Great American’s 150-Year-Old Birthday: Pride, Humility and Gratitude

150-Year-Old Birthday

On March 7, 2022, Great American Insurance Company celebrated its 150th birthday. Insurance companies have come and gone throughout the past 150 years where we witnessed world wars, pandemics, epidemics, a depression and recessions, natural catastrophes including hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires, the collapse of the Soviet Union, embargoes, etc. I want to pause and reflect on the combination of pride, humility and gratitude for where we stand today as a company and a leading insurer of non-profit and human service organizations.

Proving Ourselves in a Riskier, Costlier World

Great American’s Specialty Human Services Division enters 2022 after 42 years of continued growth and expansion insuring around 16,000 non-profits in over 200 classes including some of the largest YMCAs, youth recreation organizations, daycares, schools, foundations, churches, fitness centers and zoos across the country. We insure large loss sensitive accounts as well as captives, group associations and risk purchasing groups. Over the years, we have adapted our product offerings and services to meet our policyholders’ needs.

Our policyholders are sleeping well at night knowing they have access to the highest levels of umbrella liability, sexual abuse and molestation and property insurance limits in the industry along with stable and reliable claims experiences and risk management tools and services.

Continuing to Adapt and Evolve

We continue to adapt to the world’s major challenges including increasing headwinds from social inflation resulting from an expanding tort environment with rising liability verdicts, third party litigation financing and increased plaintiff attorney advertising. In addition to the rise of sexual abuse reviver statutes, we are still navigating the aftereffects of the pandemic, a rise in violent crimes in U.S. cities and a pandemic-related increase in auto severity. Now we face the economic effects of inflation which had already risen to a 40-year high before the new war in the Ukraine.

To monitor and stay aware of these trends, I am pleased that we continue to adapt to the evolving landscape of risk with our cost/pricing models, the purchase of reinsurance for protections in case of catastrophes and the development and expansion of our risk management offerings and services.

Passion for Long-Term Human Relationships is the Key

People are our most important asset – great relationships with each person involved in the business. The foundation of these collaborations is our sharing of values: loyalty, respect for the individual, reliability, dedication, service, knowledge and expertise – all with the ultimate shared goal of stabilizing the long-term costs of risk and insurance for our human and social service policyholders.

Our Goal is to Provide Reliability and Fiscal Responsibility for Another 150 Years

We plan to continue providing underwriting stability for years to come. By focusing on our claims expertise, training and development of employees and engaging with policyholders and agents personally, our team is ready to meet the demands of our changing marketplace. Other goals include the continued use of technology to manage costs and exposures to allow for predictable and reliable long-term pricing.

We Need Your Help to Keep Improving and Evolving

Your feedback continuously helps us evolve and adapt for the better. We seek your ideas and input on how we can improve and grow profitably together via new products, coverage enhancements, appetite expansion and risk management tools and services. We welcome your feedback and are here to listen as we resolve to “make tomorrow better”.

Thank You

I look at our policyholders, agents, reinsurers and employees as one big team of stakeholders. I am grateful and humbled by everyone’s loyalty to each other and to our program, especially in today’s turbulent environment. I am especially grateful for the long-term reinsurance relationships we have in place, some exceeding 25 years! I am also proud of the number of policyholders we have that have been with us for 5, 10, 20 and (yes) even 30 years. In our 42 years together, we have built strong commitments and relationships that continue to stabilize and fortify our program. This is a testament to our commitment to each other and my biggest THANK YOU!

I thank you in advance for your feedback, your loyalty and your business. We welcome your thoughts and look forward to continuing our dialogue together.