DeCotis Specialty Insurance has hired Jessica Wrigley to lead its commercial lines team
DeCotis Specialty Insurance is pleased to announce that Jessica Wrigley, a 14-year veteran of the insurance industry, has joined its leadership team as director of commercial lines.
In this role, Jessica reports directly to Tom DeCotis, president and CEO. Her responsibilities include overseeing the commercial lines division, managing key customer and carrier relationships, developing new business opportunities and supervising high-value renewals. In addition, Jessica will work closely with the other members of the leadership team to develop the company’s annual goals and support its sustained growth.
Jessica’s insurance career began in 2010 at Liberty Mutual Insurance. She served in a variety of roles while at the property and casualty insurance carrier, including customer service representative, lead service specialist and sales. Following a six-year stint at Liberty, Jessica transitioned to the other side of the industry, joining an independent insurance agency as a producer and sales executive for both personal and commercial lines. Most recently, Jessica served as a senior territory manager and marketing representative for national carrier Safeco Insurance.
Tom DeCotis says, “Jessica is a highly experienced insurance professional with a 360-degree perspective of the industry and in-depth knowledge of products across all lines of business. Throughout her career and various roles, she has demonstrated a strong commitment to meeting and exceeding financial and operational goals and building meaningful relationships internally and externally. She is a great fit for DeCotis’ fast-paced and proactive environment.”
Jessica earned a Bachelor of Science in business, management and marketing from Merrimack College and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University. She holds both a property and casualty insurance license and a life and health insurance license for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. In addition, Jessica is a certified insurance service representative (CISR) and a commercial lines coverage specialist (CLCS).
About joining DeCotis, Jessica says, “It’s both an exciting and challenging time to be in the insurance industry in general, and particularly on the wholesaler side, so I’m thrilled to be at DeCotis. I look forward to working with the most skilled and dedicated people in this arena and providing access to the best surplus lines and specialty markets solutions for the complex and unique risks of our insurance agencies and their clientele.”
About DeCotis Specialty Insurance
Founded in 1989, DeCotis Specialty Insurance is an independently owned and operated surplus lines wholesaler and MGA, headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. DeCotis provides insurance agents with access to property, casualty, and specialty products in the surplus lines marketplace. Any wholesale broker can provide an agent with a quote, but for unprecedented underwriting knowledge, local expertise, and assistance making sure your insureds have the right solutions for their needs, team up with DeCotis.
DeCotis Specialty Insurance Expands Commercial Lines Team
Providence, RI — DeCotis Specialty Insurance is pleased to announce the addition of two new Commercial Lines team members: Lori Lyle (CIC, AAI), who takes on the role of Senior Commercial Lines Account Manager, and Jay Downie (CISR), who joins DeCotis as a Commercial Lines Insurance Broker.
In his new role, Jay will work closely with his fellow team members and DeCotis leadership to cultivate new business opportunities and fuel profitable growth across the firm’s Commercial, Professional, and Specialty Lines. Jay started his insurance career as an agency support specialist for a large national carrier nearly 17 years ago. Since then, he has gained a broad perspective of the industry, serving in a variety of sales, operations, and management roles, including spending many years working on the agency side. Most recently, Jay was a territory sales manager for The Hanover Insurance Group.
CEO Tom DeCotis says, “Jay is a dedicated industry professional with knowledge across a wide array of product lines. He is also a skilled problem solver that our agents will be able to count on to find solutions for their insureds. But what truly sets Jay apart is his ability to build strong relationships. He will be instrumental in helping us develop and maintain long-term connections with our existing agents and new partners.”
As Senior Account Manager in Commercial Lines, Lori’s primary responsibility will be to assist the firm’s production team with the evaluation and management of existing Commercial Lines accounts and new business opportunities. In this critical role, Lori will help market and place monthly renewals, prepare quote comparisons, assess policy submissions for gaps in coverage, and more. Lori joins DeCotis after spending nearly four decades on the commercial insurance retail side. Most recently, she served as client executive at Cross Insurance.
Tom DeCotis says, “Over her many years in the industry, Lori has developed expertise in client retention, cross selling, account rounding, and marketing. Her spirit of collaboration, strong analytical and negotiating abilities, and extensive commercial lines knowledge and account management skills make her an invaluable asset to our customers and our company.”
By adding these two well-established industry veterans to its Commercial Lines team, DeCotis enhances the wealth of knowledge already at the firm, which is widely recognized for its local expertise, fast decision-making, and exceptional underwriting and account placement capabilities.
According to Tom, “We offer our partners an incredibly broad spectrum of personal, commercial, professional, and specialty insurance products. But, as importantly, we also set an extraordinarily high service standard with our professional, personable, flexible, and efficient team. These two areas will continue to be our focus and help us build on our reputation of being the go-to resource for specialty insurance in the market.”
About DeCotis Specialty Insurance
Founded in 1989, DeCotis Specialty Insurance is an independently owned and operated surplus lines wholesaler and MGA, headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. DeCotis provides insurance agents with access to property, casualty, and specialty products in the surplus lines marketplace. Any wholesale broker can provide an agent with a quote, but for unprecedented underwriting knowledge, local expertise, and assistance making sure your insureds have the right solutions for their needs, team up with DeCotis.
Five of the most common mistakes when placing commercial lines insurance and how to avoid them.
As wholesale insurance brokers, we take risk seriously. Part of this responsibility includes staying educated and informed, not only on the insurance products we offer, but on ways that we can help insurance professionals minimize errors or risk for their insureds when they come to us looking for a quote.
As we begin to receive more inquiries for Commercial GL policies, we thought we’d share the following excerpt from a recent publication by IRMI Insights, which listed 101 Common Commercial Lines Coverage Gaps to Avoid.
The following list represents some of the most common—and career-limiting —mistakes that are made when placing commercial lines insurance:
- Relying on commercial general liability fire legal liability coverage to insure leased premises when commercial property insurance is needed to satisfy the obligations in the lease.
- The lack of an employee benefits liability endorsement in the commercial general liability policy (or coverage in a separate fiduciary liability policy).
- Inattention to retroactive date and extended reporting period on claims-made coverage endorsements attached to occurrence trigger commercial general liability policies (e.g., employee benefits liability).
- Failing to provide additional insured status as required by contract.
- Lack of coverage, or inadequate coverage, for joint ventures and newly acquired companies.
Our knowledge and experience ensures that our brokers can help insurance professionals ask the right questions of their clients, and help them avoid these mistakes. If you’d like to learn more about how we can craft a customized Commercial Liability Policy for your client, simply email or call DeCotis Specialty Insurance to begin a conversation.
