News

My son Sam studied the Civil War in school last year and did pretty well on the subject. I don’t mean to sound surprised, but schoolwork is not Sam’s easy street. So far this has been a pretty low-key summer, so Teri and I decided to take Sam and a friend on a weekend visit to Gettysburg. It is an amazing chapter in our country’s story and very accessible to us in Western PA.

The trip was good, but the 2-hour guided tour of the battlefield turned into four. Needless to say, our exuberant guide dished up more than two teenage boys could handle in one stand. I was a good soldier though and kept up with the narrative. According to our guide, there was an awful lot of peer pressure that kept boys as young as Sam and his buddy on that battlefield for those three awful days. Standing on that farmer’s field 150 years later knowing what those men were asked to do and did, was overwhelming – what’s more, the world keeps asking and young men and women keep responding.

I‘ve been looking for something notable to report on in the insurance marketplace for weeks now. I mean, it feels like we’ve been in a neutral market forever. Lately, I have been thinking the most significant change in our industry is how the ‘science’ of insurance has evolved. I am a pretty simple guy and to me, insurance is the promise to restore one to a pre-loss condition when bad things happen. The promise still stands, but we have gotten a whole lot more sophisticated in the terms and conditions, and in finding the right rate to charge for that promise.

Thirty years ago when I got into the business (and they actually let me hold a pen) the truck insurance we wrote was primarily monoline physical damage coverage. What’s more, in the good old days 5% was the rate we could sell with just a simple one-page quote sheet. Today, I see my underwriters mapping risks, checking CAB reports, cross-referencing drivers, and reviewing IFTA reports. Apparently all of that will now tell us how good a risk is and what the ultimate rate should be, and in return, almost no one pays 5% anymore.

Dad was a salesman, so he knew he needed to hire good underwriters to make sure we did things well and made money for our companies. It doesn’t matter if you need insurance for a daycare, used car dealer, or a start-up tech shop, our underwriting teams will go to great lengths to help you and your customer. We start with our binding markets (over 20 to work with), and seek to match your risk with the best coverage and a competitive, sellable price. We also have relationships with dozens of brokerage facilities. Though we are much more sophisticated and have so many great markets to access, Tuscano is still an underwriting shop and we’ll always choose to write more of the right risks at the right price and let the competition write the wrong risks!

Technology and data will continue to shape the insurance industry, but I hope it will always be a people business. Tuscano CAN do it, but we can’t do it without you!

Thank you for your business.