NU Online News Service, Aug. 12, 3:11 p.m. EST

NEW YORK— Underscoring its relationship with its select insurance broker partners, Zurich wraps up a six-city tour this week in Chicago to highlight the company's appetite for the middle-market commercial marketplace.

“You are very important to us,” Randall Clouser, head of distribution and regional management, North America for Zurich, tells more than 100 insurance brokers last week at the New York Stock Exchange.

Focusing on the importance of brokers' business to the company, Clouser says the commercial middle market grew by 7 percent “through the select brokers.”

“This is quite phenomenal when you consider that the insurance industry has not grown at all,” Clouser notes.

Vince Tizzio, president of commercial markets and head of customer industry segments for Zurich North America Commercial says the seven industry segments the executives were concentrating on during the tour were “distinct businesses that have gone through a lot of transition.”

They are:

• Construction.
• Energy.
• Environmental.
• Financial Institutions.
• Manufacturing.
• Real Estate.
• Technology.

The emphasis, he says, is to let the brokers know they “have a trading partner that will be there over the long term” and the company has gone through “vast changes” to deal actively with claims and unintended exposures—all of which produce will provide a stronger trading relationship that ultimately benefits the customer.

The brokers and executives eventually broke out into what could be described as a speed-dating format. Brokers spent 15 minutes in breakout sessions visiting their choice of one of four industry segment heads to hear a brief overview about Zurich's offerings and appetite for specific industry segments.

The road trip began in San Francisco in early July, and in addition to visiting New York and Chicago, dropped in at Los Angeles, Houston, and Columbus, Ohio.