REAL ESTATE

Experience

 

Real Estate has been Albert Risk's largest industry practice since its inception in the mid-1960s. We further expanded our real estate capabilities through the asset acquisition of California-based Bickmore Risk Consulting, which had earlier acquired risk consulting talent from Nelson & Bernstein Insurance & Risk Management Consultants.

 

Our real estate clients now span the nation and include:

• Closely-held real estate companies

• Pension funds with diversified real estate holdings

• Public housing authorities

• Publicly-traded REITs

• Habitational, commercial and mixed portfolios

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Services

 

Our consulting staff are keenly attuned to the ever-changing insurance products in commerce today, insurance market trends, and even individual insurer performance and risk appetite. We have harnessed these collective experiences to create a valuable database of marketplace intelligence. Our consultants draw upon decades of practical experience and leverage the firm's internal resources to find reasonable solutions to our real estate clients' risk and insurance challenges.

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We understand not all real estate businesses are alike. Each firm has its own culture and risk appetite. We embrace each client's philosophy in order to support their mission with objective and expert advice. Among the services that we provide include:

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• Competitive Bidding. We assist with identifying insurance/brokers agents that are experienced with real estate accounts and consistently deliver results. We develop coverage specifications and help present clients favorably to the insurance market through organized submissions that require less work by underwriters to understand and price. We leverage competitive forces and help negotiate the best deal for our client.

• Detailed Insurance Review. Particularly with our habitational real estate clients, we help them navigate the landmines that are found in the non-admitted insurance market. These may be the only affordable insurance options available. Unfortunately, the non-admitted market generally consists of insurance that is unregulated and thus has policy terms that are often inferior to standard markets. We help our clients identify and understand the trade-offs faced, and we help them understand potential lender compliance issues.

• Proactive Risk Strategies. We serve our real estate clients with a keen appreciation for the challenges faced. As an example, our shared ownership / condominium association clients have a hard time finding reasonable solutions in a very narrow market. Attorney-driven construction defect claims have scared off a large number of insurers. We help clients find reasonable, reliable and efficient solutions. This requires advance planning throughout the development/conversion stage, in the marketing and sale of units, and with design and purchase of insurance. 

• Non-Insurance Solutions. Given our objectivity and lack of bias toward insurance as a risk management solution, we help our clients maximize non-premium-bearing risk management -- including contractual risk transfer, construction risk management, and sound claims management processes including site manager training and periodic claims audits. These efforts translate to demonstrable savings for clients.

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