February 27, 2012
10:13:00 PMPM
The Insurance Journal featured Stuckey & Company's HarborGuard program in an article about the marina insurance market. You can read an excerpt from the article below and find the rest on the Insurance Journal site at:
http://www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/features/2012/02/20/235813.htm
Marina Market Tightens Up in the Wake of Catastrophe-Ridden 2011
The marina insurance market seems to be heading for some changes, thanks to the stormy losses of 2011.
While the hard/soft market cycle has been a fact of life for the insurance industry almost since its inception, it is beginning to morph into a more individual pattern, which could be termed “cycle specific.” Essentially, the cycle is affected by regional events. The Japan earthquake and tsunami raised rates in that country, as did the earthquakes in New Zealand and the floods in Australia. But these events had a far lesser effect on the overall cycle, which is still generally a soft market.
Marina coverage is no exception. “Generally it’s still a soft market,” said Kerry Stuckey, COO and co-founder of Stuckey and Co., a St. Louis-based wholesale agent that specializes in marinas, as well as other specialty lines. However, the high number of tornadoes that struck the South and Midwest, particularly the massive destruction in Joplin, Mo., as well as the floods in Tennessee, have raised exposure levels and have pushed rates for marina coverage up by nearly 25 percent.
