Counterpart

Counterpart operates as a managing general agent, not a carrier. It designs insurance products that are underwritten by A-rated institutions: Aspen Specialty Insurance Company, Evanston Insurance Company (a Markel company), and Westfield Specialty. This means Counterpart controls pricing, binding authority, and claims handling while the carriers provide the paper and financial backing.

Counterpart focuses exclusively on management and professional liability lines for small businesses. Its product suite includes private company D&O, not-for-profit D&O, employment practices liability, fiduciary, crime, professional and general liability, allied medical and healthcare liability, and architects and engineers liability. The firm serves clients through a network of over 2,800 wholesale and retail brokers.

Counterpart’s platform uses AI to ingest and analyze data from applications, historical claims, and third-party sources to automate parts of its underwriting workflow. The firm claims 3-5x faster response times for broker submissions, including a 90-minute turnaround for digitally completed applications. The AI also powers ongoing risk monitoring intended to help policyholders prevent claims before they occur.

Tanner Hackett is the co-founder and CEO. The management team combines insurance veterans with technologists: Tobias Schuler serves as Chief Underwriting Officer, Eric Marler is Head of Claims, and David Fanger is VP of Finance. The firm reports that its team collectively has over 500 years of insurance experience, signaling a deliberate balance between domain expertise and engineering talent.

Counterpart employs an in-house claims team that it says resolves claims twice as fast as the industry average. Because the claims function is integrated with the firm's data science and risk engineering groups, information from claims is looped directly back into the platform to refine underwriting guidelines and risk mitigation recommendations for current and future policyholders.