Underwriting Perspectives: Ty Horn, Senior Vice President, Underwriting and Product Management for DUAL Personal Lines on growth, grit, and great underwriting in the homeowners market

We’re not just growing; we’re pulling our entire team together to offer expanded solutions in new markets where there is a great need for our product.

– Ty Horn 

Ty Horn, Senior Vice President of Underwriting and Product Management for DUAL Personal Lines, joins us for our next Underwriting Perspectives to shed light on DUAL’s Homeowners program and their continued commitment to expanding solutions to a growing market. Below, Ty shares more about the product and where the program is headed. 

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

A: DUAL Personal Lines simplifies the insurance process by offering a diverse range of coverage options tailored to protect people’s most valuable assets. Within the Homeowner’s product, we provide financial protection for property structure and contents, as well as other expenses and liabilities. We have partnered with Homebound Insurance Exchange (“HIE”) to provide coverage options that range from more basic to special form policies, with a variety of extra coverages, all subject to underwriting and state-specific availability. Today, we operate in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Georgia and we’re actively growing our program, with plans to expand coverage throughout current and new states, subject to regulatory approval and licensing in each jurisdiction.  The goal is to provide much-needed protection for a wide variety of homeowners, primarily owners of lower-value homes (under $500,000) and mobile homes. As a growing program, we work closely with many internal departments to continue to develop the best product for our partners. This includes working with our actuarial department to determine rate changes across the states we operate in, collaborating with the IT department to streamline internal workflows, and working directly with our underwriters to make strategic decisions that impact the real people we do business with. Through these internal relationships, we’ve developed technology to support our end users, including our online rater, an easy-to-use quoting platform that lets clients quote, issue and service policies all in one place. 

Q: Can you share some of the key ways you’re focused on growing the program? 

A: We’re excited about the future and have a well-developed strategic plan in place to help us continue to offer expanded solutions in our market. We’re seated in a unique niche, focusing on lower-value homes and mobile homes, a fairly underserved market. We work directly with our broker partners to tailor coverage to the client, while meeting affordability for insureds, and we can do this by limiting coverage through endorsement, so that each insured receives the exact coverage they need. 

On top of that, through a new partnership HIE, we’re able to expand our capacity offerings and geographic reach, particularly in a challenging market where many carriers are pulling out or restricting their capacity. Operating under a member surplus contributions model, this collaboration brings financial stability and long-term security to policyholders while reinforcing our overall commitment to meeting the needs of the market. 

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

A: Discipline in underwriting is so important to us. While diligence is always required, the other idea we engrain in our process is innovation. We feel strongly that our role is not only to serve customer needs, but to shape the industry for the better, while also reducing our underwriting exposure.  

In this same vein, we’re also introducing new tools to support our ability to evaluate risk. This comes as a bit of a double-edged sword, where on the one hand, we’re able to access new data and insights, which may eventually allow for reduced onsite inspections and a better ability to analyze risk. On the other hand, it takes even more discipline to rely on new tools, ensuring they perform to our expectations and meet our high standards of excellence. We place a tremendous amount of emphasis on the inspection process during our underwriting and are now exploring more tools that can allow us to dive deeper than previously possible. 

Q: What other teams help drive success for your program? 

A: While we work incredibly closely with many teams, a few of which I mentioned earlier, there are a couple of other key players to highlight here. First is our Customer Contact Center, run by Derek Kuykendall. This team is our direct line to our customers. The Customer Contact Center handles hundreds of interactions each day and each call is different than the last.  

We also have a very close relationship with the claims team, especially Paul Boswell, Senior Vice President of DUAL Claims Services, who specializes in claims for the Personal Lines program. This allows for a continuous feedback loop between underwriting and claims (and every team in between) to encourage optimized workflows throughout our business. The bottom line is that the claims team is integral to the way we work, offering real-time feedback to us and a positive customer experience when end-insureds need it most.  

Q: So, what’s next in the personal lines space and how are you actively adapting to emerging risks? 

A: There’s a lot to consider in this market, and we need to stay in front of it all as we continue to grow and lead this sector. A few key things we have our eye on: 

• Complex regulatory compliance: Put simply, this industry is incredibly complex with constantly evolving regulatory requirements that we need to not only stay on top of but also act as leaders in providing solutions.  
• Growing network of tools: As mentioned earlier, using these tools can add efficiency and unlock new insights into our work, but they also come with unique risks that we must diligently evaluate before we rely on them. 
• Storm frequency and severity: Our industry is highly susceptible to natural disasters, and convective storms are continuing to increase in frequency and severity, so we must support our policyholders in preparing for increased environmental risk. 
• Client experience: We exist to protect policyholders from financial risk. Their experience with our team will always be incredibly important to us, and we are constantly seeking feedback to improve the process. 
• Program growth: Right now, we’re focused on expanding what we offer and where we offer it. This comes with its own risks, but we know just how important it is to offer this coverage to more markets throughout the nation. 

DUAL Homeowners provides financial protection for property structure and contents, as well as other expenses and liabilities. Designed for both owner-occupied and seasonal dwellings, replacement cost value, replacement cost partial, and actual cash value loss settlements are available, though coverages and available limits vary by state and are subject to policy conditions and underwriting approval. 

For more information about our DUAL Homeowners program, you can reach Ty at [email protected] or visit dualinsurance.com/personal-property/homeowners.  

This article is intended to provide general guidance and information for DUAL North America (“DUAL”) clients and business partners, and should not be considered legal, financial or insurance advice. The views expressed in this article are those of the individual author and not necessarily the view of DUAL.  DUAL makes no warranty, express or implied, and specifically disclaims any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented.   DUAL complies with all applicable laws and regulations, including those governing insurance, marketing and data privacy.  Clients and business partners are encouraged to contact their DUAL representative for tailored insurance solutions and guidance specific to their needs.