RLI Corp., through its subsidiaries, underwrites select property, casualty and surety products through major subsidiaries collectively known as RLI Insurance Group.
The company conducts operations through three insurance companies. RLI Insurance Company (RLI Ins.), a subsidiary of the company and its principal insurance subsidiary, writes multiple lines of insurance on an admitted basis in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. Mt. Hawley Insurance Co...
RLI Corp., through its subsidiaries, underwrites select property, casualty and surety products through major subsidiaries collectively known as RLI Insurance Group.
The company conducts operations through three insurance companies. RLI Insurance Company (RLI Ins.), a subsidiary of the company and its principal insurance subsidiary, writes multiple lines of insurance on an admitted basis in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. Mt. Hawley Insurance Company (Mt. Hawley), a subsidiary of RLI Ins., writes excess and surplus lines insurance on a non-admitted basis in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. Contractors Bonding and Insurance Company (CBIC), a subsidiary of RLI Ins., writes multiple lines of insurance on an admitted basis in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
As a specialty insurance company with a niche focus, the company offers insurance coverages in the specialty admitted and excess and surplus markets. The company distributes its property, casualty and surety products through locations across the country that market to wholesale and retail brokers, independent agents and carrier partners. The company offers limited coverages on a direct basis to select insureds, as well as various reinsurance coverages. From time to time, the company also writes a limited amount of business under agreements with managing general agents under the direction of its product leadership.
Segments
The company operates through Casualty, Property and Surety segments.
Casualty Segment
Commercial Excess and Personal Umbrella
The company’s commercial excess coverage is written in excess of primary liability insurance provided by other carriers, and in some cases, in excess of primary liability written by the company. The personal umbrella coverage is generally written in excess of homeowners’ and automobile liability coverage provided by other carriers.
Commercial Transportation
The company’s transportation insurance provides commercial automobile liability and physical damage insurance to local, intermediate and long-haul truckers, public transportation entities and other types of specialty commercial automobile risks. The company also offers incidental related insurance coverages, including general liability, excess liability and motor truck cargo.
General Liability
The company’s general liability business consists primarily of third-party liability coverage for commercial insureds including manufacturers, contractors, apartments and mercantile. The company also offers coverages for security guards and environmental liability coverages for underground storage tanks, contractors and asbestos and environmental remediation specialists.
Professional Services
The company offers professional liability coverages focused on providing errors and omission coverage for small to medium-sized design, technical, computer and other miscellaneous professionals. The company’s product suite for these customers also includes a full array of multi-peril package products, including general liability, property, automobile, excess liability and workers’ compensation coverages.
Small Commercial
The company’s small commercial business offers property and casualty insurance coverages for small to mid-sized contractors. The coverages included in these packages are predominantly general liability, but also include some inland marine coverages, as well as commercial automobile, property and excess liability coverage.
Executive Products
The company provides a suite of management liability coverages, such as directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance, fiduciary liability, employment practice liability and fidelity coverages, for a variety of risk classes, including both public and private businesses. The company’s publicly traded D&O appetite generally focuses on offering excess Side A D&O coverage (where corporations cannot indemnify the individual directors and officers) as well as excess full coverage D&O.
Other Casualty
The company offers a variety of other smaller products in its casualty segment, including home business insurance, which provides limited liability and property coverage for a variety of small business owners who work from their own home. The company has a quota share reinsurance agreement with Prime Insurance Company and Prime Property and Casualty Insurance Inc., the two insurance subsidiaries of Prime Holdings Insurance Services, Inc. (Prime). Through the company’s reinsurance agreement with Prime, it assumes general liability, excess, commercial auto, property and professional liability coverages on hard-to-place risks that are written in the excess and surplus and admitted insurance markets. Separately, the company assumes mortgage reinsurance, which provides credit risk transfer on pools of mortgages. The company also offers general liability and package coverages through a binding authority group, a program in which select surplus lines producers are granted limited underwriting authority through its online system to bind business on behalf of the company.
Property Segment
Commercial Property
The company’s commercial property coverage consists primarily of excess and surplus lines and specialty insurance such as fire, earthquake, wind and difference in conditions (DIC), which can include earthquake, flood and collapse coverages. The company provides insurance for a wide range of commercial and industrial risks, such as office buildings, apartments, condominiums and certain industrial and mercantile structures.
Marine
The company’s marine coverages include cargo, hull, protection and indemnity, marine liability, as well as inland marine coverages including builders’ risks and contractors’ equipment. Although the predominant exposures are located within the United States, there is some incidental international exposure written within these coverages.
Other Property
The company offers specialized homeowners’ and dwelling fire insurance in Hawaii, as well as property coverages packaged through its binding authority group.
Surety Segment
Transactional
The company’s transactional surety coverage includes small bonds for businesses and individuals. Examples of these bond types are license and permit, notary and court bonds. The underwriting and delivery of these bonds is highly automated.
Commercial
The company offers a variety of commercial surety bonds for medium to large-sized businesses across a broad spectrum of industries, including the financial, healthcare, energy and renewable energy industries.
Contract
The company offers bonds for small to medium-sized contractors throughout the United States, underwritten on an account basis. Typically, these are performance and payment bonds that guarantee commercial contractors’ contractual obligations for a specific construction project. The company also offers bonds for small and emerging contractors that are reinsured through the Federal Small Business Administration.
Marketing and Distribution
The company distributes its coverages across the country, primarily through wholesale and retail brokers, independent agents, and carrier partners.
Brokers
The company’s commercial property, general liability, commercial surety, executive products, commercial excess, marine and commercial transportation coverages are sold through independent wholesale and retail brokers.
Independent Agents
The company distributes products, such as homeowners’ and dwelling fire, home business, surety, commercial transportation, professional services, small commercial and personal umbrella through independent agents.
Carrier Partners
The company partners with other insurance carriers for home business and personal umbrella coverage. The carriers place this business with the company through their associated agencies when the underlying risk does not meet their underwriting appetite.
Underwriting Agents
The company contracts with select underwriting agencies that have limited authority to bind or underwrite business on its behalf. The underwriting agreements include strict guidelines, and the agents are subject to regular audits.
Direct
The company utilizes digital platforms to efficiently produce, process and service select business, including home business, binding authority, small commercial, personal umbrella and surety.
Competition
The company’s primary competitors in the casualty segment include AIG, Allianz, Arch, Aspen, AXA/IL, Beazley, Berkley, Berkshire/National Indemnity, Chubb, CNA, Great American, Great West, Hartford, Hudson, James River, Kinsale, Lancer, Liberty, Markel, Nationwide, Progressive, RSUI, Sompo, Tokio Marine/HCC, Travelers, USLI, Westchester and Zurich.
The company’s primary competitors in the property segment include AmRisc, Arch, Arrowhead, CNA, Golden Bear, Lexington, Liberty Mutual, Markel, Palomar, RSUI, Special Risk Underwriters, Travelers, Velocity and Westchester.
The company’s primary competitors in the surety segment are AIG, Arch, Beazley, Berkley, Chubb, CNA, Great American, Hartford, Intact, Liberty Mutual, Markel, Merchants, Philadelphia, Sompo, Swiss Re, Travelers and Zurich.
Investments
The company’s investments include fixed income debt securities, common stock equity securities, exchange traded funds (ETFs), and a small number of limited partnership interests.
Regulations
Because the company’s insurance company subsidiaries operate in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam, the company must comply with the individual insurance laws, regulations, rules and case law of each state and territory, including those regulating the filing of insurance rates and forms. Each of the company’s three insurance company subsidiaries are domiciled in Illinois, with the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI) as its principal insurance regulator.
Other federal laws and regulations apply to many aspects of the company and its business operations. These federal regulations include laws such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which establishes privacy and security requirements for insurance companies, and enables state departments of insurance to enforce these requirements; and the Fair Credit Reporting Act as amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which establishes rules regarding access to and use of information (including but not limited to credit information and motor vehicle reports) from consumer reporting agencies.
Trademarks
The company holds a U.S. federal service mark registration of its corporate name ‘RLI’ and several other company service marks and trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The duration of these registrations is 10 years, unless renewed.
History
RLI Corp., an Illinois corporation, was founded in 1965. The company was incorporated in 1965.