“It's still difficult to procure because there's no such thing as a standard form,” he said, highlighting an opportunity for E&S carriers who take the time to learn about the exposures and work with brokers to manuscript coverages unavailable in the standard market.

Mr. Springman listed other E&S opportunities in the following areas:

o Emerging health care exposures involving telemedicine, medi-spas for botox injections and tattoo removals.

o Lawyer's professional liability, where some competitors have either withdrawn or pulled back significantly from the market

o Internationally, for blue water hull, where rates are rising, and for products liability exposures.

Another area of opportunity is emerging in products liability, he said. “Some 90 percent of the world's toys are manufactured in China, and probably half are exported to the United States,” he said, noting that with a team of experts focused on understanding this area, “we have seen that portion of our portfolio actually grow in this market.”

Like Mr. Springman, Joseph D. Scollo Jr., COO of American Safety, also sees emerging opportunities in the health care arena. Noting that his company purchased an MGA focusing on nursing homes and assisted living facilities in February, he said, “We believe with the aging baby boomer population that this sector will provide a lot of long-term growth.”

Health care liability generally has “been considered a tough line of business, but tort reform has really had an impact on the claim costs in that line,” he added.

Mr. Scollo believes another area of opportunity for E&S insurers in the future resides in the energy market. “We need to reduce our reliance on foreign oil supplies, so there are going to be additional resources tapped in the United States,” he reasoned, adding that either existing U.S. oil sources will be tapped, or alternative energy sources such as bio-fuel and ethanol.