How Topa Engages, Innovates, And Grows Efficiently

Business Benefits

• Gave MGAs access to write policies directly into the insurer's system

• Better able to measure improvements and opportunities for data, business intelligence, and reporting capabilities

• Launched five new products in 21 states within nine months

The Story

Topa Insurance Company is a boutique commercial insurer of excess commercial property and commercial auto insurance. It is one of four divisions under specialty insurance provider Topa Insurance Group in Calabasas, California.

Topa prides itself on its ability to provide industry-leading “ease of doing business” while maximizing its efficiency and that of its partners. It is committed to aligned partnerships, excellent service, underwriting expertise, a strong technology foundation, and the ability to develop quality products for Topa’s wholesale brokers, general agents, and MGAs.

To maintain its commitment, the insurer recognized that it needed to address outdated technology concerns.

“One of the main challenges we had with our old technology was that we couldn’t make changes to it very quickly,” said Tracy Tillinghast, Topa’s former Chief Information Officer.

When Topa decided to modernize its platforms supporting Commercial package business, it implemented InsuranceNow on time and under budget.

Beyond the benefits seen with the initial implementation, its timing happened to coincide with Topa’s entrance into the fast-growing cannabis market. The company’s goal was to differentiate itself from larger insurers that cautiously offer only one line of business for the evolving cannabis industry.

A growing number of states have legalized both cannabis and CBD for either adult or medical usage. Topa wanted to become a one-stop shop for this market by providing coverage options for all businesses involved from seed to sale: the cultivators, the processors, and the dispensaries. With InsuranceNow, Topa can offer custom-built cannabis policies to fit some of the distinctive needs of these unique new customers.

Focused on distribution, Topa intends to expand its reach into more states and continually improve the distribution model in terms of how the company interacts with its brokers and agents. In the past, MGAs could not write directly in the legacy systems. With InsuranceNow, however, they have direct access to write policies directly in the system. In the future, Topa also hopes to create a text solution in its portal to enable brokers to communicate more easily with the underwriting department.