you for your new position?
Rossen: Having been an underwriter, wholesale broker and retail producer, I have been in the shoes of all the parties involved in complex insurance transactions. I can empathize with the underwriter who is asked to make a decision on imperfect information, and the broker who waited by the phone for that quote just before the meeting with the client is scheduled to begin.
AA&B: What are the new wholesaler’s first-year growth goals, and how do you hope to achieve them?
Rossen: Burns & Wilcox now has about 14,000 active brokers, so we are looking to identify those brokers with large accounts and focus our efforts on expanding the role we can play in their offices just by doing more for them. Our goal is to provide a higher level of service to both our producing agents and the markets we serve. Burns & Wilcox brings a reputation for high- level customer service, technical expertise and a commitment to the insurance business. This combination of resources and expertise make this an exciting opportunity for our producers to take advantage of the expert resources our organization can provide. We want to be recognized as the smartest brokerage company in the nation, with a huge breadth of products that can address the depth of any brokerage need. We will achieve this by having the smartest and quickest team on the field.
AA&B: What’s the unique benefit your company has to offer brokers?
Rossen: Burns & Wilcox Brokerage probably has one of the most penetrating agency plans in the business—that is, we can service everything from the large alphabet houses to small shops and all types in between. Most wholesale brokers want retail brokers to give them their large accounts, leaving the retail broker to handle the smaller accounts. We are happy to handle small accounts as well.
For brokerages with large accounts, we’re looking to enable them to be successful and compete on any level by using our expertise, going with them to visit their large clients, and helping them to structure the deals.