The total destruction of the bareboat fleet in the British Virgin Islands was just one of the casualities of Hurricane Irma.
Now it seems there is another!
Falvey Insurance Group has announced it will close its yacht underwriting business just weeks after the managing general agent had handed $70mn of losses to Lloyd’s.
Earlier this month, the industry magazine Insurance Insider reported that the group’s yacht book, which was 60 percent written by MS Amlin, with the remainder of the capacity coming from other Lloyd’s insurers, had taken a significant hit after an especially active 2017 hurricane season.
And today the company based in North Kingstown, Rhode Island announced that tomorrow it would close its yacht and charter underwriting business.
The group’s president Mike Falvey blamed the “uncertain future” of the yacht market as the “primary motivation” for the closing.
“Despite the hard work and commitment of growing both yacht and charter, Falvey Insurance Group is making a difficult, but necessary choice in order to focus our resources and energy on our current and upcoming ventures where the opportunities are greater,” he said.
“We appreciate the support over the past eight years and look forward to continuing to serve our brokers and assureds in the cargo and vessel pollution markets.”
Mike Falvey, President of Falvey Insurance Group, made the announcement on Monday, November 20, 2017, citing the uncertain future of the yacht market as the primary motivation for the closing, as well as the need to focus on the market-leading positions in cargo and marine pollution.
Falvey Cargo Underwriting, Falvey Shippers Insurance and Safe Harbor Pollution Insurance are operationally unaffected by the suspension of the yacht division. Each subsidiary of Falvey Insurance Group functions as an independent sub-company with dedicated staff, budgets and business plans and will continue daily operations.