Agribusiness Risk Underwriters (ARU) was conceived in 2016 by a North Carolina-based family of independent agents who specialized in serving the poultry confinement niche.  Time and time again, the family had watched markets enter into the poultry space without doing the necessary homework.  These markets consistently followed a pattern that became as predictable as clockwork.  They would:  1) jump into the market guns blazing, 2) give all their agents the product, without regards to agent expertise (or lack thereof), 3) write loads of new business because of very low rates / lax underwriting / no loss control, 4) experience inevitable unprofitable loss ratios, and then 5) non-renew the entire book.  This constant churning of markets entering and exiting the poultry space created terrible conditions for both insureds and agents.  

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ARU was founded to build a consistent and sustainable poultry confinement solution and end the fear and frustration caused by decades of poultry confinement market volatility.  Unlike its predecessors, ARU did substantial and rigorous homework, investing millions of dollars building an approach to sustainably underwrite the poultry class.  The keys were: a focused analysis of poultry house risk characteristics, a deep dive into thousands of actual poultry house claim files, the development of a 100% proprietary poultry confinement insurance policy, the creation of rigorous poultry-specific loss control methodologies, and building the technology to tie it all together.  

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In the years since ARU’s launch, there have been multiple large, high-profile market exits from the poultry confinement insurance space.  Meanwhile, ARU’s methodologies and disciplined processes have facilitated the company growing into one of the world’s largest writers of poultry confinement risks, all while maintaining a profitable book of business.

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In 2021, ARU began an expansion into other “hard to place” farm / ag property classes, using the same R&D, underwriting / loss control, and technology framework that underpinned the company’s success in the poultry space.  ARU now offers solutions for a wide array of farm / ag property risks, providing retail brokers, wholesalers, and carriers a solutions-oriented underwriting approach and access to substantial capacity.