Northport’s services and resources have addressed client needs through a team with extensive underwriting and operational experience. Northport works closely with clients to develop a detailed understanding of the issues and to determine the best course of action to address their specific needs. Once a plan has been developed, a team is created with Northport staff, and if required, our strategic partners. Northport has been able to draw upon broad resources to build complementary teams for each assignment.

Carl A. Fuchs ()

Carl Fuchs is a founding partner of Northport Financial in the Cranford, New Jersey office whose activities encompass a wide range of complex insurance, risk management and forensic underwriting matters. In the property and casualty area, Mr. Fuchs represents insurance and reinsurance carriers by providing due diligence and compliance audits of a wide range of underwriting facilities. Mr. Fuchs has worked with large law firms to interpret complex rating plan issues and has provided testimony in insurance litigation on behalf of policyholders. His work has also included forensic underwriting to risk management clients reviewing loss sensitive insurance plans on current and legacy rating programs. Mr. Fuchs has also developed underwriting and operational guidelines for foreign and domestic insurance carriers and has been involved in the integration of internal controls and Sarbanes Oxley requirements.

Prior to forming Northport Financial Mr. Fuchs worked for over thirty years in all phases of insurance company operations including underwriting, underwriting management, administration and home office management for large national and international insurance carriers. He received his B.A. from Hastings College and has several insurance related designations including Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter, Associate in Reinsurance, Associate in Insurance Accounting and Finance, Associate in Risk Management and Associate in Premium Auditing. Mr. Fuchs is a licensed New Jersey insurance producer.

Representative activities:

• Successfully advised counsel in resolving retrospective rating dispute in arbitration eliminating a large additional premium for client.
• Developed underwriting and operational business process model for large risk retention group as introduction to revised underwriting guidelines and rating platforms.
• Representing a major manufacturing company, provided expert witness testimony regarding comprehensive insurance coverage litigation relating to paid losses, reserves, and defense costs, incurred in connection with tens of thousands of underlying asbestos products liability claims.
• Conducted internal review of a recent acquisition by large national carrier to determine best practices, and offering alternative strategies to develop underwriting efficiencies and improve combined ratio.
• For a client carrier, modeled underwriting audit worksheets in an electronic format documenting individual account activity and summarizing data in a comprehensive format increasing efficiency and improving timeliness.

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Raymond Williams, Jr. ()

Ray Williams has been a Northport Financial partner since its founding in 2002. Mr. Williams works in our Cranford, New Jersey office and is active in insurance, reinsurance and risk management consulting. Working with actuarial representatives, Mr. Williams has performed detailed underwriting and pricing analysis on portfolios of business for major property and casualty carriers. He has conducted underwriting reviews and due diligence audits for domestic and foreign carriers and has led internal reviews of branch and regional operations for Northport client companies. In addition, Mr. Williams has an extensive background in the development of underwriting guidelines and procedures for insurance and reinsurance carriers, risk retention groups and managing general agencies. Mr. Williams has consulted managing underwriting facilities regarding carrier strategies, minimum underwriting documentation requirements and data management requirements designed to effectively manage their carrier relationships.

Prior to the formation of Northport Financial, Mr. Williams' experience exceeds twenty-seven years with national and international insurance companies. Carrier responsibilities included the launch of several startup underwriting facilities, actuarial liaison for in-depth underwriting results analysis and large account home office referrals. Mr. Williams holds a B.A. in History from Seton Hall University and an MBA in Quantitative Analysis from Seton Hall’s Graduate Business School. He is a licensed New Jersey insurance producer.

Representative activities:

• On behalf of a proposed underwriting facility, directed historical exposure, premium, and loss collection, developing a data base for a book of business actuarial analysis. The project included account work sheet design and development used for the individual account documentation and aggregating policy year statistics.
• Developed underwriting guidelines for a Midwestern risk retention group. The project included an in-depth analysis of business workflows, internal processes and staff interaction. The review also included an analysis of historical results and work with an independent actuary developing a new rating model.
• Quality control analysis of an international carrier’s excess casualty division, reviewing underwriters’ pricing and risk evaluation based on the underlying exposures. Resulted in recommendations for improvement.
• After conducting an underwriting and operational review for a client carrier, developed detailed underwriting guidelines for the underwriting facility. Guidelines provided clear expected results with detailed underwriting and administrative guides.
• Worked with an actuarial and underwriting team conducting reinsurance review of large ceding carrier. Noting inconsistencies in the ceding carriers underwriting activities, the team provided information to the reinsurance carrier leading to corrective actions.

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Ann Marie Morante ()

Ann Marie Morante is a senior member of the Northport team. Prior to joining Northport, she held underwriting positions with insurance companies and managing general agencies. She has more than twenty years experience in program underwriting with a concentration in the transportation industry.

Ms. Morante has recently completed a Northport assignment with one the world’s largest insurance groups as a contract employee, acting in varied capacities in both the branch and home office. During the course of her assignment, she provided branch underwriting and account management services as the client transitioned underwriting and account management to a facility in another state. In the home office, Ms. Morante coordinated retrospective rating adjustments, acted as the home office liaison for underwriting guidelines, and acted as the home office underwriter for referrals. In addition to these activities, Ms. Morante coordinated the entire U.S. operations for Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) related issues.

Ms. Morante is a licensed Health and Property and Casualty producer.

Representative Activities:

• Managed all phases of a national insurance carrier’s implementation and compliance with the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
• Underwriting Guidelines development for commercial underwriting products and maintenance of the guidelines using the clients centralized electronic reference system.
• Developed and maintained client carrier’s exposure reporting procedures in response to treaty carrier requirements.
• Conducted compliance audits for property and casualty underwriting at clients carriers underwriting facilities.

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James D. Lemmon ()

Jim Lemmon became associated with Northport Financial in 2009. During more than 35 years in the insurance and reinsurance industry, Mr. Lemmon has served in a number of key underwriting and operational roles. He was Chief Underwriting Officer for a major reinsurance company that conducted business on a worldwide basis. In this role, he managed the development and continuous updating of underwriting guidelines and underwriter authorities. Mr. Lemmon conducted comprehensive underwriting and pricing audits of each business unit and served as referral point for the larger and more complex risks. Previously, he served as Vice President of all ceded reinsurance activities for a major insurance company. Mr. Lemmon established a centralized reinsurance function that included creation of a corporate reinsurance policy, a centralized facultative administration process, and new procedures for the collection of reinsurance recoverables. Mr. Lemmon has also served as Corporate Risk Management Officer and Regulatory Compliance Officer for a major insurance company. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of several insurance industry pools and associations. Jim Lemmon holds a BBA degree in Insurance from the University of Texas at Austin.

Representative Activities:

• Conducted operational and underwriting reviews and projects for primary insurers and reinsurers.
• Provided underwriting due diligence activities for corporate acquisitions and assumptions of books of business.
• Analyzed existing reinsurance purchasing strategies for both treaty and facultative reinsurance, including review of treaty contract wordings, reinsurance purchasing process, and reinsurer security approval process.
• Provided expert witness testimony in arbitration and litigation matters.

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Phillip A. Kuehl ()

Phil Kuehl began working with Northport Financial in 2009. During his more than thirty years experience in the insurance business, he has worked in traditional casualty insurance companies, specialty companies and MGA organizations.

Building on a solid background in admitted and non-admitted casualty lines underwriting he built interdisciplinary underwriting teams to produce, underwrite, manage and evaluate books of business for property and casualty companies involved in the Excess and Surplus lines field. The scope of this work included leading collaborative work teams to integrate actuarial, claims and finance into the underwriting discipline for a comprehensive understanding of the business and its profitability. He has also prepared and negotiated reinsurance contracts and analyzed the cost benefit of those treaties.

In addition to experience at the branch and home office level at insurance companies, Mr. Kuehl has worked on the agency side to incorporate these underwriting disciplines into program management and incorporated underwriting guidelines with technology to create more effective and efficient underwriting tools and to upgrade agency technology, allowing agents to track business, monitor results and negotiate favorable reinsurance terms. Mr. Kuehl holds a B.S. in Math from Simpson College.

Representative Activities:

• Directed the development and implementation of a web based agency application system that facilitated data collection and rating functions
• Reviewed and updated departmental underwriting guidelines for an industry specific underwriting group.
• Planned and oversaw the conversion of an MGA operation to a paperless environment.
• Conducted underwriting audits at carriers’ facilities.
• Collaborated with actuarial departments to establish accident year loss ratios and pricing guidelines.

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Vernon A. Biederman ()

Vern Biederman is an experienced insurance professional with a broad background in underwriting, product line management, marketing, program development and reinsurance with over 35 years experience.

Mr. Biederman is very experienced in line of business management, particularly in General Liability and Umbrella. He is also knowledgeable in casualty large account underwriting and has been involved in reinsurance underwriting for large national reinsurers. Mr. Biederman has worked for primary and reinsurance carriers developing alternative risk solutions for a wide range of businesses. Most recently he has been involved in the underwriting and development of program administrators and underwriting facilities for carriers specializing in program business.

Vern is a graduate of Franklin College of Indiana in Franklin, Indiana, with a BA in History. He has also attained his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) Designation.

Representative Activities:

• Directed the development of new business opportunities for large national carrier, including the underwriting, establishing guidelines and procedures, and account management for an account the included multiple lines of business and developed premium in excess of $25,000,000.
• Territorial manager for a national property and casualty carrier’s largest commercial underwriting territory, overseeing all phases of underwriting and production and results analysis.
• Conducted underwriting and operational audits for primary and reinsurance accounts to insure compliance with company and regulatory guidelines.
• Developed program procedures, guidelines and contracts for large multi-line underwriting facilities.

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Linda B. Williams ()

Linda Williams has a broad range of tasks within Northport. As Northport’s business manager she has responsibility for the financial management of the company overseeing the invoicing, collections and banking activities. Ms. Williams coordinates the annual budget and reporting process, manages the strategic operating plan and manages the external resources employed by Northport. In addition, she provides research and development support and assists in the organization and management of large Northport projects.

Ms. Williams has taught mathematics for twenty years and worked in the tax preparation field for eighteen years as a consultant for H&R Block. She holds a B.S. as well as an M.S. in Mathematics from Seton Hall University. She also holds a M.A. in School Business Administration from Kean University.

Representative Activities:

• Assisted in the preparation of data exhibits for an expert witness project including oversight of format and data input.
• Assisted the internal review of an actuarial study providing various confidence levels at projected loss levels for different policy limits, helping evaluate premium and risk relationships.
• Managed the document design, content and production on a large program initiative for a Northport client, producing a complete product meeting aggressive timeframes.
• Reviews Northport audit reports and underwriting documents for clarity and consistency with underlying statistical information.

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Andrea Carol-Flood ()

Andrea Flood joined Northport Financial in 2006. She provides in-house underwriting and operational support on a variety of Northport activities. Ms. Flood has assisted the development of underwriting and administrative service initiatives in response to specific needs identified by Northport clients. She has assisted producing underwriting guidelines, evaluating Workers Compensation experience modification calculations, and has conducted target market research for small commercial clients. Ms. Flood remains an in-house resource for Directors and Officers and Errors and Omissions coverage.

Ms. Flood’s prior experience includes eight years underwriting and underwriting management of Directors and Officers and Error and Omissions insurance at a major international insurance carrier. She holds a B.S. degree in Finance from Susquehanna University.

Representative Activities:

• Assisted senior consultant designing and producing underwriting guidelines for managing underwriting facilities of Northport client carriers.
• Participated in Northport’s initiative to offer Workers' Compensation experience modification analysis, conducting research for target prospective clients.
• Worked with a Northport client to identify prospective small business accounts within a narrow segment of the food service industry. Conducted market research and provided initial sales contacts, tracking and reporting results.
• Acts as the quality control resource for Northport produced audit reports and underwriting documents, insuring clarity and consistency with stated objectives.

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Lawrence Berlinski ()

Larry Berlinski has been associated with Northport for over five years. He has the dual roles of in-house technology expert and consultant for information technology for Northport clients and initiatives. His contributions not only include management of Northport’s network and the expansion of Northport’s technological capabilities, but also providing expertise in the development of data capture and data management tools.

Prior to joining Northport, Mr. Berlinski’s career included more than thirty years with a major diversified insurance carrier as a senior systems software specialist followed by three years with a business solutions division of a major computer manufacturer.

Representative Activities:

• Designed database for a Northport client wholesaler that includes an initial risk clearance capability, expanded data fields for quoted and bound risks and the capability to produce binder documents and formal file documentation.
• Constructed data collection program for retail agent recording historical exposure, premium and loss information facilitating the download of individual account data into an aggregating spreadsheet. The program facilitates portfolio management despite the use of several issuing carriers.
• In conjunction with a senior Northport consultant, acted as technical reference and resource for the development of an interactive electronic audit worksheet.
• Active in website design for Northport clients. Programming and implementation enhanced the marketing efforts for small business clients in a narrow food service industry segment. The website allowed prospective policyholders to enter data online and receive a package policy quotation.

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Leon F. Gonzalez ()

Leon Gonzalez is a Northport strategic partner and a principal of Southport Financial Group. Both Northport and Southport share offices in Cranford New Jersey, reflecting the close working relationship between these two organizations. Mr. Gonzalez has been actively involved in a number of Northport initiatives including working closely with Northport’s information technology team designing underwriting databases. He has conducted market research for a Northport joint venture creating a niche business plan later incorporated into targeted marketing program. Mr. Gonzales has also used his extensive surplus lines experience to provide underwriting support for a Northport strategic partner’s underwriting facility.

Mr. Gonzalez held various underwriting and reinsurance brokerage positions during the twenty-four years preceding the formation of Southport Financial Group in 1996. He has extensive experience in the surplus lines arena. In addition to his experience at an international insurance carrier and major reinsurance brokerage firms, Mr. Gonzalez has been a principal and active manager at several independent reinsurance brokerage facilities. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Social Sciences from Muhlenberg College. He is a licensed New Jersey insurance producer including Surplus Lines Authority.

Representative Activities:

• Operated as a primary contributor designing a database for a wholesale facility. In addition, was influential in the work flow processes and underwriting criteria documentation.
• Provided additional underwriting capacity for a surplus lines underwriting facility during peak periods.
• Conducted research on a narrowly defined industry segment and provided underwriting input for a web-based, online policyholder application procedure.

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Alfred H. Frezza ()

Alfred Frezza is a principal and founding member of Southport Financial Group, a Northport strategic partner. Working out of the Cranford office, he has participated on various Northport project teams drawing upon his more than thirty-five years of underwriting and reinsurance brokerage experience. His contributions have included closely controlled retail book of business analysis, database design for a wholesale facility and a fronting solution for a specialized insurance portfolio.

Prior to the formation of Southport Financial Group in 1996, Mr. Frezza held underwriting and senior officer positions at a major insurance company and reinsurance brokerage firms. During his time with Southport, he held the senior management position for a joint venture that functioned as a managing general underwriter of facultative reinsurance. Mr. Frezza graduated from Penn State University, subsequently spent two years in the US Army, and then earned an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is a licensed NJ insurance producer including authority for Surplus Lines.

Representative Activities:

• Generated an opportunity with a retail agent developing a managing general agency proposal. Oversaw the data collection of historical experience necessary to conduct an actuarial review. Developed a proposal and presented to prospective carriers.
• Participated in designing a wholesale underwriting facility database, providing input regarding essential underwriting criteria documentation.
• Analyzed a narrowly defined book of business, presented proposal, and secured market with a specialized fronting carrier.

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