Underwriting Perspectives: Cameron Conboy, Executive Vice President of DUAL Flood on evolution, education, and ease of business in a competitive market

Cameron Conboy, Executive Vice President of DUAL Flood, joins us for our next Underwriting Perspectives to share more about DUAL Flood and their continued efforts to improve the program and share expertise throughout the market in key new ways. Below, Cameron shares more about where the program is headed. 

Q: Cameron, can you share some background about your program, including how your team approaches risk, and how your coverage is structured? 

A: Since joining the team last year, DUAL Flood has been transforming the structure of the program. Specializing in primary and excess flood insurance for residential and commercial properties nationwide, our team offers solutions designed to support diversified portfolios for our partners. Specifically, DUAL Flood seeks to maintain a balanced mix of commercial and residential placements, as well as primary and excess. Our product can be written as a supplement to the NFIP, or provide first dollar coverage up to the full replacement cost value, which is unique in the market.  

In the interest of maximizing efficiency and expertise, the DUAL Flood team has reorganized into specific geographic specialties, enabling underwriters to develop geographic expertise and build local relationships with brokers. Our approach is rooted in being an underwriting agency first, focused on long-term sustainability and ease of doing business, rather than volume alone.  

Q: DUAL Flood offers the market a competitive alternative to the NFIP. What are the key features that differentiate DUAL Flood?

A: The NFIP continues to face constant disruptions, and the market needs reliable alternatives. DUAL Flood offers stability and consistency that may offer additional flexibility to producers and insureds, subject to underwriting criteria and availability. To this end, we currently have a nationwide presence and are actively expanding our West Coast footprint.  

We also differentiate ourselves through ease of doing business. DUAL offers a simple-to-use online quoting platform that provides comparative rates for multiple flood programs. For more complex risks, we also have a team of experienced underwriters who develop customized flood solutions.  Depending on the risk and coverage needs, DUAL Flood can be written to sit as excess NFIP coverage or serve as a complete replacement, subject to underwriting approval. 

Q: What are the factors that underscore “underwriting discipline” in your program? 

A: Underwriting discipline is critically important to our team. As a program administrator, we have a responsibility to maintain balance sheets and manage risks on behalf of our carrier partners, as if they are our own. DUAL takes a balanced approach by incorporating catastrophe modeling alongside traditional underwriting practices. We also run real-time modeling results at the point of sale, which helps inform our decision-making, while still allowing us to move quickly to offer solutions to our partners. 

The flood market continues to attract new capacity and competition.   This type of competition creates an environment that encourages us to continuously evaluate and enhance our program and reinforces a strong focus on performance. As we regularly evaluate (and reevaluate) new models and technology, we have a responsibility to ensure we're using best-in-class tools (and human knowledge) for flood underwriting and continue implementing system upgrades aimed at improving workflow efficiencies. Ultimately, our goal is to further streamline the quoting and binding process while maintaining our rigorous underwriting standards and ensuring we are writing a diverse and balanced portfolio. 

Q: Beyond your program expansion, how else is DUAL Flood infusing expertise into the market?

A: It’s important for us to advocate for the importance of flood insurance, raising awareness of the financial risks associated with flood damage. We've seen that while flooding frequency and severity continue to increase, take-up rates for flood insurance haven't kept pace.  

In an effort to increase take-up rates, we’re taking steps to help educate our producers on the consumer benefits of flood insurance and how our system offers a seamless approach to brokers who want to offer this coverage. We are in the process of launching a Continuing Education (CE) course to provide producers with additional insights into flood insurance and the value of the products that we provide. We've received approval in multiple states, with additional state approvals pending.  We plan to launch the first course in Colorado, then expand throughout next year.  What makes our course unique is that it will offer 3 hours of CE credit and meet all the requirements of the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004.  By providing this type of CE, we're taking tangible steps to help our producers more effectively serve their clients' flood insurance needs while also expanding needed coverage throughout the market.

For more information about our DUAL Flood program, contact Cameron or visit the DUAL Flood page.