Clients, partners, and friends: We are thrilled to announce that we've updated our web address, and newfrontinsurance.com is now newfront.com! 

It took us almost a year to acquire the domain, and we got to announce the news (and celebrate!) at our January Broker Summit in San Francisco. Here's our Co-founder and CTO Gordon Wintrob making it official: 

This update means both our website URL and email addresses will change, but rest assured that everything about the way we serve our clients will stay the same.   If you are a user of the Newfront dashboard, you'll log in and use the tools the same way you always have. And our @newfrontinsurance.com email addresses will still work; you will just see replies coming back from @newfront.com.   

We're also excited to share that in conjunction with our new URL, we launched a brand new website! We’ve updated our design to make it even easier to learn about our company and connect with our team. Of course, if you are here on our blog, you'll have already noticed, but if you have not done so, click through to Newfront.com, explore, and let us know what you think!

Amidst all these changes, we want to remind you that we're here to assist with all your risk management needs and we wish you health, happiness, and prosperity in 2020!

We are thrilled to announce that we've updated our web address to Newfront.com and redesigned our website!

Karin Robinsantos left Uber to join Newfront in April 2019 and now leads our 50-person Operations Specialists team. We spoke with Karin about building the support organization at Newfront and what keeps her motivated at work each day. 

Q. What is your professional background and how did it prepare you for life at Newfront?

A. I started my career in tech operations working the phones at a (then-small) Cambridge startup called HubSpot. As it morphed into an industry leader, HubSpot taught me how to use enterprise CRM solutions and gave me my first taste of what is needed to build a support team from scratch. A few years on, I took a chance at another small startup—Uber—as a project manager on the support operations team in Boston. There, I launched a new ticketing platform in China, grew offshore support centers all over the world, and led a massive migration of Uber’s internal knowledge architecture for the US and Canada. It’s hard to express what a wild ride Uber was for me; when I left after five years, Uber had evolved from a network of hyper-local teams to a massive global operation with hundreds of thousands of support interactions each week. In a nutshell, it taught me how to scale support. But most importantly, Uber brought me to San Francisco—where I transitioned to Newfront and launched my career in insurance. 

Q. What do Operations Specialists at Newfront do? 

A. The purpose of the ops specialists team is to take on the day-to-day paperwork, bookkeeping, and data entry that keeps our business alive but takes critical bandwidth away from the account managers and brokers whose time is better spent serving clients. 

There are a total of nine distinct ops specialists teams at Newfront, each tasked with managing the data associated with a core insurance function. Our certificates team does the complicated (and high-stakes) work of issuing proof of coverage documents to our clients on demand. Our endorsements team manages the immense amount of data we get from incoming policy and endorsement documents. 

When I started as Head of Operations Specialists in April 2019, we had three full-time staff dedicated to the work. I knew instantly we would require massive growth to accommodate Newfront’s business and that our team could be a critical lever for scale at Newfront. In just seven months, we’ve grown to 50 full-time operations specialists and contractors and we’re still hiring. (Jobs here!)

Q. How is ops at Newfront different from ops at other insurance brokerages? 

A. The operations function is entirely unique to Newfront. At most brokerages, account managers are either required to handle these tasks themselves or they rely on assistant account managers for help. To illustrate why that’s unduly burdensome, let’s consider an example. Say a construction client is headed to work on a job site that requires proof of insurance. At other brokerages, generating that certificate would require oversight from the producer and the account manager involving lengthy discussions, contract reviews, and sign-off requirements that could create delays. 

At Newfront, our operations specialists are experts in specific pieces of that workflow—so not only are they able to get the task done faster, they do so with dramatically fewer errors than a generalist would produce. This means that Newfront ops specialists enable our account managers to take on a more strategic role than would be possible anywhere else. At Newfront, account managers are dedicated to ensuring that each client has the most thoughtful, competitively priced insurance package possible. They can spend their days doing what they are hired to do—helping clients.

Of course, our technology platform plays a critical role supporting both our operations specialists and our account managers. Our product and engineering teams have built proprietary tools that help us dramatically speed up these insurance workflows while reducing errors. We can conduct audits to assess how long each task is taking and where the pain points are to make them run faster. 

At other brokerages, it’s accepted that account managers simply have too much to do. At Newfront, we’re modernizing the insurance industry not only by building technology, but by implementing entirely new operating models in the service of our clients. 

Q. How is culture at Newfront similar to and different from culture at Uber? 

A. Both companies strongly encourage creative thinking to overcome challenging business problems. When teams are empowered to build solutions themselves, I truly believe anything is possible. And both companies attract and hire eternal optimists—my favorite kind of colleague. 

One major difference is that at Newfront, I’m glad to report that our philosophy is not “growth at all costs.” We absolutely want to grow as a company, and we believe we will grow while treating people right. We often say at Newfront that “our vision of the future has people at the center of it,” and as both an employee and a manager, I know this to be true. 

Q. What is the most satisfying part of your job?  

A. It gives me no greater joy than to realize that through our rapid hiring, we’ve built our team of operations specialists into a critical talent pool for Newfront. By hiring collaborative, smart, and intellectually curious people into support roles, we now get to develop career pathways for our ops specialists into management, account management, training and development, and much more. 

For example, Erika Palomo started as a contractor just six months ago and consistently demonstrated deep subject matter expertise and management talent. She was recently hired full-time to lead our conversion vertical and now manages a team of four. 

The ops specialists team is full of owners who step up when presented with meaningful challenges and I’m so proud to report that these empathetic, hard-working people are quite literally building the brokerage of the future. 

Karin is hiring for operations specialists roles in both San Francisco and Sacramento. She would love to hear your thoughts on this article and can be reached at karin@newfront.com.  

We spoke with Karin about building the support organization at Newfront and what keeps her motivated at work each day. 

An Interview with Karin Robinsantos, Head of Operations Specialists

We’re thrilled to announce the hiring of Garth Hamilton, whose charge as our new Chief Sales Officer is to lead brokers in developing client solutions and continuing the firm’s rapid organic growth. Garth was most recently the Chief Sales Officer and property/casualty market leader at HUB, where he led the Pacific Northwest sales team of more than 300 professionals to three years of unprecedented organic growth. 

When Garth first met with the Newfront team, he wasn’t looking for a job—but he was struck by the caliber of his someday colleagues. “At Newfront, I’m surrounded by brilliant people who are experts in technology, insurance, and operations,” he said. “And I instantly recognized how I could contribute—by helping brokers grow their books of business. It’s the piece I know and love, and the way I can take part in this revolution within the industry.” 

Garth is a former insurance broker and agency principal, and knows what it’s like to build a book from scratch. That credibility, he explains, is essential for inspiring a team of brokers to do the best selling of their careers. “I’ve been through the fire as a broker and built my own book from nothing; unless you’ve done it, you don’t know what it takes,” said Garth.

As for Garth’s plans for Newfront, he sees his overarching goal as putting Newfront brokers in the best possible position to write new business. “That means designing the best, most competitive sales program in the industry,” said Garth. “One that makes people want to come work here because they know they can win.”

Garth would love to hear from you and can be reached at garth.hamilton@newfrontinsurance.com. 

Introducing Garth Hamilton, Newfront's Chief Sales Officer

From our clients to our colleagues and carriers, because of every single relationship 2019 has been a powerhouse. Here's how we stacked up... 

I love this quote from Gandhi: "Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. And your values become your destiny." Put simply, our values define what we can achieve.

At Newfront, we learned early on that building the right culture was one of our biggest opportunities and challenges. Our business grows by supercharging insurance professionals with technology. We have world-class software engineers from places like Amazon, Google, and Palantir, experienced operators from McKinsey, Uber, and Opendoor, and seasoned insurance professionals from both smaller regional brokerages and some of the largest firms on earth. No other company to my knowledge has brought these groups together, but at Newfront this diversity is our strength.

Given this variety of backgrounds, our team needs shared values to help ground conversations and work through complexity. Values help people make all the micro-decisions that comprise our day without needing to "run it up the chain." This defines how successful the team is at getting things done and achieving big, audacious goals. The values become your destiny!

In addition to defining our values, we outlined a set of behaviors for each. These provide shared understanding for our entire team and offer real examples of how we live our values at work each day.

I invite you to get to know Newfront by reading through our values: 

It’s people who make insurance work, and our vision of the future has people at the center of the industry. This is the bet we’re making and it will be the key to our success. We deeply value our teammates and the work they do. We’re building technology to empower people, not replace them.

We develop new tools and processes to make ourselves and our teammates more efficient and improve outcomes.

We’re teammates and coaches. We give and receive feedback that is both constructive and delivered with good intention.

We default to respect. We treat people with trust and kindness. How you do something is just as important as the skills you have.

We promote collaborative experimentation. We encourage innovation via collaboration.

We’re modernizing a $500bn+ industry that has resisted change for so long and we’re actively shaping the future of work. We face huge challenges and we’re excited to take them on. 

We are determined to achieve our mission and build a lasting company. It’s what we all signed up for when we joined. We see a better way, and we want to make it happen.

We are bold. We think big. We work hard to get the job done and we’re not deterred by failure.

We take action to make this company better and move quickly to provide the best outcome for our clients.

We are optimistic about the things we can achieve. We're positive and solution-oriented.

We aren’t satisfied with “good enough.” We seek excellence in everything we do.

We act like owners. We happily step outside of our formal job descriptions to pitch in and lend a hand for the betterment of the company. When something goes wrong, we seek solutions rather than point fingers or pass the buck. 

Our industry has baggage and we wouldn’t be here if we didn't think we could shake off some of that weight. Moving the insurance industry forward requires a fresh outlook. We seek out diverse perspectives and question basic assumptions about how things should work.

We celebrate innovation and uncovering new ways to do things better and faster for our clients. 

We question the status quo and we’re open to being wrong. Our dogma can be our own. We believe change happens through curiosity and creativity.

We follow established practices when they are indeed the best, but we're enthusiastic about evaluating alternatives that could lead to stronger outcomes. 

We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards because a modern brokerage means more than better tools and service. Starting with a deep sense of integrity, we aspire to set a new standard for our industry when it comes to equity, transparency, diversity, and corporate responsibility. 

We do what is right even when no one is looking. We default to transparency and integrity.  

We make decisions that are informed by data and critical thinking. We question our biases and do not make snap judgments or leap to conclusions. 

We celebrate diversity! We seek and value diverse perspectives, and work to create an open, supportive culture.

We critique problems, not people. We acknowledge what works and what doesn't, and we put our best foot forward to change the industry.

To ensure our values are lived, not filed and forgotten, we’ve woven them throughout company processes, from how we interview candidates and conduct performance reviews to the wins we celebrate at our weekly all-hands meetings. Each month, we give our “Golden Cert” award—one of the highest honors achievable at Newfront—to an employee who epitomizes our values. It’s in this way we set up our values to become our destiny.

Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your feedback on Newfront’s values and perspective on incorporating values into company culture. You can reach me at gordon@newfront.com or connect with me on LinkedIn here. 

We’d love to introduce you to Adrianne Peixotto, Head of Private Client Group at Newfront. Adrianne got her start in insurance more than 20 years ago and joins us most recently from ProCo. Among Adrianne’s many accolades, she was nationally recognized as one of nine Travelers Insurance 2018 Agents of the Year for being the top producer in the state of California.

Adrianne joined Newfront in May 2019 to deepen our brokerage’s commitment to personal insurance. We spoke with her to learn more about why she joined Newfront and her plans for personal lines. 

Adrianne, you work in personal insurance exclusively. Why? 

It suits my personality perfectly. I’ve always offered policies like home and auto because I enjoy helping people manage the day-to-day facets of their lives. 

When it comes to insurance, it’s crucial for me that people understand what they’re actually buying. I always treat my clients as if I was the one buying the policy. I ask, “Is this the best value? Is this what I would want for myself?” And my clients trust me because of that. 

Throughout my career, I’ve always said that what I sell is a piece of paper that reads, “I’ll be there when you need me.” Nowadays, I joke that it’s a PDF, of course. But all my clients have my cell phone number, they can text me, we’re friends on Facebook; I’m as involved as my clients want me to be. 

Why is Newfront the right brokerage for you? 

When I first took a meeting with Spike, Newfront’s CEO, to learn more about the company, we ended up having a two-hour brainstorming session that was a beautiful synergy of my insurance expertise and his tech knowledge. We each kept saying, “I wish we had a whiteboard!” We had so many ideas to write down. I hadn’t had that experience at any other brokerage—having my voice heard and getting to share my most creative ideas. 

I have always wanted to be at the forefront of changing our industry. I have a great deal of expertise to contribute and as I look to the future, I have no interest in maintaining the insurance industry status quo.  

Why is Newfront the right brokerage for your clients? 

Unlike other companies building technology for the insurance industry, Newfront has people at its center. We’re using technology to enhance the broker-client relationship, not replace it. In fact, one of our key insights is that if we use technology to create an amazing experience for insurance professionals, the client benefits in a huge way. 

For example, the thing I always want to spend time on as a broker is collaborating with my clients one-on-one to help them reach their goals. So when Newfront applies technology to help me manage my most mundane tasks (like paperwork), I have the time to be even more proactively supportive of my clients. 

Since my clients have joined me at Newfront, they receive the same personalized service I’ve built my career on, plus new perks—like a robust online portal where you can see coverage at a glance, sign documents with the click of a button, and more. 

What are some other ways that Newfront supports insurance professionals? 

Newfront technology lightens the burden of the account managers’ most rote work, so they have more time to spend on our clients—helping them to investigate a problem or reviewing coverage options. 

For brokers like me, I get an email every morning with a summary of everything that’s happened with my clients the day before. The technology gives me a daily review of my book of business. It’s fantastic, and saves me time so I can spend more energy with my clients every day. 

When I started, Newfront technology was perfectly suited to the core business we launched with—commercial insurance. My biggest contribution to date has been working hands-on with our engineering team to make improvements to the technology to better suit personal insurance clients like mine. It’s Newfront 2.0.  

I’ve recently been growing our personal lines team and ensuring our expertise is truly the best in our class. Newfront is continuing to deepen its commitment to personal lines in every way; stay tuned. I can’t wait to share more updates with you in 2020!

Adrianne specializes in personal insurance and risk management for high net worth individuals and families. She can be reached at 415-250-2222 or adrianne@newfront.com. 

We’d love to introduce you to Adrianne Peixotto, Head of Private Client at Newfront. 

Meet Adrianne Peixotto, Head of Private Client Group

The confidence that comes from knowing you have the right insurance in place for your business can be, well, downright transformational. It can give you the space to make money moves (as the kids say), by taking on smart risks that can grow your business.

Conversely, finding out you have the wrong insurance coverage can be an unpleasant surprise, to put it mildly. Often, when organizations receive notice from their carrier that a claim won’t be paid or that they have to pay a deductible that’s through the roof is when they find out they have the wrong insurance. But this doesn’t have to be your experience. 

In this article, I’ve listed five insurance tips. As you read through them, think about your existing coverage, and consider how it could be better. The point is: Make your insurance work for you.

1. Make sure you’re covered. (Just thinking you are isn’t enough.) 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I really do. But just because you have insurance doesn’t mean you have the right coverage. 

Has your business grown since you last evaluated your insurance? Changes in your business can affect coverage needs. If your company has grown and is still with a small business underwriter, your premiums and coverage may be completely wrong for your organization. Make annual insurance reviews a part of your business procedures, so you can update your coverage as your business evolves. 


Do you know what isn’t covered in your policies? Hidden risk factors can lurk behind the coverage terms and limits of your policies. Carriers can write inclusionary policies, which only cover what is explicitly stated, and everything that’s not stated is not covered. You may not realize what coverage you need (and don’t have) until you file a claim. For example, a flood is not necessarily covered on property insurance. Is it in yours?


If you have an umbrella policy, does it cover what it should? Be careful with umbrella insurance policies: They must specifically be in excess of each liability policy. Also, if you have a deductible on your umbrella policy, make sure you know what it is. Auditors conduct their audits in various ways depending on the size of the risk, the history they have with the particular client, as well as results from prior audits. The main three types of audits are mail audits, phone audits, and field audits. There are other types such as interim audits, and preliminary audits, but these are less common. Audits are typically conducted within 60 days of policy expiration for the previous term of the insurance. The insurers retain the right to audit such policies up to three years after expiration, but this is not as common as the 60-day audit time period.

When it comes to insurance, rarely are two policies the same. Also, keep in mind that most policies are not all-inclusive. So don’t just check the box and get any policy. Talk with your insurance broker and select a policy that’s tailored to the specific needs of your industry and business. 

Additionally, legal jargon can be confusing. Insurance policies are full of legal descriptions that can limit the coverage you think you have. Fifty-six percent of business owners believe they have the coverage they don’t actually have. It’s essential to have policies reviewed by a professional to make sure you get what you think you're paying for.

3. Explore your options as market conditions change.

About change: Embrace it. If you’ve had the same broker or policy for more than a few years, schedule a policy review to make sure everything is up to date with today’s market. When markets soften, you can get more coverage for your money and lower deductibles if your policies are properly negotiated. 

Change can feel like a lot of work, but errors—like duplicate and missing coverage—are identified in more than 65 percent of policy reviews. Reworking your program can uncover errors, pricing inflation, and deductible hikes. The bottom line is that renegotiating existing contracts can save you money. 

4. Use all the resources your broker provides. 

Commercial insurance is complex. Having a broker by your side means more than connecting you with the right coverage. Larger brokers usually have the same fee structure as smaller brokers but can provide access to more resources. Many of these resources are free and can cut long-term costs. 

For example, in-house claims advocacy can save you 8 to 12 percent on a claim, and brokerage service teams with expertise specific to your industry can be extraordinarily helpful. Other free services can include property management, certificate management, fleet management, and loss control. 

Insurance is a key business tool that protects your operation from multiple threats. If you’re only talking with your broker at renewal time, you could be missing out. Be sure to ask yourself these two key questions: 

Do I have regular check-ins with my broker? 
Semiannual, quarterly, and monthly check-ins can help you stay in front of new risks as your company and the marketplace change. Only seeing your broker at renewal time can indicate that the renewal may not have been aggressively marketed and negotiated. 

Does my underwriter know my business? 
When an underwriter knows you and your business, they won’t underwrite you like an average company. Rather, they’ll focus on your actual risks, operations, and on you as a person, which can translate into better coverage with more value. If you haven’t met, or at least had a phone conversation, with your underwriter, you may be leaving premium dollars on the table. 

When companies and their brokers get too comfortable with the status quo, they can end up with premiums that are too high and policies with coverage gaps. If it’s been a while since you last evaluated your insurance program, the right time may be now. 

An airtight insurance program can mean more money in your pocket and the foundation to make smart moves that transform the future of your company. Ready to take the next step? Let’s talk. 

In this blog, I’ve listed five neatly categorized insurance tips. As you read through them, think about your existing coverage, and consider how it could be better. The point is: Make your insurance work for you.

Five Tips to Ensure Your Coverage Works for Your Business 

On January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) is set to go into effect, and many businesses must get ready to comply. The CCPA is the most comprehensive privacy law in the U.S. Complying with the law can be an asset for any organization as privacy is a top concern for consumers.

The CCPA comes on the heels of the European Union’s response to growing concerns of privacy protection. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect in Europe in 2018. The CCPA has similar directives as the GDPR. While the GDPR regulates all organizations across the globe that provide goods and services to consumers who reside within EU countries, the CCPA regulates all organizations that have data for consumers who live in California.

On October 10, 2019, the California Department of Justice released the long-awaited draft regulations of the CCPA. Here are the key points: 

The CCPA provides consumers with the right to:

Know what personal information is collected, shared, and sold

Have personal information deleted by businesses

Opt-out of the sale of personal information to second and third parties (Children under 16 must provide opt-in consent.)

Non-discrimination in terms of price and service

The CCPA applies to the following businesses:

Businesses, where at least one of these is true, must comply with additional regulations to ensure consumers are afforded their rights under the CCPA. The business:

Has more than $25 million in gross annual revenue

Shares, sells, buys, or receives for commercial purposes the information of at least 50,000 consumers, devices, or households

Derives at least 50 percent of its yearly revenues from selling consumers’ personal information

If you’re a business that’s required to comply: 

Penalty levels for non-compliance are based on a company’s worldwide revenue. You’ll want to assess your organization’s appetite for risk. But you’ll also want to consider the long-term value to your brand in terms of being a good citizen and practicing the most ethical standards in service to your customers. The cost of updating your systems for CCPA compliance is probably worth the long-term value.

If you run an older company, your consumer systems were likely built way before modern-day privacy issues were top of mind. In this case, you’ll want to assess whether your databases should be updated (using the power of manual process and an army of rules) or replaced entirely with a modern (and potentially costly) system. 

If you’re a smaller business that’s starting to build its customer database: 

If you are a newer, smaller business, you can benefit from your lack of historical data. You have an opportunity to be a good steward at the outset and embrace CCPA-compliant systems, which can also integrate potentially stricter cyber and privacy requirements in the future. If you do it right, CCPA can be a boon for your organization, particularly in today’s age of consumer mistrust.

Remember: If you maintain data of EU residents, you’ll want to apply the even stricter privacy guidelines of the GDPR to your cyber operations. When in doubt, you should follow the more stringent of the two regulations—the GDPR.

For more details about the CCPA, including how it compares to the GDPR, see the CCPA factsheet published by the Calfornia Department of Justice.  

The ability to connect with customers on a digital plane creates new opportunities and innovation, and it also comes with great responsibility. Protecting consumer privacy from digital theft and misuse is arguably one of the most significant business challenges of our time. Luckily for us, there’s insurance.

There are quite a few permutations of cyber insurance. The solution that’s right for your business depends on several factors, including how you store your data, and if you engage in eCommerce, send mass marketing emails, or sell consumer data to third parties. 

For information about a cyber insurance program that can protect your business from risk, contact your Newfront representative.

On January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) is set to go into effect, and many businesses must get ready to comply. The CCPA is the most comprehensive privacy law in the U.S. Complying with the law can be an asset for any organization as privacy is a top concern for consumers. 

Get Ready! The California Consumer Privacy Act is Coming

Seth Word joined Newfront as Principal & Head of Agribusiness in September 2019. In this role he guides the direction of our insurance practice in agriculture, horticulture, and cannabis. Before Newfront, Seth was one of the top brokers of cannabis insurance in California as owner of Cultivate Insurance Services. While building his own successful brokerage he designed a proprietary Safety Management System (SMS) to lower occupational safety risks for clients. 

“It’s incredibly important to me to be able to make a difference in clients’ lives, and that’s the impetus behind the Safety Management System. It’s just one of many ways I can make a meaningful difference for my clients, by looking out for their people—not only their profits.” 

Seth’s SMS is an outstanding example of the hands-on, client-focused service we look for in all Newfront employees. While his process requires an upfront investment of time, the ultimate goal is to minimize losses while promoting a culture of safety through behavioral training in your workplace. Let’s walk through the process, from Seth’s point of view: 

Safety Compliance. We start by conducting an in-depth analysis of your company’s safety culture, including compliance with OSHA regulations, to identify room for improvement. We’re looking at things like your company's standard operating procedures, workplace hazards, and your injury and illness prevention approach. We then triage safety gaps to ensure we address the most pressing problems first. 

Employee Engagement. Time and again, research demonstrates that dramatically fewer safety incidents occur when employees feel engaged at work. We want all employees to consider themselves ambassadors of the company, and we examine factors like feedback culture and employee/manager relationships to ensure behavior at all levels of the company is in alignment with safety values. 

Safety Leadership. Your company’s safety chain is only as strong as its weakest link. We invest in management-level staff by implementing customized safety trainings that vary in intensity and duration, which increases interest, engagement, and retention of knowledge over time. We train managers to demonstrate to employees how much they care about their overall welfare, and to live the principle that safety is not a set of rules but a safeguard of everyone’s quality of life. 

Continuous Improvement. Our mission is to empower your company to administer your customized safety management system while we remain on standby to help over time. We make sure you’re poised for success by establishing internal safety committees and entrusting committee members with metrics to hold your organization accountable to your own safety standards. 

24/7 Safety Culture. We want employees to put safety first at all times, even when they’re away from work—because a safety-first attitude at home correlates to a safety-first attitude at work. We like to offer a “daily safety tip” containing short, easily digestible information—both work-related and not—to get employees in the safety mindset every day without requiring large commitments of time. For example, in the summer we might share tips around grilling or boating safety, and tips about holiday lights in the winter.  

We’re so fortunate to have Seth on board and look forward to integrating his expertise into Newfront’s own Safety and Loss Control program. For more on Seth’s Safety Management System or Newfront’s risk assessment services, feel free to contact us or reach out to Seth directly at 831-970-1976 or seth@newfront.com. 

Promoting a Culture of Safety: Seth Word’s Safety Management System 

Many of us assume that our homeowners policy will cover the loss of valuable personal property like jewelry, art, and electronics. In fact, all homeowners policies contain sublimits that reduce coverage for specific possessions. If you’re aware of these sublimits, you can decide whether to add a personal items floater to enhance your coverage. 

In this post, we consider how a personal items floater (also called an inland marine schedule) can cover losses that a typical homeowners policy won’t. 

In a typical homeowners policy, your personal property in your home, like your clothes, furniture, and other belongings (noted in Coverage C of the policy) is usually covered at 50 to 75 percent of the dwelling limit (which is noted in Coverage A). However,  certain high-value, personal property usually has sublimits that can prevent you from obtaining the predetermined percentage of coverage. 

A sublimit is the cap a carrier will put on the amount they will reimburse you for a loss of a specific item during a covered peril.  (What’s considered a covered peril depends on your specific policy. Usually, if an event is not explicitly listed, then it’s not covered.) 

Here are some typical sublimits on homeowners insurance policies:

Jewelry is a common personal effect of high value. Let’s use it as an example.

Basic homeowners policies usually have a jewelry sublimit of $1,000 or $5,000, minus your deductible, for each loss event. In the U.S., the average price of an engagement ring is around $6,000. In California, people spend the most, with the average price at a little over $9,000, according to Business Insider. If you’re an average Californian with a $1,000 deductible, and your ring was to accidentally slip down the kitchen sink, you might only get back $4,000. And that’s on a generous policy. 

But let’s go really big. Let’s say your engagement ring is more along the line of Beyonce’s, worth $5 million. Imagine, if you can bear to fathom it, that a thief steals your ring, along with other precious jewelry. Let’s say theft is a covered peril on your homeowners policy (which it usually is). And your policy covers 75 percent of personal property. Theoretically, you could get back $3,750.000. However, your policy has a $1,000 deductible and a $5,000 sublimit on jewelry. The most you’ll get for the entire loss of your jewelry collection is $4,000, not just your engagement ring—all of it. Four grand.

Get More Protection From a Personal Items Floater

Here’s a different outcome, one where you’re not stymied by sublimits. Had you moved your jewelry to a personal items floater, you could have been compensated for its entire value (i.e., made whole). With this type of policy, each valuable item is listed separately with its own coverage limits. Additionally, coverage can include more types of events. You can also have the carrier create a blanket policy, which covers the entire collection without itemizing each item’s worth. (This is good for something like a wine or stamp collection.)

On average, your annual premium for a jewelry floater will be 1 percent of the replacement cost. For a $10 thousand ring, it would cost about $100 a year to insure it. You might consider this a small price to pay for big peace of mind. 

Here are three easy steps you can take to get the most protection for your valuables:

If you own high-value items, whether it’s fine art, jewelry, vintage wines, or rare books, get an appraisal that proves the item’s value. Get your collection approved every five years, as the value can change over time. And stay in-the-know about the life of the artist should you have fine art, as many policies automatically increase the value of the artwork upon the artist’s death.

Go around your home and take photos of your belongings. From your furniture and electronics to your jewelry and other private collections. This will help prove what items you owned in the event of a loss.

3. File your documents in the Newfront Dashboard. 

The easiest way to keep track of your appraisals and photos of your valuables is by loading them onto the Newfront Dashboard. It’s an easy and efficient way to keep all your insurance paperwork in order and easily retrievable. 

Many of us own valuable items that are symbols of our passions and testaments to the lives our families have lived. Or perhaps we consider our collections investments that entertain our aesthetic sensibilities. Whatever our reasons for collecting precious items, at Newfront, we’re honored to help protect the possessions that our clients hold dear. 

All homeowners policies contain sublimits that reduce coverage for specific possessions. If you’re aware of these sublimits, you can decide whether to add a personal items floater to enhance your coverage. 

Protecting your Valuables – Understanding Sublimits and Personal Item Floaters

The insurance landscape for commercial property owners has changed drastically in the last decade, thanks to increasing natural and man-made catastrophes. 

Consider the devastating hurricanes in Texas, Louisiana, the Carolinas, and the Caribbean, and the ongoing wildfires in California. During the past few years, carriers have been experiencing losses that greatly exceed their comfort level, causing them to be reticent about insuring what they consider to be high-risk locations. Their response to catastrophic risk has been to increase the premium and deductible amounts on policies year after year. Additionally, they’re more apt to deny coverage or build more stringent terms and conditions on their policies. 

This insurance trend is expected to continue. We see it firsthand with our clients, from regional property owners to national private equity firms. 

Newfront’s Relentless Approach for Mitigating Catastrophic Risk

By responding to the market with creative tactics, we’re often able to reduce property renewal quotes by 5 to 10 percent. 

Here are five examples of the devices we use to keep our clients insured in an era of circumspect carriers:

Property policies cover damages caused by wind and flood damage only from unnamed storms, and they don’t cover named storms, storm surge, flood, and hail. However, a separate wind & hail policy, which is applicable to Tier 1 areas (Gulf Coast areas as well as the entire state of Florida), can cover damages from named storms, wind, and hail events in Tier 1 locations as well as locations determined by insurance carriers to be greatly susceptible to hail events. 

By pulling the wind exposure from the basic property policy, insureds can reduce their all-risk property insurance policy’s premium and transfer that savings to purchase a wind & hail policy that can effectively lower their costs while maintaining coverage for their exposures.

Catastrophic event (CAT) deductibles tend to be significantly higher than traditional property insurance deductibles. Entering into a CAT deductible buy-down program can significantly lower your exposure. 

For example, a wind & hail policy that covers $50 million in value might have a 5 percent per-claim deductible. You could have to pay $2.5 million out of pocket before coverage kicks in. With a buy-down program, the deductible can be 3 percent lower, dropping the deductible obligation to $1 million.

3. Move Coverages Out of the Master Policy

In recent years, underwriters have eschewed insuring master policies, as the amount of aggregate risk exceeds their appetite. We’ve used their reticence to our clients’ advantage, particularly for private equity firms. As an example, here’s a client case:

Our client, Portfolio Company A, a national property management company with the majority of its locations in Colorado, Texas, and Florida was covered by a master private equity policy that had nominal hail, flood, and fire coverage. While the wildfire coverage was great for Portfolio Company B, whose locations are centered in California, the requisite cost for that wildfire coverage was less critical to Company A. 

Unfortunately, Companies A and B were equally contributing to the master policy, which provided indiscriminate and potentially unnecessary coverages, some of which neither company was likely to use. By pulling Company A’s coverages out of the master private equity policy, we were able to hone in on its own unique risk exposures, lowering the cost for the low-risk perils (i.e. earthquake insurance in Texas) and transferring that premium to increase coverage for perils that were higher risk. This strategy alone not only reduced their overall exposure, but it also saved Company A about 10 percent off of their renewal.

4. Bring Humanity to the Decision-Making Table 

It’s not unusual that we bring along our clients to underwriting meetings when there are complex risk considerations. Face-to-face meetings between the clients and underwriters can soften perceptions of the parties and lead to a better solution for both entities. This qualitative contribution to the risk analysis process can motivate underwriters to find solutions that work for both sides. 

5. Cut Out the Middle Man from International Carrier Relationships 

With fewer national carriers in the market, we often seek catastrophe coverage from international players. We make it a point to meet with our international broker partners and carriers directly. This directly equates to increased efficiency and decreased costs for the client.

Advocacy Is More Than Knowing Which Coverages You Need

Economic losses from natural and man-made catastrophic events reached $165 billion in 2018—insurance covering $85 billion of that amount. And those numbers are expected to rise every year. To protect themselves from claims loss, carriers are just not writing policies to cover damage from catastrophic events like they used to. 

Advocacy takes more than just knowing what catastrophe coverages businesses need. At Newfront, we’re advocacy artists. Our advocacy is shaped by know-how that responds to industry trends, finds innovative solutions, removes redundancies, and positions you in the most sympathetic light to insurers, so they are desirous to write you favorable coverage, in the event of any storm.

By responding to the market with creative (and sometimes relentless) tactics, we’re able to reduce property renewal quotes by 5 to 10 percent. Here are five examples of the devices we use to keep our clients victoriously insured in an era of circumspect carriers.

Catastrophe Insurance Insights for Commercial Properties

It’s an exciting time to be in cannabis. As one of the world’s most dynamic and fastest-growing industries, the business of cannabis is currently valued at between $10 to $13 billion, and sources project the market size will reach $63 billion to $97 billion by the end of 2026. Additionally, in the U.S., cannabis reform is taking place coast to coast—not only in our laws and policies but also in the hearts and minds of consumers.

Entrepreneurs who appreciate the value of these plants are experiencing more opportunities for their cannabis brands. Innovation has been the foundation of this industry sector from the beginning. Operators are continually experimenting with different ways to more efficiently move their products through their very unique supply chain while also pushing the envelope with events, onsite consumption lounges, and even cafés. 

Like any other industry, with opportunity comes risk, which must be met with intentional insurance coverage. For the cannabis industry, however, this intention tends to need much more precision. 

A Product Liability Policy That Works for Cannabis 

Insurance for cannabis players is idiosyncratic, in that, while most other industries tend to write exclusionary policies (which cover everything not explicitly excluded in the policy), in cannabis, insurance companies tend to write inclusionary policies (which cover only what is explicitly stated, and everything that’s not stated is not covered). If you’re not savvy, you could miss out on essential coverages. This is particularly true for product liability policies. 

When it comes to cannabis, there is no such thing as a standard product liability policy. Product liability policies—which can range from thirty to hundreds of pages in length—can be written with any number of exclusionary combinations. Here are three key exclusions to look out for:

Cannabis health hazard exclusion: Product liability is intended to cover damages caused by exposure to your product. However, a policy that has a cannabis health hazard exclusion doesn’t cover bodily injury or property damage arising directly or indirectly from the exposure or consumption of your cannabis or derivative product. 

Most cannabis operators who’ve been around long enough are hip to this less-than-savory, somewhat predatory, tactic. So these days, it’s not likely to go unnoticed. But if you’re a freshman in the cannabis insurance world, beware and don’t get trapped into a policy that doesn’t offer you this most basic protection. (Cannabis health hazard exclusion can also go by the name of a marijuana-related exclusion.) 



Hardware exclusion: If you make noncombustible cannabis products, chances are you also sell the hardware (e.g., vape cartridges and batteries) and packaging or other related products that it comes with and makes your product work. Some product liability policies exclude hardware altogether, while others exclude hardware obtained from foreign sources, so you won’t be indemnified should your product fail or cause harm. You’ll want coverage for defects of your entire product, not just the cannabis, so a hardware exclusion is not in your best interest.



Out-of-compliance exclusion: Are you certain that your operations and supply chain are within the confines of regulatory and compliance requirements. For example, if you’re a distributor, do you have all your distributor licenses in order, including all Department of Transportation numbers and your Motor Carrier Permit? If you don’t, then you’re out of compliance with regulations, and this exclusion releases the carrier from indemnifying you in the event of a claim. 

There are two ways to mitigate this risk: (1) Make sure you’re in compliance with all statutory, regional and local laws and regulations so that this exclusion doesn’t adversely affect you; or (2) Remove the language in your policy that excludes all coverage if you do not comply with all said laws and regulations.

Keep a close eye on your supply chain. Cannabis producers who rely on retail dispensaries, wholesale distributors, and third-party logistics providers must pay attention to special rules when it comes to warehousing and transporting their products. Notably, a distributor is required by law to quarantine your product during the testing process. The distributor would have signed a service agreement with you, but this contract doesn’t necessarily hold them liable should your product incur any damages while it’s in their warehouse. If you retain ownership of your product during third-party processing and distribution, this becomes even more complicated. For distributors, you’ll need to consider ownership and legal liability of products you store and transport.

So what contract indemnities you for loss to this product? Unfortunately, probably not your basic cannabis property/stock policy. You’ll need to work with your carrier and learn to manage your supply chain partners better. When speaking to your insurance broker, make sure this risk is part of your conversation. 

Risk Management is Much More than Insurance 

Whether you’re an experienced or novice cannabis operator, it’s worth taking another look at your entire insurance portfolio program to make sure there aren’t any gaps in your risk strategy. Other coverages—like directors & officers, errors & omissions, crime, cyber & privacy, and employment practices liability—play vital roles in your overall risk management. Additionally, it’s critical that your operations, human capital management, and supply chain are optimally organized to mitigate risk, so you are poised for success.   

Newfront Advocates for Cannabis Operators

In this emerging industry, nobody has all the answers. But at Newfront, we work hard to find them. We help you build a risk management portfolio that mitigates risk, and we utilize quantifiable data to obtain the best terms and rates when we go to market. But maybe most importantly, as client advocates with a respected presence in the industry, we build bridges: We connect members of the cannabis community to help them create new relationships and forge opportunities for continued growth. 

Like any other industry, with opportunity comes risk, which must be met with intentional insurance coverage. For the cannabis industry, however, this intention tends to need much more precision.

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