Company Description

We are a profitable and growing company providing specialty P&C products. We were founded by industry veteran Stephen Sills and are led by a highly experienced and respected underwriting team with decades of individual, successful underwriting experience. We focus on providing “craft” solutions in our specialty lines and classes of business that we believe require deep underwriting and claims expertise in order to produce attractive financial results. We have initially focused on underwriting Casualty, Professional Liability and Healthcare risks where our management team has deep experience. Across our underwriting divisions, our policyholders vary in size, industry and complexity and require specialized, innovative and customized solutions where we individually underwrite and structure policies for each account. As a result, our products are primarily written on an E&S basis, where we have flexibility of rate and policy form. Our underwriting teams collaborate across our claims, actuarial and legal departments, ensuring they are aware of developments that could impact our business and using a consistent approach to our underwriting. We handle our claims in-house; our claims management teams, which align with our three underwriting divisions, have significant experience in the markets on which we focus and work closely with our underwriting and actuarial teams, keeping them informed of claims trends, providing feedback on emerging areas of loss experience and identifying and addressing key issues and adjusting loss reserves as appropriate. We distribute our products through carefully selected relationships with leading distribution partners in both the wholesale and retail markets. We pride ourselves on the quality and experience of our people, who are committed to exceeding our partners’ expectations through excellent service and expertise. Our collaborative culture spans all functions of our business and allows us to provide a consistent, positive experience for all of our partners. This consistency of experience, combined with our client-focused approach, has created a company with which our distribution partners want to work, supporting the continued growth of our platform. Our principal objective is to create and sustain superior returns for our stockholders by generating consistent underwriting profits across our product lines and through all market cycles, while prudently managing capital. We have grown substantially over the past two years, generating gross written premiums of $356.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 and $507.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, a year-over-year increase of 42.2%. For the year ended December 31, 2023, we delivered a combined ratio of 95.0%, net income of $25.0 million and a return on equity of 18.2%. We believe that our current market opportunity, differentiated expertise, relationships, culture and leadership team position us well to continue to grow our business profitably. BICI is domiciled and licensed as an admitted insurer in the state of Wisconsin. BSUI is a licensed business entity producer, domiciled as an insurance producer and an MGA in the state of Texas, and a licensed agency in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. BSUI does business as “Bowhead Specialty Insurance Services” in California, Illinois, Nevada, New York, Utah and Virginia. Our ability to write business, however, is currently largely based on our relationship with AmFam. Through our relationship with AmFam, we are able to write business on an admitted basis in all 50 states and Washington D.C. and on a non-admitted basis in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. As of December 31, 2023, there were only five states in which 5.0% or more of our gross written premiums were concentrated: California (16.7%), Florida (13.3%), New York (10.3%), Texas (9.8%) and Illinois (5.0%). We founded our business in September 2020, recognizing a favorable pricing environment and a growing and unmet demand from brokers and policyholders for craft solutions and quality service in complex lines of business. We built a nimble, remote-friendly organization able to attract best-in-class talent that we source nationwide to service this demand, with 193 employees as of December 31, 2023 across the country who are committed to operational excellence and superior service. We are backed by capital provided by GPC Fund and our strategic partner, AmFam, a mutual insurer with an “A” (Excellent) financial strength rating from A.M. Best and approximately $7.0 billion of policyholder surplus as of December 31, 2023. We originate business on the paper of AmFam through BSUI writing policies issued by AmFam under the name of AmFam and reinsure 100.0% of the insurance business we originate to BICI, our wholly-owned insurance company subsidiary. Our partnership with AmFam has enabled us to grow quickly but prudently, deploying capital and adding employees when business and growth justified. We currently offer craft solutions to a wide variety of businesses across three underwriting divisions: Casualty, Professional Liability and Healthcare. --- We take a highly collaborative and customized approach to underwriting. Our fully integrated and accountable underwriting methodology brings the specialized industry knowledge, business acumen and strong distribution relationships that we believe are required to profitably underwrite the complex lines of business on which we focus. Our underwriting teams all have deep underwriting and industry experience in the lines of business we write. We aim to offer craft solutions to our clients in a timely and consistent manner. We underwrite, structure and price quotes on a case-by-case basis while maintaining disciplined risk parameters including strict policy limits. We have developed and constantly evaluate our risk framework with significant input from our actuarial, claims, legal and finance functions. Similarly, we frequently hold “roundtable” discussions, which are a key part of our underwriting process, and depending on the risk, can occur at multiple levels across the company, often involving functions outside of underwriting teams, including actuarial, claims, legal and finance. Roundtables allow our underwriters to leverage appropriate expertise across the organization; our culture of collaboration and accountability means that underwriting decisions are not made in isolation, allowing us to deliver consistent underwriting decisions with input from multiple perspectives. Casualty: Our Casualty division provides tailored solutions on a primary and excess basis through a wholesale-only distribution channel and consists of a team of experienced underwriters with nationwide capabilities who excel at handling complex risks. We specialize in GL coverage for risks in the construction, distribution, heavy manufacturing, real estate and hospitality segments and also consider underwriting risks in a broader range of industries. Within these industries, we seek to identify specific segments that play to our strengths and in which we believe we can generate profitable growth. For example, within construction, a $2.4 trillion industry in the U.S. as of December 31, 2023 according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, we seek to participate in large, complex and engineered construction projects. Product Description Distribution Excess Projects • Offers excess coverage to large commercial • E&S products distributed by general contractors or developers on single wholesale brokers commercial, residential and infrastructure projects Excess Practice • Offers annually renewable excess coverage • E&S products distributed by for GL, Product Liability and Auto Liability wholesale brokers to middle market contractors (typically from $100 million to $1 billion in revenue) nationally Excess Other • Offers annually renewable first excess, or • Primarily E&S products higher excess, coverage to real estate, distributed by wholesale brokers hospitality, public entity or manufacturing companies Primary Projects • Offers wrap-up GL coverage to large general • E&S products distributed by contractors and developers on single wholesale brokers commercial and residential projects Primary Practice • Offers annually renewable GL coverage to • E&S products distributed by middle market (under $100 million in wholesale brokers revenue) general contractors and subcontractors Primary Other • Offers GL coverage to middle market (under • E&S products distributed by $200 million in revenue) commercial and wholesale brokers industrial manufacturers and distributors Professional Liability: Our Professional Liability division provides underwriting solutions on both an admitted and E&S basis for standard and nonstandard risks and writes for a broad variety of entities, including publicly traded and privately held FIs as well as not-for-profit organizations. We distribute this business through wholesale and retail channels. The Professional Liability market, in general, is highly competitive; however, we believe that there are specific sub-markets, including in FI, private D&O and E&O, that have attractive growth and return potential. Additionally, we selectively pursue exposures in small and middle market public D&O where we believe pricing remains favorable and view Cyber and Technology E&O as a significant growth opportunity where we are developing primary capabilities to target smaller accounts that we believe are experiencing less rate pressure compared with larger accounts. Product Description Distribution FI • Offers suite of management liability • Primarily admitted products products including D&O, E&O, EPL, Fiduciary, mostly distributed by retail Fidelity and related lines to asset and agents investment management companies, banks and lenders, insurance companies and emerging FI companies including specialty niches • Also offers primary coverage for specific FI segments, including investment management, on a manuscript basis Public D&O • Offers primary and excess coverage to • Primarily admitted products public companies of all sized in a wide mostly distributed by retail agents variety of sectors • Also offers Excess Fiduciary and EPL coverage Private D&O • Offers D&O, EPL, Fiduciary and Crime • Primarily admitted products coverage in a package policy with separate mostly distributed by retail or shared limits to private and agents not-for-profit entities E&O (includes MPL • Offers Primary and Excess Miscellaneous E&O • Primarily E&S products, mostly and Lawyers) coverage to approximately 40 classes of distributed by wholesale brokers businesses, including property managers, developers and construction management, associations, franchisors and consultants • Also offers Excess Lawyers Professional Liability coverage to law firms up to 100 attorneys Cyber • Offers Excess follow-form Cyber and • E&S products mostly distributed Technology E&O Liability coverage to middle by retail agents market and large corporate organizations Healthcare: Focusing exclusively on healthcare entities, our Healthcare division provides tailored solutions for nonstandard risks faced by healthcare organizations on both a primary and excess basis. We offer PL/GL, as well as Management Liability, across four major healthcare segments—hospitals, senior care providers, managed care organizations and miscellaneous medical facilities—through select wholesale and retail channels. Within Healthcare, we have seen rate increases for several years starting initially with Senior Care followed by Managed Care and more recently in the Hospitals segment. We believe these rate increases were the result of carriers restricting their underwriting appetite following increases in both the frequency and severity of claims caused both by inadequate pricing and outsized settlements and jury verdicts (sometimes referred to as “social inflation”). We aim to expand our Healthcare business meaningfully with sophisticated hospital buyers for which we believe we have differentiated underwriting expertise and claims handling capabilities, with large senior care facilities in a segment that continues to grow alongside population demographics, in the specialized Managed Care E&O marketplace where we believe we have limited competition and in other specialized markets within the healthcare sector where we anticipate profitable growth opportunities. Product Description Distribution Hospitals • Offers excess Healthcare PL/GL coverage to • E&S products distributed mostly hospitals on an insurance or facultative by retail brokers reinsurance basis Senior Care • Offers Healthcare PL/GL coverage to • E&S products distributed by skilled care, assisted living, independent wholesale and retail brokers living and continuing care retirement community facilities • Considers traditional structures as well as alternative solutions Managed Care • Offers Managed Care E&O coverage to • E&S products distributed by various classes of managed care providers wholesale and retail brokers and payors MMF • Offers Healthcare PL/GL coverage to • E&S products mostly distributed outpatient medical facilities by wholesale and retail brokers • Considers traditional structures as well as alternative solutions HCML • Offers primary and excess D&O, EPL, • Primarily admitted products Fiduciary and Crime coverage to all classes distributed by wholesale and listed above, including through a package retail brokers policy with separate or shared limits Although the products we underwrite do not directly cover physical damage, we offer liability coverage which may include liability resulting from physical damage. For example, we may provide a policy insuring a builder of a building and if a building built by the builder collapses, our policy may cover losses if the builder’s acts or omissions caused the collapse of the building, which could include liability for physical damages to individuals resulting from the collapse of the building or costs of repairs or rebuilding. However, we do not currently offer property coverage and thus do not currently provide coverage for direct physical damage. We offer small limits as part of our Senior Care business in the event a senior care facility must be shut down due to certain events which could include physical damage to the senior care facility. --- Because our clients often require highly customized solutions not available in the admitted market, our business is primarily written on an E&S basis. This approach allows us to maximize our policy flexibility and meet our policyholders’ unique needs all while delivering the differentiated level of service and execution for which we have developed a reputation. We see an opportunity to underwrite an attractive range of risks in a sustainable and profitable manner and seek to employ underwriters with the technical expertise to structure terms and conditions and prudently manage risks across such lines of business. We execute this approach through thoughtful and careful risk selection and limit deployment while seeking to optimize our results. We aim to take advantage of a market that continues to grow as businesses and risks continue to evolve. We believe that our remote-friendly platform enables us to scale our capabilities nimbly within lines of business that we feel align with our expertise, goals and risk appetite. We believe that this approach is a key differentiator in positioning us to grow profitably across market cycles in each of our core competencies. We are able to deliver mutually beneficial and bespoke solutions thanks to the deep, longstanding wholesale and retail distribution relationships that our underwriters have established. We go to market under the Bowhead brand, leveraging the strong reputation that we have quickly established within the broker community. We distribute our products through a network of wholesale and retail broker organizations utilizing different channels and relationships across our three underwriting divisions. In Casualty, we focus on partnering with wholesale distributors, whereas in Professional Liability and Healthcare, we work with a combination of wholesale and retail partners. We source our broker relationships based on quality of business and reputation and alignment of long-term objectives. We strive to maintain a core group of brokers that consider us to be their “first call.” We take a deliberate approach to building our broker network and actively evaluate new and existing broker relationships based on the opportunities we see and choose to pursue in the market. We handle our claims in-house, which we believe to be a key competitive differentiator. Aligning with our underwriting focus on specific product lines, our claims management teams are highly specialized to ensure that they can apply their expertise in handling claims to each market we serve. As part of our collaborative approach, our claims teams frequently participate in underwriting discussions, both internally and with our distribution partners and policyholders. We believe maintaining full control of the claims-handling process allows us to meet our rigorous quality standards and manage our losses and LAE effectively, and ultimately leads to more profitable underwriting. We have a remote-friendly operating model with most employees working remotely supplemented by targeted, in-person collaboration. We formed our company during COVID-19 mandated lockdowns, which initially required us to be 100% remote. Our management team built our company’s operating platform and developed its culture from the beginning to function nimbly in a hybrid environment. This approach has enabled us to recruit talented employees nationwide without regard for Bowhead-specific office locations. We use frequent video calls to collaborate throughout the day and hold a weekly company-wide call to align on short- and long-term goals. We encourage employees near our New York City and Chicago offices to work in the office on Wednesdays and use off-site meetings and conferences to get broader groups of employees together in person throughout the year. We believe our hybrid operating model is a competitive advantage in terms of attracting talent and maintaining our collaborative culture. Unlike other insurance companies that are trying to bring employees back to the office or learning to operate in a hybrid environment, our remote-friendly operating model is an innate part of our culture and a meaningful contributor to our success. Our nimble business model enables us to leverage technology, data and analytics efficiently throughout each stage of the underwriting process. Our modern, cloud-based technology platform enables us to leverage technology that we have created in-house and by using leading third-party solutions. We have developed proprietary underwriting tools, BRATs, for the lines in which we write business, and which are further supplemented with customized third-party data. Our technology investments focus on development and integration of data, while our technology tools allow us to understand the underlying risks for each line of business, enabling us to provide rapid feedback to brokers on structure and price. We believe in the profitability of the business we write, and consequently look to retain as much of that premium as possible while maintaining strict risk limits. We strategically purchase reinsurance through pro rata and excess of loss reinsurance agreements on a treaty or facultative basis with a goal of protecting our capital and minimizing volatility in our earnings from severity events. We focus on a diversified panel of high-quality reinsurance partners. As of December 31, 2023, 100.0% of our reinsurance recoverables were derived from reinsurers with an “A” (Excellent) financial strength rating from A.M. Best, or better. --- Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in May 2021. Our principal offices are located at 1411 Broadway, Suite 3800, New York, NY 10018. Our telephone number is (212) 970-0269. We maintain a website at www.bowheadspecialty.com.