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About Us
Terra insures conscientious design professionals who practice in the geosciences; i.e., geotechnical engineers, civil engineers, environmental engineers and scientists, geologists, and allied professionals. Terra is a well-run insurance company that is focused on remaining what many consider to be the best in the industry.
Terra products include:
- professional liability insurance,
- environmental liability insurance,
- professional liability-based contractor's liability insurance, and
- professional liability insurance for active toxic mold and biological pollutant exposures.
Terra's professional liability coverage – offered on a true worldwide basis – is extremely broad compared to others’. The Company also provides split-limit policies as well as per-project and per-client excess (above-standard-policy-limits) coverage.
Terra is a risk-retention group, that is, an insurance company owned exclusively by its policyholders. That makes a huge difference in operating philosophy. While the Company’s goal is to remain a profitable, enduring organization, it achieves that goal through devotion to the business needs of its owner/insureds. From Terra’s perspective, all our insureds have every right to expect world-class service; to be treated as if they own the Company, because, in fact, each insured is an owner. Terra’s contract-review services exemplify this attitude; staff responds to requests for assistance in less than 24 hours and, when essential, will confer directly with an insured’s client representatives (sometimes on a face-to-face basis) to help achieve a meeting of the minds. Terra also makes an array of professional-service contracts available to insureds and provides consultative guidance on their professional exposures, among other concerns. Terra frequently issues risk-management and loss-prevention advisories and provides regular premium rebates and cost reimbursement for many of our insureds’ professional-development activities. Terra also provides an annual unrestricted grant to ASFE, a not-for-profit association of firms such as Terra’s owner/insureds, to encourage continued development of innovative programs, services, and materials that help professionals better manage their risks and otherwise “prosper through professionalism.”
Federal law governing the operation of risk-retention groups limits ownership of Terra Insurance Company common stock to insureds only, and requires that each insured also be an owner. This has not created an obstacle. When Terra was capitalized as a U.S.-based risk-retention group in 1988 (20 years after the Company was created as a Bermuda-based “captive”), its initial stock value was $10 per share. Through December 31, 2008, the stock had appreciated to more than $243 per share.
Terra is rated "A, Excellent" by A.M. Best Company and has achieved an implied Best rating of "A++, Superior" based on a Best Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR) analysis. This makes Terra the highest rated risk-retention group in the United States and – when one considers Terra’s BCAR performance – one of the nation’s highest-rated insurers overall.
Because Terra is a well-capitalized, conservatively run insurance company, it has become the U.S. design professional community’s second-oldest insurer. The Company extends coverage to smaller firms whose annual professional-service revenues amount to a few hundred thousand dollars, and to larger firms that bill more than $100 million each year, with policy limits up to $8 million annually. Owner/insureds pay their premiums quarterly, in advance, at market-competitive rates.
Terra’s senior executives, who possess decades of successful experience, regularly visit owner/insureds’ offices to meet the professionals involved, discuss common concerns, and encourage the ongoing, open communication that has become a hallmark of Terra’s relationships with its insureds. Because of that communication, Terra is in a much better position to respond to its owner/insureds’ emerging needs, as by developing new products and services to help owner/insureds enter new markets and gain more share of markets in which they already are operating.
To say that Terra is different from other insurance companies of its kind is a major understatement. Its products are different. Its service is different. Its investment return, reliability, stability, and longevity are different. And most of all, its attitude is different. Experience it for yourself. When you do, you’ll realize Terra’s not just different; it’s better!
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