New MGA led by SCOR duo with Fidelis backing enters market

A new managing general agent (MGA), headed by former SCOR leaders Kade Spears (pictured, right) and Caroline Coulson (pictured, left), has entered the market with the backing and financial strength of re/insurer Fidelis.

Pine Walk Capital, a specialist MGA platform, has launched its seventh MGA, called Pernix Specialty. Pernix specialises in political risk and non-payment risks and will be led by CEO Spears and CUO Coulson.

Pernix will be dedicated to enabling and supporting responsible and tangible investment and finance through the provision of political risk and non-payment insurance and will also cover various political violence perils on a selective basis as part of a wider political risk package.

Prior to launching Pernix, Spears was SCOR’s global head for political and non-payment risks, founding the team in 2013. He was also head of the political and non-payment risks team at Aspen.

Coulson has 20 years’ underwriting and political risk assessment experience. She was previously a senior underwriter at SCOR and has previously held roles at Lancashire, Aegis and Sovereign Bermuda.

Pine Walk CEO Rinku Patel said: “Pernix’s launch further underlines  Pine Walk’s ambitious growth agenda over the next five years and attracting entrepreneurial underwriting talent like Kade and Caroline to the  Pine Walk platform is a key part of our strategy.”

Spears added: “ Pine Walk offers an outstanding wrap-around suite of services which delivered what we needed to take our collective expertise to the market, and in a fast and efficient way. Adding in the backing and financial strength of  Fidelis, it was straightforward to see the solution for what we want to achieve. Speaking with Rinku and his team about our desire to uphold an ethical underwriting approach was equally straightforward, we’re looking forward to a long term and successful partnership.”

Simon Crone, head of partnership underwriting & FIID CUO said: “ Fidelis together with  Pine Walk is continually looking for ways to strengthen our underwriting portfolio. The launch of Pernix brings further market leading expertise into the Group and allows us to complement our existing offering and portfolio in this space to continue to grow and become more relevant to our clients and brokers.”

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