Omaha National sets foot in California with carrier acquisition

Omaha National sets foot in California with carrier acquisition | Insurance Business America

Workers Comp

Omaha National sets foot in California with carrier acquisition

Rebrand also completed

Workers Comp

By
Kenneth Araullo

Workers’ comp insurance specialist Omaha National has announced its acquisition of Sutter Insurance Company, a California-based insurance carrier that has been rebranded as Omaha National Casualty Company.

The deal is set to complement Omaha National’s existing Nebraska-domiciled Omaha National Insurance Company.

CEO Reagan Pufall highlighted the strategic importance of this acquisition, as a “major step forward” in operating as a national full-stack carrier.

“We’re approaching $200 million in-force premium while at the same time our loss ratio, including allocated loss adjustment expenses, has been below 60% every year we’ve been in operation,” Pufall said.

Jim Hempel, general counsel for Omaha National, celebrated the company’s licensure to issue policies in 37 states as it continues to expand toward nationwide coverage.

“We enjoy excellent relationships with our fronting partners but writing on our own paper immediately enhances our financial results and allows us to better serve our policyholders and broker partners,” he said.

Further advancing its technological capabilities, Omaha National announced that it is also rolling out Oncore Underwriting, a proprietary underwriting and policy management software.

Bryan Connolly, the company’s chief operating officer, explained the strategic approach to their technological innovations.

“One of our core strategic principles is that we design and develop our own operational software entirely in-house,” Connolly said.

“When we implemented Oncore Claims in 2021 it generated remarkable improvements in our claims results, and we expect Oncore Underwriting to have a similarly profound impact,” he said. “When Oncore CRM is implemented in 2025 all key functions within the company will be performed within a single proprietary application.”