Bermudian businessman Ramadhin (Rammy) Smith has joined forces with veteran insurance executive Arthur (Alex) Underwood to start ReSources (Bermuda) Ltd.

The company has taken an existing reinsurance services concept and made it into an initiative that is new to Bermuda. ReSources (Bermuda) provides insurers and reinsurers — locally and overseas — with a range of management capabilities during peak seasons or whenever extra help is required. Consultants have offered individual services in the past, but this particular range of services is a first for Bermuda.

ReSources (Bermuda) will provide production, underwriting, and audit services to Bermuda’s insurance and reinsurance sector, and to companies overseas, on an outsourced basis.

The new company might be described as a means of temporarily expanding a client’s abilities to allow them to achieve greater reach when an opportunity presents itself. Having, like any consultant, become a member of the team and completed the assignment, the ReSources (Bermuda) staff would then return to their own offices and await the next call.

“Production” is the art of promoting business for the insurance or reinsurance company client. Mr. Underwood and his independent ReSources (Bermuda) staff “might travel to Japan, for instance, and having been designated as the person to whom the business is being outsourced, I would recommend that the company write this piece of business, or turn that particular piece down,” Mr. Underwood said. “I would make recommendations to the company, but not take decisions on their behalf.”

As for underwriting, “some of the newer companies do not have underwriting staff available at crunch times to serve all the business they are seeing, and we will augment their underwriting capabilities on a consulting basis,” Mr. Underwood explained.

He and the underwriters with whom he will contract will provide the outsourcing service.

“There will be non-disclosure arrangements, obviously, since companies’ business details are proprietary,” Mr. Underwood explained.

The third leg of the company’s business is the provision of underwriting audit services. “We might be sent out to a ceding company to take a look at the business they’re sending, look at the contracts underlying the treaty that’s being written, and report back. It’s more of a control aspect,” Mr. Underwood said.

This outsourcing process is already being carried out in Bermuda with regard to US-sourced business, since Bermuda companies cannot look for business in the States without falling foul of the tax regime there. Using a consultant for these purposes eliminates any potential downside in this area. Some companies also outsource this function in the European market.

“The appearance of ReSources (Bermuda) is symptomatic of where Bermuda is now,” Mr. Smith said. “We have new companies that are stretched, for whatever reason, and we would be available to augment their services for them when help is most needed.”

Mr. Smith, who is chairman of ReSources (Bermuda), has more than 20 years of experience as a successful Bermudian business owner. He owns Bermuda Coatings Company Ltd., Park Development Ltd., and Atlantic Search Ltd.

Mr. Underwood, the new company’s president, was a member of the start-up team at Arch Reinsurance in 2001, where he worked until recently. Before that, he was senior vice president, international treaty at PXRE in the US, following 14 years as vice president, international at F&G Re and he spent ten years before that in Europe. He earned his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation in 1987 and his Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) designation in 1991.

The two men had been friends for some time before the idea of forming a company arose.

“We agreed that it would be a good idea to pool our resources; Alex intellectually, and me socially,” Mr. Smith explained. “This will complement what I do, which includes a recruitment company that provides temporary and permanent staff, mostly on the accounting side. This is an extension of that idea, using Alex’s skills, into the underwriting, production and audit areas.”

One of the drivers for the new company is the relentless growth of Bermuda’s re/insurance industry. “In the past, much of the consulting work has been provided from off the Island, so it’s a logical progression to think about providing these services on the Island,” said Mr. Underwood.

“As the Bermuda insurance industry continues to grow, the need is for local support services that are as professional as the companies they serve,” Mr. Smith said.