Philip Deramo

Philip Deramo - Tips for Building Better Business Relationships

All successful businesses have one thing in common: they know how to build and maintain relationships.  Philip Deramo, Vice President at Berkley Re America, has been successfully building relationships with clients for the last ten years.

Often times, businesses get too caught up in the details of the kinds of products and services they are selling and don’t notice how critical it is to build relationships with their customers, vendors, employees, and even their competitors. Businesses won’t find success without strong relationships. Business relationships, like any other relationship require effort to maintain and must be beneficial to all parties involved. Here are some tips on how to build stronger relationships for your business.
 

• Encourage open, honest feedback from your business relationships. You can stand stronger when you know where you stand.
• Listen to your clients more than you talk to them. This action can lead to more referrals and long-term success.
• Be honest.
• Keep detailed notes on everyone you meet.
• Admit your mistakes and correct any missteps you may make.
• Give more than you receive. This means contacting people when you don’t need something from them.
• Get to know your contacts better by inviting them to an event that you both would enjoy. This will help to deepen your relationship naturally.

Just like with any other relationship, you must be willing to share, support, and give, not just take and receive from your contacts. Building long-term customer and vendor relationships can give your company an edge. For Philip Deramo, building client relationships is something he enjoys doing as the Vice President at Berkley Re America.

Philip Deramo - Cyber Liability Coverages You Need to Know About

Cyber liability insurance has become a hot topic of risk management in recent years. Philip Deramo, Vice President at Berkley Re America, has extensive knowledge concerning cyber liability insurance. Today, the standard Property and Liability policy that most organizations have in place is virtually the same as it was twenty-five years ago.

For many years, insurance companies have recognized the shortcomings of property insurance. There are few carriers that have addressed the issue of data loss due to a security breach, but many more are starting to come on line with the following five key coverage areas.

1. System Damage and Data Loss. Currently insurance policies will cover damage to the computer itself, but doesn’t address any data that may be lost.
2. Loss of Revenue due to a business interruption. If your operation is shut down for any length of time due to a hack, virus, or denial of service it may now be covered.
3. Almost every state requires businesses to notify parties of any breach that could result in their private information being compromised. These notifications can cause significant expenses for the company.
4. If you need to hire a PR firm to do some marketing and public relations to minimize damage that may have been caused because of a security breach.
5. Anything that may be associated with your website, or other web presence that could be at risk of copyright and other IP claims. This includes slander and invasion of privacy.

As a business owner it is important for you to think about the money you are spending on insurance to transfer your biggest risks. A cyber liability insurance policy is just one way you can transfer those risks. For more information about this type of policy, contact your local insurance underwriting professional like Philip Deramo.

Philip Deramo - Tips for Building Strong Client Relationships

An essential component for building success in all areas of life is building strong relationships with those around you. For the last ten years, Philip Deramo, Vice President at Berkley Re America, has been working hard to build strong relationships with the company clients.

While it may seem simple on the surface, forging strong client relationships requires time, effort, and tact. While developing and maintaining these relationships can be draining sometimes, the rewards for your effort can be significant. Creating a personal connection can lead to positive word-of-mouth, additional connections, and increased sales, as well as job security and job satisfaction. To help strengthen the most important aspect of your company, the relationships you have with clients, keep the following tips in mind.

• Always treat others the way in which you want to be treated. When you engage in business with clients, put yourself in their situation and provide them with the same level of respect and customer service that you would expect.
• Honesty is key; don’t stretch the truth about your products or services. If you aren’t completely honest with your clients about the services you offer or the products you sell, you run the risk of harming your reputation. Customers will appreciate the fact that you are realistic about the services you can provide them or the products you sell.
• Remember you customers. They are not simply numbers. From the first time you interact with a client, it is important to remember his or her name, as well as something about the individual as a person. Being able to remember a simple fact about a client can help you recall how your business can benefit them. The littlest of details can have a huge impact on building a strong relationship.
• Be aware of body language, both your own and theirs. People can subconsciously tell how you feel about them. Great ways to ensure that your clients will remember interacting with you is by smiling and making eye contact.

Every connection that you have is unique and it is important to treat it as such. Don’t overthink things and just be yourself. To build strong relationships, it is essential to take a genuine interest in it. It takes significant time and effort to build meaningful relationships and if they are not maintained they can quickly fall apart.

Philip Deramo knows that forming long-lasting, meaningful business relationships is vital to the success of the company. To create mutually beneficial business relationships throughout your career, it is important to avoid these pitfalls. Don’t take your business relationships for granted or expect too much to avoid the relationships from deteriorating.

Philip Deramo - Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Business Plan

Creating an in-depth and comprehensive business plan is important for any business that wants to succeed in today’s marketplace. Philip Deramo is a highly accomplished Insurance Underwriting Professional with extensive knowledge of business planning.
In order to create an effective plan, you have to do extensive research to gather the information needed. There are seven essential sections of a business plan that you need to know about in order to complete it successfully.

1. Executive summary. The section that summarizes the main document, and tells the reader what it is you are looking to accomplish. This section immediately follows the title page and is very important to the overall success of your plan. You want to clearly state what it is you are asking for in the executive summary.

2. Business description. This section of the plan typically starts with a short description of the industry in which the business is operating. The industry description should include a discussion of the present outlook as well as any future possibilities. It also needs to include information on the various markets within the industry, including developments that may benefit or affect your business.

3. Market strategies. In this section, the results from a meticulous market analysis are included. This forces you to become familiar with the aspects of your market so you can define your target market.

4. Competitive analysis. This is used to determine your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses along with providing you with strategies that will provide you with a distinct advantage and any weaknesses that can be utilized during the product development cycle.

5. Design and development. This section gives potential investors a description of the product, its design, its development, the marketing plan, the company itself, and to create a budget that will help you reach your company goals.

6. Operations and management. This section describes how the business will function on a continuous basis. The logistics of the organization are highlighted in the operations plan. This includes what the management team is responsible for, the tasks assigned to each department in the company, and the capital and expense requirements that are related to the business operations.

7. The back of the business plan always contains the financial data of the company. Even though it appears at the end of the plan, it is just as important as the business concept and management team.

The success of a new business venture or the continued growth of an existing business rely heavily on a clear and concise business plan being created. Philip Deramo has been creating and presenting business plans to senior management at Berkley Re America for ten years.

Philip Deramo - Longtime Senior-Level Professional of WR Berkley

Philip Deramo was integral to the success of insurance company WR Berkley for many years, serving the firm on a foundation of extensive industry experience, as well as his considerable skills as a lawyer, claims manager, and underwriter. His journey to WR Berkley began in 2002, when he joined a small underwriting consulting company for insurance firms called Berkley Capital Underwriters. When Deramo joined, the company consisted of only four experienced insurance workers, including Deramo himself. He joined as the Assistant Vice President of the company. One of his first accomplishments as a company leader was underwriting the Quota Share Treaty Reinsurance program that gave ceding companies capital surplus relief.

During his time with Berkley, Philip Deramo flashed his skill and creativity for providing new and improved insurance policies to all clients, corporate or individual. By the time that Berkley Capital Underwriters became WR Berkley, Deramo had begun managing a $15 million treaty book and was responsible for the review and approval of contract language. Philip Deramo drew on his legal skill and experience to perform his many duties for WR Berkley. As the Assistant State Prosecutor for Connecticut, he learned a great deal about establishing proof and legal language in contracts and agreements. His knowledge of how the legal system worked in the Connecticut and the United States made him an invaluable asset to WR Berkley until he left the firm in 2015.

Philip Deramo is proud of the service he provided to WR Berkley, as well as the service he provided to all of the company’s clients over the years. Deramo helped the company grow from a small startup to a large player on the national scale that assists in the underwriting of insurance policies.

Three Skills Philip Deramo Developed that were Essential to his Insurance Underwriting Career

Philip Deramo is an insurance industry veteran. He has worked as in-house legal counsel to the Kemper Insurance before switching to underwriting, a position that propelled him ever higher in the insurance industry. He joined the startup insurance company Berkley Capital Underwriters, in 2002, and officially left what became known as WR Berkley in 2015. Here are three skills that Deramo had to develop to become successful as an insurance underwriter:

• Analytical skills. Insurance underwriters have to take out relevant information from each client’s files to help them find the best insurance products possible. Philip Deramo has worked closely with clients to give them the best insurance policies for all of their needs.
• Making critical decisions. Underwriters have to make judgment calls. Philip Deramo has made many critical decisions by listening to his instincts and his gut based on years of experience in the industry. Underwriters can stare at client data all they want, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the underwriter and his or her instincts on the job.
• Attention to detail. Even the smallest details can determine much of the insurance policy that a client eventually gets from an insurance company. Deramo sees it as his duty to scour the data and scan for all possibilities and factors that may affect the insurance policy he eventually offers a client.

Philip Deramo has developed all of these skills during his time as an underwriter so that he could help customers find the best policies for them. During his tenure with the WR Berkley companies, he enjoyed the opportunity to hold various senior-level positions.

Philip Deramo - Performed Duties of Insurance Claims Manager

Philip Deramo has worked for years in the insurance industry, and has served in a number of roles. Most recently, Deramo held various senior-level positions within the WR Berkley companies. Deramo was always eager to learn new skills in his profession and he rose quickly in the industry because of it. One of the roles he has had to fill over the course of his career was as an insurance claims manager. Claims managers usually have the following responsibilities:

• Maintain files on insurance claims. As the rise of big data and cloud-based servers continues, insurance professionals like Philip Deramo have to manage large amounts of client files containing critical client information used to help negotiate the best policies and contracts for the customers and the company. This information must also be kept private and secure.
• Review claim documents. Philip Deramo, as an underwriter, has to review the information in critical claim documents that greatly affect each client’s contract and policy status. This documentation, if done correctly, can contain a large amount of information about clients, all of which much be sorted through and analyzed to properly negotiate contracts and file claims.
• Communicate with outside parties. Part of an insurance claim managers’ job is to communicate constantly with claimants, outside companies, lawyers, doctors, and other experts that need to weigh in on certain claims.

Philip Deramo has developed many skills during his time in the insurance industry. He helped the startup insurance company Berkley Capital Underwriters become a success, and held various senior-level positions within the organization during his company tenure.

Philip Deramo - Former Connecticut State Prosecutor

Philip Deramo worked as a Connecticut Assistant State Prosecutor for six years after college. Deramo prosecuted many cases in the state from misdemeanors to gang-related activities, including homicide. He worked in the state’s Norwalk office and helped ensure that all cases received the attention and justice they deserved on behalf of the state of Connecticut. He was also a Court TV commentator during this time and earned a forensics certification from Dr. Henry Lee. Deramo also worked in the community, much as he does now, by speaking regularly with congregations of students at the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Philip Deramo worked hard to earn litigation and attorney experience during his early educational career. He became heavily involved his school’s moot court. Moot court is a mock litigation simulation organized by students at many law schools to put their skills as attorneys and advocates to the test. Philip Deramo became so involved in his school’s moot court that he eventually became a judge. While moot courtrooms don’t simulate criminal trials, the experience he earned preparing for the cases in front of the moot court was integral in his later success in his legal career. He most recently worked as an insurance underwriter.

Philip Deramo worked hard to keep Connecticut safe and just for everyone during his time in the state prosecutor’s office. He worked for years afterwards in insurance. From 2005-2015, Deramo was a Vice President within WR Berkley, an insurance company he had been with from the ground up. He still lives in Connecticut.

Philip Deramo - Former Vice President of WR Berkley Re America

Philip Deramo is a professional insurance underwriter who joined a small underwriting outfit in 2002 called WR Berkley Capital Underwriters. At the time, it was a company of only four experienced underwriters, including Deramo. He started as the Assistant Vice President of the company when he came aboard with his many years of experience working as an insurance underwriter and claims manager. One of his first large accomplishments for the company was producing and underwriting the Quota Share Treaty Reinsurance program that provided ceding companies with capital surplus relief. This helped the company grow and shot Deramo ever higher in the ranks.

Philip Deramo stuck with the company when it changed its name to WR Berkley Re America. He remained Assistant Vice President but his responsibilities grew. He managed a $15 million treaty book and became responsible for the review and approval of contract language. Philip Deramo has a deep background in law. He worked as the Assistant State Prosecutor for Connecticut in his early career. As WR Berkley Re America continued to grow, Deramo moved up to Vice President of the company in 2005. He established the professional liability department for the company when he took over as Vice President, and eventually achieved a combined gross loss ratio below 30% over ten years.

Philip Deramo is proud to have worked for WR Berkley Re America. He helped the company grow from a small startup into a national player that works with insurance companies and sections of insurance companies to underwrite clients and assist in their operations.

Philip Deramo - Three Skills All Insurance Underwriters Need to Succeed

Philip Deramo has worked as an insurance underwriter for many years for several different companies. Most recently, he worked for WR Berkley Re America, an insurance company that began as a small startup with only four employees and is now a national insurance company player. Deramo highlights three skills that he had to develop to be successful as an insurance underwriter:

Analytics. Underwriters have to be able to pull out pertinent information from clients’ files to determine what kind of insurance products their companies can offer them. Philip Deramo started developing these skills in his early days of law school at Quinnipiac University School of Law.

Decision-making. Underwriters often have to make difficult decisions sometimes based on incomplete information. Philip Deramo had to make time-sensitive calls based on the data in front of him and what he feels is right. This is not an easy thing to do on a daily basis, but if you can start to analyze the decisions you make in your day-to-day life, you can start to make better decisions in your work.

Attention to detail. Minute details in customer files can make all the difference in the insurance coverage they receive. You owe it to the customers and your company to retain small bits of information so that you can analyze it and make decisions based on it.

Philip Deramo worked hard to develop these skills so that he could perform his duties as best he could. He worked as the Vice President of WR Berkley Re America until 2015.

Philip Deramo - Acted as Insurance Claims Manager

Philip Deramo has worked for many years in the insurance industry as legal counsel, an advisor, an underwriter, and as an insurance claims manager. He has used his background in law studies and insurance company leadership to help insurance companies provide their services to as many customers as possible and assist in negotiating contracts that benefit the company. Generally speaking, insurance claims managers have the following responsibilities:

• Maintain insurance claim files. This information is often stored in a complex digital format that can be accessed by company leaders and insurance agents. These claim files contain vital information on all of the company’s customers and have a direct impact on the customers’ rates and more. Philip Deramo first had to learn how to manage these files and store customer information securely and efficiently.
• Reviewing insurance claim documents. Philip Deramo was able to move up in his career to be an underwriter after he worked as an insurance claims manager reviewing insurance claim documents, which can be quite voluminous and contain large amounts of important information.
• Communication with outside parties. Insurance claim managers have to correspond daily with claimants, outside companies, doctors, lawyers, and others to ensure that claims are handled properly on a daily basis.

Philip Deramo developed great skill at managing claims and communicating with customers and outside officials. Over time he rose in the ranks in the insurance industry, becoming the Vice President of the insurance company WR Berkley Re America. He began his career as the Assistant State Prosecutor for Connecticut.

Philip Deramo - Former Moot Court Judge in Law School

Philip Deramo attended Quinnipiac University Law School and graduated with his degree in 1987. As with all law students, he was under incredible pressure to perform well in classes and learn the complex ins and outs of the United States legal system. Law school isn’t easy for anyone. Still, Deramo found time to devote himself to his school’s moot court, where he eventually became judge and helped many law students prepare for their studies and later for their careers in court rooms.

Moot courts are simulated court rooms set up by law students to test their knowledge and skill in front of a court. In almost every law school around the United States, moot courts are extracurricular activities that law students like Philip Deramo at one time can participate in voluntarily. Moot courts differ from mock trials because they usually refer to simulated appellate court or arbitral cases, while mock trials are usually for simulated jury or bench trials. Philip Deramo learned a great deal hearing cases as a simulated honorable judge and tested his knowledge frequently at these “hearings.”

Philip Deramo took his law degree and went to work for the Division of Criminal Justice in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he worked as a prosecutor involved in cases ranging from misdemeanors to capital felonies. He later went on to work for the insurance industry as an underwriter and eventually served as Vice President of the wildly successful insurance startup WR Berkley Re America. Today, he lives and works in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Philip Deramo - How to Build an Effective Management Team

If the time has come in your business to hire extra people to help you run the business, then you need as much good information as possible. In the early days of running a startup company, it’s natural to take on as many roles as possible in the beginning. Philip Deramo, a former startup company executive, knows it’s a cost-effective and sensible way to do things. But as the business grows, you may find yourself unable to keep a handle on everything. Eventually, you may want to bring in people to take some roles off your plate, and hopefully, keep growing the company.

At this point, it’s good time to think about hiring experienced and qualified personnel to provide the help you need. You require an accomplished team that should take on the critical operations of the company and guide it to the next level. Finding these people means matching the specific roles to people’s strengths. This means hiring according to skill level, not because they are a close friend, have a friendly personality, or are closely related to you. That also means you don’t get to take on an impressive role unless you can actually do the job.

A good management team doesn’t grow on trees, and since their decisions can take your business to the next level, you want the best. Mass market ads are not the way to go. If you have the resources, executive search firms are the way to go. Even though they’ll charge a pretty penny, they will do due diligence.

Philip Deramo has been the Vice President at Berkley Re America since 2005. Before that, he worked as a litigator and once operated as an executive at a startup operation.

Philip Deramo - Types of Reinsurance Agreements Explained

Reinsurance is a form of coverage that is targeted towards insurance providers. It ensures that insurance providers have protection against losses that would be sustained in the event of massive payouts to claimants. When an issue is reinsured, the primary insurance provider relinquishes all or part of the risk to the reinsurer. It’s important to note that the reinsurance contract does not have an impact on the original contract between the primary insurer and issuer.

Philip Deramo has worked as an underwriter for many years and has come to appreciate the diverse nature of the business. He knows reinsurance plays a big role in providing financial stability to players in the financial guaranty industry. The following are types of reinsurance contracts.

Treaty reinsurance

This type of contract requires the reinsurance company to take hold of part or all of a ceding company’s books of business for a single (or more) specified business classes. It means that the reinsurer has to provide reinsurance for any business the company specifies. In many instances, an insurance provider will have several treaty reinsurance contracts with several reinsurers.

Facultative insurance

This type of agreement protects the insurer for only a specified agreement or risk. If there are additional risks or contracts that require reinsurance coverage, each has to be negotiated on its own. A facultative agreement is useful where an insurer wants to insure a large piece of business that a treaty agreement may be too costly for. The reinsurance provider has a right to deny a facultative agreement proposal.

Philip Deramo - The Growth of Risk Management in Insurance

Philip Deramo has worked in insurance underwriting for nearly two decades, during which time he’s seen the evolution of risk management in insurance. Among the biggest factors pushing risk management are regulatory requirements and the continued use of big data. In a nutshell, insurance is about identifying, quantifying and managing risk, and it goes back thousands of years.

Deramo has seen the evolution of risk management into an era where it is more important to businesses, large and small. While every industry recognizes risk management, it’s complexity is very evident in insurance, where insurers have to consider not only financial risk (like solvency and reserves) but also the risks brought to light by the underwriting process (health, environment, etc.)

The ability for insurers to look towards big data analytics to quantify risks through techniques such as revenue projection have changed the way risk management is perceived. It’s helped insurers understand risk from a different perspective, which has enabled better decision making. Quantification of risks is very important to risk professionals in insurance, and more businesses are devoting resources towards measuring economic, operational and market risks.

Philip Deramo understands that the risk quantification push is coming at a time when regulatory compliance also demands insurers to evaluate, interpret and report on a large amount of both internal and external information. From federal to industry regulations, insurers are expected to be more forward-looking in their reports, thus necessitating better risk management efforts. And in the wake of natural disasters that have caused huge losses, insurers are more pressed to implement tougher underwriting measures.

Philip Deramo - Insurance Underwriting Professional

Philip Deramo is an accomplished former litigator and insurance underwriter who has been in the business since 1996. He studied Finance and General Business at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, before joining Quinnipiac University School of Law to attain a Juris Doctorate degree. After working the first several years of his career as a litigator/in-house counsel for an insurance company, he got into insurance underwriting. Deramo has made a successful career in underwriting and currently works as the Vice President at Berkley Re America.

For many professionals in insurance underwriting, an educational background in business administrations, commerce or economics is an asset. Underwriters also require problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, attention to details, and excellent written and communication skills. With any of the mentioned skills, you could consider becoming an insurance underwriter.

Other than business-related experience, many underwriters also come from diverse fields such as transportation, manufacturing, construction, agriculture, and law enforcement. Philip Deramo started as an assistant state’s attorney before becoming a senior trial attorney at Kemper National Insurance Company. His experience in law enforcement strengthened his critical thinking and investigative skills, which have come in handy when analyzing business risks.

A career in law enforcement also hones an individual’s decision-making skills, which are very crucial for an underwriter. Regardless of background, some insurance knowledge will go a long way and is often a requirement for advancing in the underwriting profession. Once you get a start, you can find opportunities in claims, risk management, or brokering. There is a growing demand for underwriters in the industry, as opportunities abound at insurance and reinsurance companies.