This is a companion piece to the Kinsale writeup from a few weeks ago, where I explained some of the key differences between admitted and non-admitted insurance. Basically, admitted insurance covers familiar risks with well-understood parameters that are underwritten in huge volume, like standard home and auto. Non-admitted (or “excess & surplus”) insurance addresses quirkier, […]
I briefly discussed credit ratings in my S&P write-up. It’s a great business, we all know that. But it’s also tied to issuance volume, which is highly cyclical and difficult to predict. Investors tend to dislike that kind of volatility even in deeply moated companies. Perhaps in an effort to smooth its earnings profile through […]
What are scuttlebits? Wix was conceived to democratize the creation of websites at a time when doing so required access to developers. Its Wix Editor presented a drag-and-drop interface that let anyone arrange design elements into a professional-looking web presence, no code required. Over time, Wix expanded beyond well site design, adding capabilities – accepting […]
(Part 1 concerns S&P Global; Part 2 will be published next week and discusses Moody’s) Moody’s and S&P Global have this year traded as a blended average of two different businesses: a deeply moated ratings franchise that is largely insulated from AI disruption, and a data and analytics operation that is squarely in its crosshairs. […]
I recently recorded my annual podcast interview with @LibertyRPF, where I offer some thoughts on the market and the business of newsletters. Enjoy! (Spotify, Apple, YouTube) A lot has happend since I wrote up Veeva nearly five years ago. At the time, Veeva, the dominant biopharma CRM, remained locked in a bitter dispute with IQVIA, […]
MBI and I recorded an episode of Never Sell recently (Big Tech Earnings) (Spotify, Apple, YouTube, RSS feed) Having just written up Watsco, I thought I’d offer some thoughts on revisit Pool Corp. given the similarities between the two businesses. Pool Corp is a distributor of pool supplies and equipment. It sources ~200k SKUs from 2k+ suppliers and sells them to […]
To access this post, you must purchase Annual subscription, Quarterly subscription or Monthly subscription.
It may not be entirely fair to think of Wise as “cross-border transfers for yuppies”, but that’s just where my mind goes. After all, the company grew out of a scheme devised by two white collar professionals – Taavet Hinrikus, a Skype employee in Estonia, and Kristo Kaarmann, a Deloitte consultant in the UK. Taavet […]
To access this post, you must purchase Annual subscription, Quarterly subscription or Monthly subscription.
One way to carve up the investment universe is between standardized products, like index funds, that run on fixed rules and scale effortlessly, and bespoke ones, like distressed credit or esoteric ABS, where the risk is niche and full of weird wrinkles. In the world of property & casualty insurance, “admitted” lines are more like […]
To access this post, you must purchase Annual subscription, Quarterly subscription or Monthly subscription.