INTERVIEW: When It Comes to Professional Liability, Get Real Solutions in Real Time with ProAccess

We recently spoke with Jim Young, Managing Director of ProAccess, a managing general agent and wholesaler for Professional Liability products. Jim is a Professional Liability coverage specialist, having served as a fourteen-year board member of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) of which he was one of the founders. He has more than 30 years in the insurance industry as an underwriter, broker, and general agent, and has built strong relationships with both admitted and surplus lines carriers.

Source: By Annie George | Published on July 8, 2011

Founded in 2002, ProAccess is headquartered in West Orange, New Jersey, and has an office in Chicago. Licensed in all 50 states, ProAccess’ products are available on a national and regional basis, depending on each program.

A staff of 11 employees specializes in the Professional Liability markets, providing agents with access to a high-quality portfolio of coverage solutions for lawyers, accountants, healthcare, miscellaneous professionals (actuaries, bookkeepers, claims adjusters, forensic investigators, hotel property managers, management consultants, and many more); Employee Practices Liability; and Excess Professional Liability; among other programs.

“We write more than 700 law firms,” explained Jim. “From sole practitioners to multi-national and international firms, retail agents look to us for our expertise, experience, and speed to market.”

Jim explained that what makes its Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance program unique is that most carriers in this space have limited distribution and work through a select group of specialists. “The carriers don’t provide open access to the marketplace in this area, but they give us access, enabling us to serve as a filter and make the program available to the retail agents,” said Jim.

“We bring added value to these carriers because of our expertise and serve as an additional underwriter that vets the submissions and prepares them before they go through the underwriting process,” said Jim. “In some cases, we also have the ability to quote and issue a policy; in other instances, particularly for larger law firms, we need the carrier’s sign-off or authority. We do a lot of the pre-underwriting to make it easier for those carriers to sign off on an account.”

What’s more, because the classes of risk vary – from sole practitioner and multi-national through to international firms, ProAccess works with a number of carriers. “One of our carriers, for example, writes only larger firms and has limited distribution. Another carrier primarily serves the middle market, while another caters to smaller firms. Depending on the size of the firm and the territory, we can access our varied markets to help an agent place the coverage,” said Jim.

ProAccess serves as a wholesaler for its Healthcare program, which is run out of the Chicago office, and provides Health Care Professional Liability for Allied Healthcare, Mental Health Organizations, Residential risks including Long Term Care Facilities and Assisted Living Facilities. “We provide Professional Liability cover for all classes -- from doctors to medical facilities and hospitals,” said Jim.

Additionally, ProAccess offers Professional Liability for accountants through its close relationships with a number of A-rated markets for accounting firms with revenues of $5 million and over.  

ProAccess markets its products in a number of ways including email campaigns, word-of-mouth, and seminars in which Jim is a frequent speaker and thought leader on the subject of Professional Liability. This includes seminars hosted by PLUS and the ABA Standing Committee on malpractice. What’s more, a 30-year track record in the business gives Jim and ProAccess a competitive edge in the field.

“People know the type of service, expertise, and experience they’re going to get with us,” said Jim. “And we pride ourselves on treating people like we want to be treated – with respect. So if we say, we’ll call you back, we will.”

To find out more about the various programs offered through ProAccess, please visit http://www.proaccess1.com/, or call Jim toll free at 877-396-3501, or contact him via email at: jyoung@proaccess1.com.