SPECIAL REPORT
TOP SPECIALIST BROKERS
MATTHEW ROMANO
President and CEO
Vice president, flood
INSURETRUST
MONARCH E&S INSURANCE SERVICES, A DIVISION OF SPG INSURANCE SOLUTIONS
Specialty: Cyber/privacy liability
Specialty: Flood
“What attracted me to cyber was the industry’s need for experts in a space that traditional specialists have viewed as of secondary importance,” says Christiaan Durdaller. “Cyber insurance has been
Matthew Romano began his career as a flood consultant in the real estate industry. He then delved into the wholesale side of the insurance business, where flood placements were mostly controlled by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which he found to be inefficient and costly. “I think the biggest challenge was in the beginning of my flood career, when the idea of private-market flood was so new and I needed to get the word out to the retailers and explain how this would work and why this type of placement could be better for their insureds,” Romano says. “I was able to do this by spending the time understanding all aspects of the private markets and what they had to offer. This gave me the ability to educate the field and help them provide their insureds coverage that filled in gaps left by the NFIP.” Romano regularly finds excess flood coverage to fill sublimit gaps and replaces NFIP coverage with private-market solutions that offer better coverage while limiting NFIP cost increases. He also helps his clients limit exposure by assisting with modifying building designs for high-hazard areas.
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CHRISTIAAN DURDALLER
MARY ROY Vice president QUAKER SPECIAL RISK, A JENCAP COMPANY Specialty: Personal lines E&S
Mary Roy has specialized in securing high-value homeowner’s insurance for affluent individuals for 20 years. Her expertise lies in finding customized
around since the late 1990s and is still placed largely by those who are experts or specialists in other lines of coverage, such as D&O, E&O or property. Very seldom do you find folks out there who spend all day, every day focusing on cyber.” At INSURETrust, Durdaller leads the corporate solutions brokering team and concentrates on products and strategy, as well as national cyber and technology clients. As part of INSURETrust’s leadership team, he helps to ensure products, services and solutions stay ahead of the market. “One challenge our industry faces daily is educating clients accurately on what limits they should be purchasing,” Durdaller says. “Internally, we conquer this [by combining] capital modeling and quantification modeling for our clients, which very few other brokers have the ability to do.” Durdaller’s team was named Cyber Brokering Team of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2020 by Advisen, which also named Durdaller Cyber Risk Industry Person of the Year – USA in 2018.
solutions for the unique needs of celebrities and public figures, with a concentration on affluent coastal accounts. Roy currently oversees the personal lines and marketing departments for Quaker Special Risk’s Massachusetts office, and she boasts in-depth knowledge of the admitted and surplus lines marketplace for personal lines. “Very few personal lines brokers specialize in both high-net-worth and surplus lines insurance placements,” she says. “I genuinely enjoy finding customized insurance solutions for my clients’ unique needs and have spent my career exceeding the expectations of my retail agency partners.” Roy is also proficient in brokerage and binding authority risk assessment techniques, which she leverages to regularly exceed department production goals. Her leadership and example reflect her team’s approach of solving problems quickly and maintaining strong relationships with agency and carrier partners.
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