When Andy Beauchamp graduated college in 1994, he was an equestrian competitor struggling to find insurance coverage for riding lessons and horse sales. Joining the family insurance business provided the solution—and a successful, passion-based niche.
Andy Beauchamp
Wellington, Florida
How did you get started at your agency?
I started in my family’s insurance agency, which my great grandfather started in 1927 in Wabash, Indiana. When I graduated from Ball State University in 1994, I immediately went into the insurance business at one of our locations in Muncie. I was competing at Ball State doing show jumping and my trainer at the time was having difficulty finding liability coverage to give riding lessons and coverage for sales of horses.
My older brother, Evan Beauchamp, was already in the agency business and was looking for a way to set himself apart within insurance. My trainer contacted Evan for assistance securing liability insurance. Evan then started investigating where you might be able to find that coverage and found that very few insurance companies offered it. When you say the word “horse,” it tends to make insurance companies turn and run due to the liability exposures involved. While investigating companies, Evan also found very few insurance agencies throughout the United States that specialized in this type of business.
Challenges in the beginning?
Initially, Evan secured one or two carriers. When I got into the business the following year, we started to seek out other companies but pretty much only wrote with two or three until 1996. The Internet is what exploded our business. Until that point, what we were doing was on a retail basis with people we knew and going to trade shows. To this day, our website is one of two in the world—that I’m aware of—that incorporates code to offer a comparative rating system for life insurance on horses. That really took us to the next level—the ability for people around the country to do instant online quoting and send their applications to us.
About two years later through my association with the Big “I” and getting to know other agents around the country, we started wholesaling business to other insurance agencies. Quite a few other insurance agencies around the country had a periodic need to help their current clients insure an equine risk if they purchased a hobby horse farm or had large commercial equine operations. Most insurance companies will not do business on a one- or two-off basis for writing those policies, so we started wholesaling and gaining traction with agencies throughout the country. At present, we broker for close 800 agencies throughout the U.S.
It snowballed. Our focus now is 80% wholesale and 20% retail. We went into wholesaling because we deal directly on a day-to-day basis with other insurance agents, which makes it very easy for us to educate them about the equine products—they all have a background in educate in understanding property and liability insurance. Our main focus is really writing commercial farms and large high net-worth private homes with stables. We still write mortality insurance, but the base of our book of business now is commercial liability policies and property and high net-worth individuals.
Biggest changes in equine?
Most people purchase health insurance for their horses to offset medical costs, which can be very significant. Just like humans, horses have seen reduced coverages and increase in premiums in this area, and a lot of it has to do with frequency of claims. Many insurance companies have taken the position of having higher standards for underwriting, as well as reducing limits in order to stave off uncontrolled claims.
What do you say to a first-time client looking at equine coverage?
We first identify what exactly they’re planning on doing over the next 12 months. We look for a good-faith estimate based upon what their business pursuits are going to be for the next year. Based on that, we’ll make suggestions of coverages either by what they’re currently doing with their business or what they intend to do. Most of our policy forms are not reporting forms—they’re not auditable at the end of the year—so we’re underwriting a lot of these annual risks based upon the information they provide us right up front in our questionnaires for the submission. It’s very important to know if they have an idea of doing a certain type of discipline or having a specific kind of exposure in the next 12 months. By asking these questions, we have a much better chance of making sure our clients are covered correctly before the loss instead of trying to fix it after the loss.
What advice would you give to an agent trying to break into the equine marketplace?
To break into the market, you need to do or maintain some other activity while you’re building your book of business. Equine policies themselves have not been historically high in premium. Most liability and mortality premiums tend to be $1,000 or less. They can easily go over that, but if you’re only focusing on equine mortality or liability, it can be a bit of a struggle to build a book of business.
My father, who’s retired from the agency, said this is not a “get rich quick” scheme. You have to build relationships over time to not only sustain the book but also build it. We’re always willing to talk to any agency about brokering business for them. We don’t have any type of minimums or requirements in order to contract another agency with ours.
Morgan Smith served as is IA assistant editor.
