We have all heard that the E&S insurance business needs a steady flow of really good people, but our long-term personnel challenges go beyond this objective. Beyond attracting talented individuals, we must also train them. In addition to teaching the technical skills we require, we must also impart our culture of excellence, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The E&S insurance industry's biggest opportunity is to continue to do what we do so well: meeting the complex and unique insurance needs of our clients with creativity and expertise. The expertise and experience in both the underwriting and broker ranks provides a level of creativity that is very powerful, and provides a significant benefit to our retail brokers and their clients. The members of the E&S insurance industry are experts at solving our clients' difficult coverage challenges.

I see this every day in my segment of the business, professional liability. Cyber Risk insurance is currently the most visible example, but there are many others. EPL started in our business, and increased employment litigation is driving many D&O and EPL accounts back to the E&S insurance market where there are a variety of competitive and customized alternatives.

The E&S industry thrives on these changes, and provides a creative and competitive environment for solutions.

Hank Haldeman
Executive Vice President, The Sullivan Group, Los Angeles
NAPSLO Secretary

The market goes up and down, and right now the market seems to be slowly trending in a favorable direction for wholesalers—who have an opportunity to better communicate and establish the value that they bring to transactions. There's room for retailers to more clearly understand how they can marshal the expertise of wholesalers to better service their clients. It's incumbent upon professionals in the wholesale distribution system to actively demonstrate the value that their market access brings to the process.

It's important for the industry to continue to evolve and bring new products to market; that's a challenge because of the ever-increasing speed with which that needs to happen.

Gilbert C. Hine Jr., CPCU, CFP
President, McClelland & Hine Inc., San Antonio, Texas
NAPSLO Treasurer

Within a time horizon of the next 12 months at the enterprise level the challenge will be to maintain service and underwriting performance levels as premium volume and policy counts increase at double-digit rates. This will be especially critical in managing increased staff and the effective integration of new hires.

Over the longer term, the effective management of the ever-increasing volumes and sophistication of analytical risk level data will be an enormous challenge for our industry. The ability to timely collect, analyze and distribute critical information to the appropriate decision-makers within our organizations and distribution systems and to have them be able to properly interpret and use the data will continue to require significant investments in both information systems and education.

In terms of opportunities, I believe one of the greatest opportunities for our industry and for our country is the incredible revolution in the energy industry. The enormous deposits of natural gas and oil that can now be accessed with new fracking drilling technologies has and will continue to reverberate across all sectors of our economy. Within major drilling areas such as the Eagle Ford Shale formations south of San Antonio, we have seen enormous increase in economic activity. Driving south of San Antonio you can't pass a truck stop that isn't full of tractor trailer rigs or new motels and restaurants with full parking lots. A robust economy is the best opportunity for growing our businesses.