McKernan believed that there was an opportunity in the market to leverage this business into a more structured format that would combine comprehensive coverage and services tailored to specific industry groups. This was the beginning of NSM's Program and Wholesale Division, which today consists of 13 industry-specific programs and general wholesale and binding authority business.

"The Programs Division is a realization of our vision statement, which is 'to excel as an industry leader in developing, implementing, managing and distributing industry-specific customer coverage focused insurance programs,'" says McKernan. "A typical program opportunity initiates in the Retail Division, and NSM will start to write a handful of industry-specific accounts that are a little more unique in their exposures and coverage needs. As this new program opportunity is identified, NSM puts the time, technology, and resources together to research and learn the industry, its needs, and its potential for underwriting profitability before going to market for a carrier partner. After a program has been developed, NSM underwrites, rates, quotes, binds, and issues policies in house. NSM also provides responsive customer service, focused claims handling and specialized risk management services as standard features for each program," says the NSM executive.

"What makes us different," says McKernan, "is a combination of strong sales and marketing force, an extensive national distribution base and a real commitment to investing in a staff with industry-specific underwriting expertise. "Our programs are developed for the long term. Our program teams are staffed with highly qualified underwriting professionals who have many years of insurance experience. We have solid relationships with the agents and brokers through whom our programs are distributed because they know we are here to stay, no matter how the market changes."

NSM has excelled in the recent hard market and has partnered with carriers that believe in strong underwriting results and NSM's program management model.

"Each NSM program delivers value to the insureds in their respective industries through involvement in, and support of, the industries' various trade organizations and associations." McKernan says. "Each program provides consistent communication of pertinent, insurance- and non-insurance-related information to these industries through newsletters, white papers, and seminars. Everyone throws around the term 'value added,' but we are always finding and creating ways to deliver on it, and that is what our mission statement reflects. That mission is 'to provide the customer excellence in insurance coverage and services through proactive, frequent and courteous customer service that provides comprehensive cost-effective solutions which encourage customer retention.'"

In addition to being attuned to its insureds' needs, NSM considers its direct customers to be the retail agents and brokers through whom the programs are distributed. "We have identified agents and brokers who have the same core values as ourselves. They are professional, responsive, innovative, decisive and can execute quickly. We currently have over 3,000 active brokers in our distribution network," says Fran Sarmiento, NSM's director of underwriting.

In keeping with its commitment to program business, NSM joined the Target Markets Program Administrators Association three years ago. "At the annual meetings, the interaction and networking with insurance companies and other program administrators are extremely valuable to us. We can find out what the carriers are interested in writing, what's new in program technology and how well our peers are doing in these changing times," says Sarmiento.