Specialty Practices
Our specialty practices bring together industry thought leaders and professionals that have executive-level experience solving complex business challenges for global organizations. Our branded consulting practices, Hanover Stone Partners CaptiveGuard (SM) and WorkersCompGuard (SM), focus on the key cost drivers and regulatory issues that directly impact board members, c-suite executives, investors, and shareholders. In 2014, Hanover Stone CaptiveGuard (SM) was recognized as “Risk Consulting Initiative of the Year” by Captive Review, a leading alternative risk trade publication.
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Our Global Insurance Compliance Practice includes multilingual senior advisors with decades of experience evaluating, designing and optimizing risk and insurance programs for clients with billions of dollars in assets and exposures around the world.
CaptiveGuard (SM)
Hanover Stone Partners dedicated nearly two years to the formation of a specialty practice that provides a wide range of governance and related advisory services for captive insurance companies and their parent organizations. The practice, known as CaptiveGuard (SM), draws on HSP's network of senior advisors and partner firms with deep expertise in captives and alternative risk as well as former insurance regulators to offer a full complement of professional resources. Typical services include:
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Objective captive manager performance evaluation
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Actuarial reviews
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Global and local insurance regulatory compliance
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Coverage reviews of directly issued policies
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Facultative and treaty reinsurance agreement reviews
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Analysis of insurance and reinsurance market security
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Organize, manage & support RFP processes, including evaluations and recommendations
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Identification of independent captive board members with insurance leadership experience
Practice Leader
John J. Kelly, CPCU
Founder & Managing Partner, Hanover Stone Partners
John J. Kelly, CPCU is Managing Partner at Hanover Stone Partners which he founded in 2009 as a holding company with targeted investments in risk management consulting, risk management services, claims and loss control services, specialty insurance brokering and product distribution. He has 40 years of experience in the insurance brokerage industry, with an extensive background in strategic planning, acquisitions, investments, operational management, sales leadership, new business development and senior client relationships. Operationally, John has had responsibility for both property/casualty and employee benefits companies and has overseen operations in all business segments including Fortune 1000, Middle Market Programs, Construction & Environmental, Health Care, Personal Lines, Marine and Aviation. Mr. Kelly earned a degree in Accounting from Baruch College and an MBA from Rutgers University.
O: 646-216-2181
F: 646-216-2001
New York, NY
WorkersCompGuard (TM)
Hanover Stone Partners works with employers across the country on tailored measures to drive down their total cost of casualty risk with a focus on workers' compensation. Our dedicated, national practice group, known as WorkersComp Guard ™, collaborates with our clients to develop and execute focused solutions to reduce costs and improve claim outcomes.
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Led by Barry E. Thompson, a widely known expert with more than 30 years of experience in all areas of workers' compensation cost management, WorkersComp Guard ™ provides strategies and methods to evaluate risk-financing options, implement best claims management practices, assess employer safety culture and practices, and leverage data for program measurement and more effective resource deployment.
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The following includes six areas where we can help employers have an immediate impact on their cost of risk:
1. Explore optimal risk-financing alternatives:
We can work with the client and their broker in an advisory capacity to fully evaluate and select the most cost-effective risk-financing alternatives. Our analysis can include risk/reward trade-offs of higher retentions, utilization of annual aggregate protections, safety groups, self-insurance, captive programs (single parent or group), as well as analysis of existing claims reserves and collateral requirements and evaluation of alternative forms of collateral.
2. Focused claims management. Clients can reduce current open reserves:
with better defined and controlled claim strategies and more effectively engaged claim adjusters. We can craft optimal internal programs to suit any workplace size and culture. Correctly focused employer programs will drive insurer, claims and other vendors beyond mere status-quo claim handling.
3. Accelerated claim closures:
Clients can quickly improve loss history to hedge against future premiums. We clean up older claims with expedited closures and/or strategies that better contain open reserves.
Practice Leader
Barry E. Thompson
Senior Advisor, WorkersComp Guard (TM) Practice Leader
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Barry E. Thompson, a senior risk advisor of Hanover Stone Partners, leads the firm’s WorkersComp Guard (TM) practice, a dedicated, national practice group that helps employers manage workers’ compensation costs. A widely recognized thought leader in workers’ compensation, Mr. Thompson has devoted his entire career to claims management; his innovative approaches and technology-based solutions have enabled employers in multiple industries, government entities and nonprofits to manage and reduce their workers’ compensation costs. For the past 15 years, he has been president of Risk Acuity, LLC, a national consulting firm he founded that specializes in workers’ compensation. Previously, he was National Practice Co-Leader with Deloitte for five years and co-founded the firm’s National Disability Management Services Unit.
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O: 646-216-2181
F: 646-216-2001
Watertown, CT
Global Insurance Compliance
Historically, a global risk and insurance program could be placed in one primary country covering an organization's exposures around the world, with local policies issued in a few strictly regulated countries. Nowadays, companies face challenges such as; increased electronic surveillance of capital flows; the need for governments to increase local tax revenues; and legal contractual compliance issues coupled with a concerted effort to retain the maximum insurance premiums on-shore. The combination has prompted new and demanding standards to which global risk programs must comply. Hanover Stone Partners has responded by assembling a team of global insurance and risk management experts capable of reviewing client programs and assessing in-country compliance objectively and comprehensively. Our Global Insurance Compliance Practice includes multilingual senior advisors with decades of experience evaluating, designing and optimizing complex programs for Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations and governmental entities. Take a few minutes to contemplate the following questions and Contact Us to learn more.
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Are premium taxes paid equivalent to the risk exposure (whether assets or liabilities)?
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Are locally issued policies in compliance with each country’s laws/regulations?
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If a loss occurs, are the documents aligned in such a manner that a local insurance/premium tax audit will not be automatically triggered?
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Are policies congruent in coverage interface so that the payment of a local country claim will not trigger a compliance audit?
Practice Leader
Erik M. Severeid, ARM
Senior Advisor - Global Programs
Erik M. Severeid is a senior advisor at Hanover Stone Partners and leads the Global Insurance Compliance Practice. He joined HSP in 2013 and has more than three decades of experience in international insurance broking and risk advisory services. Most recently, Mr. Severeid was director of Strategic Development and International Practice Leader at Rutherfoord International. In addition to working directly with clients facing substantial global exposures, he was responsible for the firm’s international placement activities and establishing and maintaining relationships with partner insurance brokerages and networks on a worldwide basis. Earlier in his career Erik spent more than 20 years with Marsh and J&H, holding various senior level positions in the U.S., France, Germany and Denmark. He speaks Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and French. Mr. Severeid earned a BBA degree from Pacific Lutheran University and an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management.
O: 646-216-2181
F: 646-216-2001
Fairfax Station, VA
Higher Education
Higher Education faces risks related to life safety, reputation, financial sustainability, operations, and property risks. At Hanover Stone Partners, our Higher Education Practice, led by Ellen Shew Holland, ARM, includes independent consulting that supports identifying strategic risks or circumstances that may inhibit your college or university from achieving its strategic goals. Please feel free to Contact Us to learn more.
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Strategic Enterprise Risk Management Programs and Assessments
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Resilience and Crisis Management to include support for the Department of Homeland Security’s SAFETY Act and aligning Cybersecurity with risk management and IT objectives.
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In addition, we provide expertise from our Senior Associates including Insurance Archaeology and Risk Financing reviews
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Support for Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)
Practice Leader
Ellen Shew Holland, ARM
Senior Advisor - Higher Education Practice Leader
Ellen Shew Holland is a senior risk advisor at Hanover Stone Partners and head of the Higher Education practice. She joined the firm in 2018, bringing over two decades of leadership experience in all aspects of risk management. She is also the president of Strategic Risk Frameworks, LLC.
Based in Plano, TX, she most recently served as associate vice president and chief risk officer for Southern Methodist University (SMU), a position she has held since 2014. She provided executive-level leadership of the university’s strategic risk and insurance management, emergency management, business continuity, and environmental health and safety programs.
O: 646-216-2181
F: 646-216-2001
Plano, TX