Midas Targets Growth in Non-Standard Home Portfolio

A quick update from Midas for you;

MDSCO, the MGA of URIS Group, is targeting profitable growth in its non-standard home portfolio this year, including  launching additional products under its Midas brand.

Midas Chief Underwriting Officer Andy Baughan said a five-year  arrangement signed with Zurich last year will enable the business to underwrite over £250m premium over the next five years, with all products distributed through regional brokers.

“We have a wide underwriting footprint for non-standard, including non-standard construction, unoccupied properties, let properties, holiday homes, risks with previous claims and convictions, all traded through OGI, Acturis and Applied.

“We’re finding high demand for our non-standard home proposition, because many insurers don’t have the time or expertise to do it themselves, and they prefer to work through MGAs such as ourselves.”

Andy said the non-standard home market is competitive, but “we have plenty of headroom to grow with Zurich , and while rates softened significantly last year there are signs that rating has begun to level out and, in some lines, prices may start to move upwards again this year.”

He said Midas had resisted pressure to follow the market down, in order to deliver profitable returns for insurer partners

Andy pointed to the Northern Ireland (NI) market as a hotspot for Midas, which has its roots in NI, because underwriters have been absent from that market for several years.

“There is limited supply  of capacity, but our Jewel proposition is proving very popular. We launched in NI in January, only working with brokers local to that market. We  will continue to explore how we can expand our suite of products in both home and motor in the NI market.”

Midas has Private Car propositions available in NI and a GB-wide classic car portfolio underwritten by Axa and Aviva respectively.

Andy said: “We are super excited by our non-standard property proposition, alongside our Motor offerings, and brokers are pleasantly surprised by the breadth of products we  provide.”

We’re expecting to add more propositions this year, and we are confident the demand will be there from our broking partners. It’s an exciting time for the Group following UGL’s management buyout from Ardonagh under the leadership of Derek Coles.”