Memorial Day
Friday, May 24th
All offices close at 1:00pm

Monday, May 27th
All offices closed

May 19-22
New Orleans, LA

ASI's 9th Annual Charity Golf Tournament was held Thursday, October 4th at BridgeMill Country Club and raised more that $86,000 for the American Red Cross. A very special thanks to our players and sponsors for making this year another success! Click here to see all pictures and sponsorship signs!                                                                                             

Click here to read more on ASI Surety's Senior Vice President, Mike Cifone's, take on how the economy is affecting contractors with other industry executives.

Monday, November 12 update:

• Our Jersey City, NJ office is back up and running as of Friday, November 2nd.
• Our Tinton Falls, NJ office is also back up and running as of Monday, November 12th.

We appreciate your patience and understanding during this disaster and our thoughts are with all others affected.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AMERICAN RED CROSS
METROPOLITAN ATLANTA CHAPTER
CONTACT: RUBEN L.C. BROWN 404.290.2851 (MOBILE); .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

ATLANTA RED CROSS ANNOUNCES NEW BOARD MEMBERS

ATLANTA, June 22---The American Red Cross, Metropolitan Atlanta Chapter announced at its Annual Meeting and Volunteer Recognition at the Atlanta History Center on June 20 that Kevin Keough, Director, Portfolio Management, Arcapita, Inc., will serve a two-year term as the next chapter chairman.  Keough succeeds Suzanne Detlefs who just completed her third term as chair. 

The meeting included the election of the following new Board members: Steve Crim, CEO, American Safety Insurance; Amy Hayes, Managing Director, Russell Reynolds Associates; Mary Lou Heastings, CEO, Executive Alliance, Inc.; Susan Jain, Vice President of Marketing, IBM Corporation; Brad Marcus, Senior Vice President and Regional Executive, Wells Fargo Bank; Charles Odom,Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Cox Media Group, Cox Enterprises; Sara Prince, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company; and Diane Prucino, Co-Managing Partner, Kilpatrick Townsend LLP.

In addition, the membership elected the following to serve renewed terms: Susan Carter, Executive Director, Georgia Power Foundation, Inc.; Hil Jordan, Partner, McGuireWoods LLP; Brian Philbin, Senior Strategic Claims Consultant, Nationwide Insurance; Meredith Sidewater, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, LexisNexis; Nandan Sheth, President & Chief Operating Officer, Acculynk, Inc.; and John Zedd, Chief Executive Officer, Woodhall Corporation.

"We are grateful to our outgoing Board members for helping us fulfill the mission of the Red Cross and look forward to partnering with our new members as we continue our important work in the Atlanta community,” said Terri Badour Duckett, Chief Executive Officer.

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 About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies more than 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.

Click here to read more on Mr. Scollo's take on Products Liability line in the Advisen FPN article.

Alternative Risk Solutions                          Professional Liability                             Surety
Environmental                                               Primary Casualty
Excess                                                            Property
Healthcare                                                     Specialty Programs                                 

ASI is proud to announce our very own, Julia Davis, CIO of our IT operations during company-wide development and implementation of brand new systems, is a finalist for the 2012 Annual Georgia CIO of the Year!

Click Here For Details!

Click the link below to read more about ASI's IT innovation being recognized in the insurance industry! We continue to make the ease of doing business with us a top priority.
Click Here

Click here to read ASI's Vice President of Healthcare, Paul Marshall, discuss PLUS - article: The Evolving Healthcare Risk and the Evolving Underwriter Strategy. With the 70 million baby boomers turning 65, there is a new demand and associated liability risks for the newly named Senior Care Long-Term Services and Supports or LTSS. The traditional Healthcare PL Underwriting must evolve along with the new exposures.

American Safety Insurance is proud to announce they have raised more than $66,000 for the American Red Cross!

September 29, 2011, ASI held its Eighth Annual Charity Golf Tournament. Different from years past, in light of all of the natural disasters affecting the world, it was decided that all fundraising efforts would go to the American Red Cross. The funds were raised through player entry fees, sponsorships, mulligan and raffle ticket sales, as well as an ASI company match.

This year's event was held at BridgeMill Athletic Club in Canton, Georgia and boasted more than 120 golfers from across the U.S. Players enjoyed multiple opportunities to win prizes, such as: closest to the pin and longest drive competitions and a raffle, which offered a grand prize of a weeks' stay at a private villa and roundtrip airfare for two to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Since its inception in 2004, ASI's annual tournament has raised more than $350,000 for charitable organizations. In addition to the American Red Cross, past recipients include American Heart Association, Habitat for Humanity, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, ALS Association, Autism Society of America and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Click here for pictures from our event!

Big thank you to the following sponsors, without their help we coudln't have done it!
Gold Sponsors
Cozen O'Connor
Engle Martin & Associates
Fields Howell
NIIT Technologies
ASI Exectutive Team

Beverage Cart Sponsors
Bohl, Nixon & Schoneman
Custard Insurance Adjusters, Inc.
Gartner Bloom
RT Specialty

Hole Sponsors
Aon
Asperger Associates LLC
Baxter Smith & Shapiro PC
Beacon Consulting
Blau & Associates, P.C.
Bolan Jahnsen Dacey
Bovis, Kyle and Burch
Brown, Bonn & Friedman, LLP
Burch & Cracchiolo
Cardinal Industrial Insulation Co. Inc.
Carlson Law Group, Inc.
CEO Alliance
Cherry, Seymour, Hundley & Baronian P.C.
Clausen Miller PC
Cupples & Associates, PLLC
Dave Brueggan
Ernstrom & Dreste, LLP
Graves & King LLP
Hagen Streiff Newton Oshiro Accountants
Hamlin & Burton
Highland Risk Services
Hollins Law Group
iPartners LLC
Kubicki Draper
Lawrence Geneen & Associates
Litchfield Cavo
Marks, O'Neill, O'Brien & Courtney, P.C.
Milliman
Murchinson & Cumming LLP
Partners Specialty Group, LLC
Second Image National
SGROOT LLC
Thomco Insurance Services
Travelers BoilerRe
United Risk Management Corp.
USG Insurance Services of California
Wellspring Capital Advisors LLC
Westermann Sheehy Keenan Samaan
Willis Re
Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman LLP

Additional Donors
A Plus Insurance
Aon Benfield
Degan, Blanchard & Nash
Dincel & Associates
Ecker Insurance & Associates
Gascou Hopkins LLP
Grower, Ketcham, Rutherford, Bronson, Eide & Telan, P.A.
Hicks Casey & Foster PC
Horton Oberrecht Kirkpatrick & Martha
Hunt Nissan
Law Offices of Stacy Fierman-Cribbs
North Highland
Scharnhorst Ast & Kennard, P.C.
The Alliance Group Inc.
The Hodgkins Family Fund, Inc.
The Jansen Group Inc.

Quaker Special Risk Senior Executive Jim Andreoli looks to ASI for efficiency, innovation and collaboration to give his brokerage firm the competitive edge.

“When you dial the underwriter at ASI,” says Quaker Special Risk Senior Executive Jim Andreoli, “that underwriter makes the decision.” For the Massachusetts-based regional brokerage, that means transactions happen quickly, affording it a competitive advantage.

This agility can be very attractive to the local middle market retail agencies that are Quaker Special Risk’s key client base. “We take a lot of pride in knowing our customers extremely well,” says Andreoli.

ASI, in turn, has taken the time to get to know Quaker Special Risk and its retail agency customers. That intimate knowledge translates into business opportunities for Quaker Special Risk and its customers. “ASI is a substantial national firm that makes you feel like you’re dealing with a much more accessible, smaller, regional company,” Andreoli explains.

Faced with competing to insure a condominium construction project, for example, Quaker and ASI sought to provide something via the retail broker that the insured would not otherwise be offered. Understanding the increased exposure that comes with the reality of multiple owners in a condominium project, ASI and Quaker were able to provide a comprehensive general liability policy with an extended products/completed operations endorsement which provided coverage for up to 7 years after the project is completed.

“Some companies don’t want to underwrite this sort of risk at all,” Andreoli says. “It was an enhancement to a standard policy that caught they eye of the insured. Our ability to bring something different and special to the insured steered the business our way.”

Since landing that account, Quaker gained the trust of the retail agency – which has turned into one of its largest clients. “That initial transaction went a long way toward developing that relationship,” Andreoli says “Through a collaborative effort with the decision making underwriter, we were able to provide something that separated us from the competition.”

More generally, Andreoli says Quaker values ASI: accommodating modified coverage wording in a timely manner; approving modifications on the spot thanks to its underwriters’ knowledge, experience and decision making authority; and its stability, responsiveness, and efficient handling and paying of claims and performance of audits. ASI finds a way to balance accommodating client needs with maintaining discipline in a competitive market.

”It is an enormous advantage to us that not all of our competitors have access to ASI,” says Andreoli “It‘s truly special relationship.”

For additional information on ASI’s casualty risk capabilities, contact our underwriting team at 1-800-388-3647 or visit www.amsafety.com/casualty.

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Agility and solid working relationships allow ASI to offer its clients a chance to capitalize on opportunities ahead of other competitors.

American Risk Management Resources Network, LLC (ARMR.net) and ASI developed an environmental insurance policy to protect owners faced with potential liabilities from defective drywall manufactured in China and imported to the United States since 2001. How did they beat the market by more than a year?

ARMR.net recognized that a residential property found to contain contaminated dry wall is instantly worth a fraction of the cost spent to build it. There are tens of thousands of such properties in the United States. Homes neighboring these houses could be challenged to obtain loans, given the stigma of this defective drywall in the neighborhood. The first call made from ARMR.net, upon identifying the need in the market caused by homeowner policies’ defective building materials exclusions, went to ASI.

“Within weeks we were visiting a contaminated property in Miami,” says ARMR.net’s Dave Dybdahl. “We went to south Florida four times in four months to get the ‘ground truth’ – what was actually going on. We talked with contractors and property owners who were going through the problems. Armed with the information, we were able to design an insurance program with ASI.”

What was happening on the ground? The stigma associated with Chinese drywall was adversely affecting property owners in two ways. First, if one home has contaminated drywall, all of the homes in the neighborhood may have trouble finding bank loans. Second, even if a property has contaminated drywall removed, the stigma associated with prior contamination may make it impossible to get a loan on or sell the property.

The technical solution to the drywall problem was a testing protocol that would make the properties that tested free of contaminated drywall insurable. The financial solution to both problems was the ASI Environmental Warranty insurance policy which will pay to remediate properties of contaminated drywall and other indoor air pollutants discovered during the policy period.

“What’s so impressive about ASI is its short, but thorough, approval process with not a lot of levels of management,” he says. “My day-to-day contact at ASI is the decision maker. With ASI, we co-create products that include big elements of risk engineering and loss control.”

For additional information in ASI’s environmental insurance capabilities, contact us at 1-800-388-3647 or visit www.amsafety.com/environmental.

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Troy Key, a surety bond agent with Mullis Newby Hurst, LP, understands the importance of seeingopportunities and reacting to them in a timely manner to seal the deal.
 

Key was watching March Madness on television three years ago when he received a call from a prospect who had run into a bond challenge that day. Another agent was being unresponsive to Key’s prospective client. As Key describes it, with ASI’s support, he was able to quickly respond and “get the deal done that day – all while watching basketball.” That $1M transaction has grown into a $30M client today.

To Key, customer service means more than responsiveness, though responsiveness is crucial. He appreciates ASI’s ability to understand a particular surety risk.

“A contractor may have other activity going on,” Key explains. “When it comes to the job for which they need a bond, ASI is willing to use common sense to consider the risk.”

Where other underwriters look at a contractor overall and are sometimes intimidated by the bigger picture, Key says ASI works to understand the relationship. Where others may prefer to wait to see how a contractor’s other jobs finish before underwriting the risk of a new one, ASI is more willing to proceed based on an agent’s knowledge of the client.

“They take the time to understand the account,” says Key.

Key appreciates being able to easily access and work directly with decision makers. “I can pick up the phone and throw ideas back and forth, which I can take to the client immediately,” he says. “We often have just 24 hours to respond.”

For additional information on ASI’s surety capabilities, contact our underwriting team at 1-800-388-3647 or visit www.amsafety.com/surety.

• Download PDF

ASI’s 5th Annual Charity Golf Tournament was a success!! Our goal was to raise $60,000 to split between the two chosen charities, ALS Association and Autism Society of America, and we surpassed it! Thank you to all the sponsors who made this possible and thank you to all of the participants for coming out to show your support.

Our first place team consisted of Larry Howard with ASI, Steve Kay with Capstone Surety, Jason Cromwell with Smith-Manus Agency and Geoffrey Russell with Collins coming in with a 57!! And congratulations to Mitchell Kaplan with Zarwin, Baum, DeVito, Kaplan, Schaer & Toddy Attorneys at Law who took home one week's accomodations and roundtrip airfare to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

For a complete list of sponsors, click here. 

ASI’s property underwriting team can now include equipment breakdown coverage on commercial multi-peril and monoline property policies. Standard commercial property policies typically do not cover losses sustained by an insured from equipment breakdown. In fact, property policies specifically exclude mechanical breakdown, electrical arcing or damage due to a surge of electrical power, explosion due to centrifugal force, explosion, cracking, or burning (overheating) of steam boilers or pipes. Uninsured gaps like these could mean big losses to an insured without the appropriate coverage.

Under ASI’s equipment breakdown coverage, electrical, mechanical, air conditioning, and production equipment as well as heating boilers and pressure vessels and key machinery and equipment are covered losses. In the event of an accident or breakdown to equipment, the following are covered:

• Electrical burnout of motors, electrical distribution equipment (circuit breaker box including facility electrical wiring), and emergency generators and transformers.
• Mechanical breakdown of compressors, pumps, fans, blowers, and other machinery.
• Cracking or collapse of air conditioning or refrigeration system vessels, coils, or piping.
• Explosion of steam boilers and steam piping.
• Burning (overheating) of boilers due to insufficient water.
• Cracking of sections in cast iron boilers.
• Bulging, cracking, or collapse of pressure vessels, such as water heaters, compressed air tanks, steam cookers and kettles, expansion tanks, and condensate return tanks.
• The extra cost of expediting repairs.
• Damage to other people's property in your care, custody, or control.
• Losses to property from the release of hazardous substances caused by an accident.
• Business Interruption protection, covering the expenses to get you back on track as soon as possible.

For further details on ASI's insurance solutions for commercial property, click here or contact an underwriter at 732-933-2960.

As of Aug. 29, 2008, ASI's Middletown, NJ office will be located at:

106 Apple St.
Suite 101B
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724-2670

Main Phone: 732-933-2960
Main Fax: 732-933-2961
Toll Free: 866-397-0835

Our environmental underwriting unit has partnered with managing general agent AGAI-MGA to provide workers comp for coverage for ASI insureds with an A.M Best "A" rated carrier.

Coverage is available on a monoline basis upon policy renewal or inception for insureds with a pollution liability policy with ASI. States where the program is currently available include: AK, AR, FL, GA, IA, IL, KS, KY, LA, MD, MN, MS, NC, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA and WI.

All submissions should include a completed ACCORD application, three to four years of currently valued loss information, current experience mod, a narrative of operations and a copy of the ASI dec page. Please allow a minimum of 30 days of lead time prior to the desired effective date.

For additional information, please contact Theresa Stout with AGAI-MGA at (888) 393-5071 or via email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or contact your ASI environmental underwriter.