Rhodian Group launched today its first underwriting agency, Halo Underwriting, after announcing in February it was looking to “create and incubate” agencies in the Australian market. 

Halo is a Property and Liability agency backed by Lloyd’s of London, focusing on hard-to-place risks across the SME and mid-market segments. 

It will start with two offerings, an Industrial Special Risk product that is being led to market by Halo CEO Peter Takos, and a General Liability product spearheaded by Kym Dalli. 

Mr Takos, previously Chief Underwriting Officer at Steadfast Underwriting Agencies, and Ms Dalli, most recently Liability Team Leader at Miramar Underwriting, bring close to 50 years of niche experience to Halo and have strong reputations in the market as leading underwriters. 

“We are excited to bring an agency to market that acts as ‘proof of work’ for the Rhodian platform offering,” Rhodian Group CEO Simon Lightbody said. 

“By bringing a 100% owned agency to market, we have had the opportunity to build out a framework of people and processes across back office services, technology and capacity support that will accelerate agencies coming through the Rhodian pipeline.” 

Rhodian launched earlier this year with US-based specialty wholesale distributor Amwins taking a minority stake in the business. It will provide its underwriting agency partners the support they need to grow their operations so that management can focus on product development and distribution.

Now that Halo is up and running, Rhodian is already planning its next agency launch. 

“With Halo in market, we are now focusing on the development of our pipeline agencies,” Mr Lightbody said. 

“Accident and Heath will be the next cab off the rank, which we are very excited about.” 

Mr Takos, who is also Rhodian co-founder and Chief Underwriting Officer, says the reception from brokers has been very good. 

“In my visits around the country brokers have told us that Halo is required because the insurers’ appetite is narrowing more and more,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. 

“Halo is a response to the market’s needs from brokers needing solutions on those complex risks.” 

Mr Takos says Halo is planning to introduce a Business Package offering next for the SME and mid-market segments. 

Click here for more information on Halo.