Assistant Vice President

Amwins Program Underwriters enhances logistics coverage. The update strengthens a solution built to help retail agents address rising complexity in supply chain and cargo exposures. Published on July 22, 2026 Amwins Program Underwriters (APU), part of the Amwins Underwriting division, announced enhancements to its Logistics Operations Program on July 21. The update strengthens a solution built to help retail agents address rising complexity in supply chain and cargo exposures. Program addresses growing complexity. As global logistics accelerates, intermediaries, warehouse operators, freight forwarders and other service providers face a wider range of responsibilities and risks. APU's refined program combines core exposures into one place. The program is anchored by APU's proprietary FreightLock(TM) coverage form, which is designed to streamline placement. The form integrates several liability protections into a single solution. These include freight forwarders' liability, motor carriers' liability, warehouse liability, transportation broker liability and errors and omissions liability. Monoline options also remain available for agents who need added flexibility. Leadership highlights industry demands. "Logistics is moving faster and growing more complex than ever, and retail agents need partners who can keep pace," said Jon Beckham, president of Amwins Program Underwriters. He added that the enhanced program combines industry expertise, strong carrier relationships and a commitment to clarity in a complicated space. Beckham said the goal is to give agents confidence and help them deliver protection for clients operating in high-pressure, global environments. Support includes dedicated underwriters and claims resources. APU backs the program with dedicated logistics underwriters, fast turnaround times and access to global claims resources with specialized industry experience. The program targets several types of businesses, including domestic and international freight forwarders, transportation brokers, non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs), indirect air carriers (IACs), 3PL/4PL providers, warehouse operators and customs house brokers. Coverage is written through Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's on a non-admitted basis. Heather Frain, senior vice president and head of Inland Marine for APU, also commented on the update. "Our team spends every day immersed in the realities of the logistics world made up of risks, pressure points and details that matter," Frain said. She added that the enhancements reflect that hands-on understanding by simplifying coverage, minimizing gray areas and giving agents a dependable solution. About Amwins Amwins is the largest independent wholesale distributor of specialty insurance products in the U.S. The company serves retail insurance agents by providing property and casualty products, specialty group benefits, and administrative services. Based in Charlotte, N.C., Amwins operates through more than 150 offices globally and handles premium placements in excess of $49 billion annually. About Amwins Program Underwriters APU is a managing general agency (MGA) specializing in affinity and program management. For more than 40 years, APU has developed and maintained programs for niche markets that provide broad-based property and casualty coverage. Today, the company administers more than 40 programs, generating premiums in excess of $700 million. Get the latest insurance market updates and discover exclusive program opportunities at ProgramBusiness.com.

Amwins launches Self-Storage Facilities insurance program. New program joins established specialty players as institutional ownership and claims severity continue to climb across the sector. Amwins Program Underwriters has launched a Self-Storage Facilities insurance program as the sector's risk profile undergoes a structural shift that established program administrators built around smaller operators may not fully address. Institutional owners including publicly traded REITs now hold an estimated 45% of all US self-storage space, up sharply from two decades ago, with the four largest public REITs alone controlling roughly 30% of national inventory. That concentration of ownership has changed what self-storage insurance needs to do: large sophisticated operators with publicly reported financials face regulatory and municipal risk factors - Public Storage has estimated that Los Angeles emergency regulations will reduce its same-store revenue growth by roughly 80 basis points in 2026, while Extra Space projected a similar 40 basis point headwind from LA County restrictions - that standard program wordings designed for fragmented small-operator portfolios were not built to address. The Amwins program covers property, general liability, excess liability, crime, equipment breakdown, non-owned and hired auto, and inland marine, alongside customers' goods legal liability and sale and disposal legal liability each up to $1 million, mobile equipment coverage, a property enhancement endorsement, and resident manager liability available on request. It is backed by an A.M. Best A-rated carrier and available on both admitted and non-admitted bases, with admitted coverage in 19 states and non-admitted availability in Florida, Georgia and New York. Retail agents and brokers can submit business with a completed industry-standard application, a supplemental application, a tenant lease agreement and five years of currently valued loss runs. Dan Curran, executive vice president at Amwins Program Underwriters, said the program gives retail agents and brokers a straightforward way to deliver the specialised protection self-storage clients need as exposures become more complex. The market conditions behind the launch. The sector's scale gives the program its addressable market. US self-storage inventory reached more than 2.1 billion square feet in 2026, spread across more than 2,500 properties in various stages of development, with roughly one in three Americans currently renting a storage unit. Extra Space reported tenant insurance growth of 5% year-over-year in Q1 2026, pointing to continued demand for customers' goods coverage as a core component of the self-storage business model rather than an optional add-on. Established program administrators including MiniCo, which has specialised in self-storage coverage for more than five decades, and IGP Specialty have long argued that standard commercial property policies fall short for the sector - self-storage exposures include customers' goods legal liability and sale and disposal liability that a typical business owner's policy does not address. Amwins enters that niche with those same specialist coverages alongside broader market access and underwriting flexibility. Claims severity has climbed despite fluctuating theft and vandalism trends as facility security has improved - rising repair costs, supply chain pressure on materials and extreme weather are the primary drivers, even as pricing has begun to stabilise in some regions as the broader property market softens. Slip-and-fall claims remain among the leading sources of liability losses for operators particularly during wet or icy months, which is why general liability and resident manager liability are treated as core rather than optional programme components. What the institutional ownership shift demands. The analytical question Amwins' entry raises is whether the self-storage program market has kept pace with the sector's ownership transformation. A niche built around small independent operators - where MiniCo and IGP Specialty have decades of accumulated loss data and broker relationships - faces a different underwriting challenge when institutional owners controlling 30% of national inventory bring municipal regulatory risk, public financial disclosure obligations and portfolio-level exposure management to the same program structure. Amwins' distribution reach and underwriting flexibility are the specific competitive levers in a segment where the risk has become more institutionally complex than the program market originally designed for it.

KKR joins consortium in Steadfast Group indicative acquisition proposal. * Published on July 14, 2026 * By Sharecafe Team Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. partners with Amwins and Dragoneer in non-binding offer for ASX-listed insurance giant, Board cautions no certainty of binding agreement. Steadfast Group Limited (ASX:SDF) today issued a further update concerning the confidential, non-binding indicative proposal to acquire 100% of its outstanding share capital. This proposal, previously announced on 10 June 2026 and 9 July 2026, originated from a consortium formed by Amwins Group, Inc. and Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC. The offer stands at $6.00 per share in cash, structured as a scheme of arrangement, less any dividends or distributions declared or paid by Steadfast after 5 June 2026. Steadfast Group operates insurance broker and agency Networks in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the USA, placing around $25 billion in gross written premium annually. It provides a broad range of services and solutions to support these networks, including market access, technology, risk solutions, and operational support. In a significant development, the Consortium has informed Steadfast that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR), acting on behalf of its managed funds, has joined as a co-lead investment partner. KKR's participation specifically relates to Steadfast's retail brokerage business, alongside Dragoneer. Amwins and Dragoneer have confirmed that KKR's involvement will not impact the transaction timetable currently being worked towards by the parties. Furthermore, KKR's participation is not a condition for Amwins and Dragoneer to enter into a binding Scheme Implementation Deed with Steadfast. Steadfast confirmed its receipt of KKR's joinder to the Steadfast Confidentiality Deed on 8 July 2026. Despite these ongoing discussions and the addition of KKR to the Consortium, the Steadfast Board does however note there is still no guarantee that a binding agreement will be reached. Therefore, there remains no certainty that the Proposal will ultimately result in a transaction. Steadfast shareholders are advised that they do not need to take any action in relation to the Proposal at this time. The company has stated it will continue to provide further updates to the market as appropriate. Serving up fresh finance news, marker movers & expertise.