Rhodian Group, an incubator and accelerator of Australian underwriting agencies (backed by Amwins), has announced its first agency to market, Halo Underwriting. Halo is a Property and Liability agency backed by Lloyds of London, focusing on hard to place risk across SME/mid-market segments within Australia. Initially Halo will launch with two products, an Industrial Special Risk product, being led to market by Peter Takos, and a General Liability product being spear-headed by Kym Dalli. A fully automated Business Pack offering will round out the Halo suite by the end of the year. Together, Peter and Kym bring close to 50 years niche experience to Halo and have strong reputations in the market as leading underwriters. “We are excited to bring an agency to market that acts as ‘proof of work’ for the Rhodian platform offering. By bringing a 100% owned agency to market, we have had the opportunity to build out a framework of people and processes across back office services, technology and capacity support that will accelerate agencies coming through the Rhodian pipeline. Halo is led by Peter Takos, with a core team that we are very proud to have on board. It has given us great confidence to see that Rhodian has attracted some of the country’s top talent across underwriting, compliance, tech and finance. With Halo in market, we are now focusing on the development of our pipeline agencies. A&H will be the next cab off the rank, which we are very excited about.” said Simon Lightbody, CEO, Rhodian Group. ‘Halo is a response to market requirements. Brokers are struggling to place their client’s complex risks across many lines, including Property and Liability, as Insurer appetites continue to narrow. Agencies are well positioned to go to work on behalf of their broker clients without the same level of blanket restrictions. As more Insurers say no to business, good agencies with strong technical talent are able to take up the slack and provide solutions. We are here to use our technical skills and years of niche experience to say yes where others can’t.” says Peter Takos, CEO, Halo Underwriting.