Covenant Underwriters Migrates Flagship Hotel Program to In-House Risk Manager Platform
Covenant Underwriters, an insurtech focused on excess and surplus (E+S) markets, has advanced forward in its mission of becoming a ‘one-stop shop’ for all specialty small business insurance needs.
The company, founded in Houston in 2018, develops e-commerce insurance programs with retail insurance brokers in mind. Their in-house platform, Risk Manager, gives both underwriters and retail brokers a modern experience.
“Our goal with Risk Manager was to build a custom platform ground up to fit our broker and underwriter needs perfectly,” said Covenant CIO Blake Salata. In 2021, the firm took the leap and began developing Risk Manager to provide a better fit with their custom policy form and ultimately, support their retail broker clients.
Their portfolio of programs currently includes limited-service hotels and convenience stores with gas stations. After launching both the convenience stores program and Risk Manager in June 2022, Covenant has now migrated their flagship hotel program to Risk Manager. Both multi-peril package products are supported on one platform with the potential to add more programs in the future.
Covenant’s Chief Underwriter, Daniel Murray, expressed his readiness to get their clients on Risk Manager. “This migration allows for a seamless single touch underwriting approach, reducing the need for back-and-forth emails,” said Murray. “Broker users can now efficiently handle quotes and policies in a self-service manner, providing the flexibility to instantly update quotes based on approved coverage options.”
Moreover, all documents and third-party data are warehoused in a unified interface, simplifying access and management. The underwriting team is empowered by a centralized workbench in the Underwriter Portal, supported by machine learning and smart referrals. This combination allows underwriters to efficiently parse through vast amounts of data, optimizing their analysis and decision-making process.
“Our new platform enables us to innovate in the big data arena,” said Salata. “By enriching our data combined with AI and ML technologies, we will be able to give our underwriters better insights, along with a competitive advantage in our markets and to our carrier.”
Looking ahead, Covenant has an exciting roadmap for Risk Manager, with many more features in development. Integrated e-signature capabilities will offer clients a seamless and paperless policy signing experience. Additionally, the inclusion of billing functionality will simplify premium payment processes. Covenant also plans to streamline loss control services, demonstrating its commitment to enhance risk management for policyholders and make specialty insurance easy for retail brokers.