Scott Purviance, CEO, Amwins
Scott Purviance, CEO of Amwins, sat down with Invest: to discuss the current state of the specialty insurance market in 2024, priorities and goals looking ahead, technology’s place in the industry, investing in the firm’s employee base, and Charlotte’s continued growth.
What key milestones have defined the past 12 to 18 months for your organization?
We had a record year in 2023, placing over $39 billion in premiums across the group. It was our largest year ever in the midst of a very disruptive property & casualty market. As a specialty broker, our expertise is really valued in this type of market. We delivered for our clients and achieved industry-leading organic growth
We continue to invest internally in hiring and training, and we are big believers in growing from within. Over 40% of the firm is owned by employees. Our culture is a real competitive differentiator in the marketplace and allows us to think long-term. We aren’t caught up in the next 90 days — we are looking at the next five years.
How are you navigating the current market?
In the latter part of 4Q22, Hurricane Ian was a major catastrophic event for the property market. It took an already-firming market as rates were increasing in property insurance, and it accelerated those increases. So 2023, was marked by capacity becoming very constrained and pricing increasing substantially. That kind of disruption in the marketplace is where we come in and shine. We are able to build capacity for our retail agents and their insureds. The casualty part of the market was also experiencing pressure from social inflation factors that are driving up loss costs. The size and prevalence of nuclear verdicts are creating concern across the market.
What key trends are you monitoring that will impact specialty insurance over the next few years?
It is still a pretty fragmented marketplace from a supply standpoint. In 2024, we are starting to see some easing in the property market conditions that were present in 2023, but we are still seeing disruption across the casualty market.
How do you integrate technology and data analytics into your operations to enhance accuracy in client solutions?
Our firm has always been a big believer in investing in technology. All of our systems are proprietary and continue to be developed and enhanced internally. We don’t use any packaged software. The goal is to provide our internal brokers and underwriters with the intellectual capital of the entire firm at their fingertips. Additionally, we have developed extensive benchmarking data that we provide to our retail agent clients so they can then utilize it with their clients who are buying insurance.
What unique characteristics of the Charlotte market influence your operations and strategic positions?
Charlotte is a dynamic, young, and growing city. These are super positive characteristics that attract smart young college graduates. Having a broad base of financial services and banking is also a huge plus, as well. From a recruiting and hiring standpoint, it is a great geographic venue. We are super committed to Charlotte and have close to 900 of our 7,500 employees in the market.
What are the firm’s top priorities and goals in the near future?
Our number one priority is always our colleagues and continuing to invest in technology, analytics, exclusive products, and training to make them more successful at Amwins than anywhere else in the industry. We invest in training programs at various different levels in the firm so employees have clear career paths. We don’t want folks to have to leave to continue to progress in their careers. Additionally, like many companies, we are focusing on how AI and large language models can improve the speed and accuracy of certain key supporting functions. We have a number of very interesting beta projects in the works.
2022 and 2023 were slower M&A years for us intentionally because we felt valuations were too inflated. With rates staying higher for longer, we have seen over the past six months valuations come down slightly. We have completed three acquisitions in the first five months of 2024 and have a number of others in the pipeline. We are pretty optimistic about M&A as an additional growth option that has been missing from our growth in the past two years.
