Philip Deramo - Why You Need a Business Plan

Whether you are trying to start a new business or looking to expand an existing one, it is essential for your success to create a business plan. As Vice President at Berkley Re America, Philip Deramo knows the importance of having a business plan to achieve success as a business owner.

For the last twenty years, he has been creating business plans for his clients. Without a plan a business is largely rudderless creating haphazard and reactive day-to-day activities. Here are some top reasons why a business needs to have a business plan in place.

1.A business plan is a map to the future. It will help you to better understand your business and help you to set goals and chart a course of action to achieve those goals.

2.It will help you secure funding in order support growth. During the course of business, you will be provided with opportunities to grow your business.

3.You will need a business plan to assess opportunities and come up with a course of action to take advantage of them. 

4.A plan will help you to manage cash flow, an essential requirement for all businesses.

5.It provides the necessary information to support a strategic exit. At some point in time, you will decide it is time to leave the business.

Having clear business goals and the path needed to reach those goals is important for any business to succeed. Creating a business plan can help you stay in business and find success. As an insurance underwriting professional, Philip Deramo has been creating business plans for companies for twenty years.

Philip Deramo - Cyber Liability Insurance and Why You Need It

Philip Deramo has been working as an insurance underwriter for the last twenty years. In the last ten years, he has been building his experience with cyber liability insurance. But, what is cyber liability insurance coverage?

While most security professionals are required to attend a risk training session during their careers, many of them are unaware of cyber liability insurance. For countries like the United States, which have mandatory breach notification laws, this type of insurance has been most successful when used as a risk transfer option.

As data breaches become more common, the option of adding cyber liability coverage is increasingly attractive. The expenses associated with dealing with a breach, including the cost of compiling with the mandatory notification laws, can be extremely high, making adding this type of policy to a business’s existing insurance coverage is vital.

Cyber liability insurance covers a large range of situations, including:

• Data breach and privacy crisis management.
• Multimedia and Media liability coverage.
• Extortion liability coverage.
• Network security liability.

Some of the items covered under this insurance may overlap or be connected to other policies. Even if there is an overlap with policies, having a cyber liability policy in place will ensure that all of the associated cyber risks are covered. When looking for the right policy, it is important to obtain the right broker. Philip Deramo has spent the last ten years increasing his knowledge of cyber liability insurance coverage.

Philip Deramo - The Importance of Reinsurance

Reinsurance, a product line Philip Deramo has extensive experience in underwriting, happens when multiple insurance companies purchase insurance policies from other insurers in order to share the risk. An extension of the concept of insurance, it passes a part of the risk from the original insurer to others. There are four main reasons why reinsurance is an important part of the industry.

1. Reinsurance works to protect insurers from large claims. In order to spread out the risk of paying out a large claim, insurers take part of the original claim they agreed to insure and reinsure part of it with others. These reduce the risk that any one insurer will incur a substantial loss.
2. Peaks and troughs in the insurance industry throw off the balanced set of underwriting results insurers are looking for each year. With reinsurance, there is a cap on the amount of claims an insurer has to pay out during any given year.
3. When a country is vulnerable to natural disasters, it is important to spread the risk. Reinsurance may be used to help spread the risk outside the country.
4. If an insurer wants to insure a very large risk, but is unable to on its own, reinsurance can allow them to accept the whole risk and then reinsure any part that they cannot keep.

Reinsurance can help mitigate the risk any one insurer is subjected to. This can help an insurance company with too much liability lighten their load. Philip Deramo is a results-driven insurance underwriting professional with extensive knowledge and experience with reinsurance.

Philip Deramo - How to Successfully Write White Papers

As Vice President at Berkley Re America, Philip Deramo has been writing white papers on Cyber Liability Insurance for several years. White papers are authoritative reports that address a specific issue, and are aimed at an audience outside the organization that originates the report.

White papers are a common marketing tool. Each one requires an understanding of a product’s technology and how it is used to solve technical business problems. They are intended to show customers that the vendor understands their problems, describe the technology, and explain why it is the best choice for customers. They can list ways in which you will be able to streamline internal communication, or suggest how to use a certain product for a technical purpose. Following are the steps you will need to follow to successfully write white papers.

1.You need to identify the main issue that your audience is facing and how you purpose to solve the problem. This should take the form of something that you can phrase in a few simple words, like “decreasing sales,” or “slow network speeds.”

2.Figure out what the level of expertise is for your audience, as well as their attention span. You don’t want your white paper to be too simplistic, or too complex.

3.Decide how long your white paper will be. Typically, these can range from a single page up to five pages in length. Its length depends on who will be reading it.

4.Choose a title for your white paper. This should be fairly generic and include the term “white paper.” You also want to make sure that the title describes the problem that is being addressed.

5.Use the introduction to the white paper to describe the problem that you have identified. Be sure to describe the problem in clear, precise terms. Keep the analysis of the problem short; no more than a single paragraph.

6.Next, list specific aspects of the problem. When doing this be sure to include figures, dates and names.

7.When discussing the issue, make sure you are providing the necessary background information about the problem. This can include things like a description of the market’s size or developments recently made in technology.

8.Adopt a step-by-step approach to describe how you propose to solve the problem. Be sure to make it clear exactly how you will implement your idea.

9.The closing paragraph of the white paper should summarize the problem and describe how you are planning on solving it. Be sure to also include the results you hope to see.

For Philip Deramo, Berkley Re America’s Vice President, the recent issue of Cyber Liability has been the topic of his white papers.

Blog | Philip Deramo

Blog | Philip Deramo

Philip Deramo - Longtime Senior-Level Professional of WR Berkley

Philip Deramo was integral to the success of insurance company WR Berkley for many years, serving the firm on a foundation of extensive industry experience, as well as his considerable skills as a lawyer, claims manager, and underwriter. His journey to WR Berkley began in 2002, when he joined a small underwriting consulting company for insurance firms called Berkley Capital Underwriters. When Deramo joined, the company consisted of only four experienced insurance workers, including Deramo himself. He joined as the Assistant Vice President of the company. One of his first accomplishments as a company leader was underwriting the Quota Share Treaty Reinsurance program that gave ceding companies capital surplus relief.



During his time with Berkley, Philip Deramo flashed his skill and creativity for providing new and improved insurance policies to all clients, corporate or individual. By the time that Berkley Capital Underwriters became WR Berkley, Deramo had begun managing a $15 million treaty book and was responsible for the review and approval of contract language. Philip Deramo drew on his legal skill and experience to perform his many duties for WR Berkley. As the Assistant State Prosecutor for Connecticut, he learned a great deal about establishing proof and legal language in contracts and agreements. His knowledge of how the legal system worked in the Connecticut and the United States made him an invaluable asset to WR Berkley until he left the firm in 2015.

Philip Deramo is proud of the service he provided to WR Berkley, as well as the service he provided to all of the company’s clients over the years. Deramo helped the company grow from a small startup to a large player on the national scale that assists in the underwriting of insurance policies.

Philip Deramo - Experienced Insurance Underwriter

Philip Deramo set himself up for success in the insurance industry by studying law at Quinnipiac University School of Law in 1987. He then worked as an Assistant State Prosecutor for Connecticut and entered the insurance industry as in-house counsel for Kemper Insurance after a few years cutting his teeth in criminal courts. Kemper Insurance is a family of companies with scattered over the United States. Kemper has over 30,000 representatives offering customers the best auto, home, and life insurance policies possible to help them prepare for the future. After working as in-house counsel for several years with Kemper, Deramo became an underwriter, a position that he has maintained for much of his career in insurance.

Philip Deramo has performed many different duties as an insurance underwriter throughout his career. He has researched prospective clients on behalf of his employers to decide if the company can offer these customers certain insurance policies and figure out which products will fit with their needs the best. Philip Deramo has learned early on that he had to be very attentive to detail and analytical so that he can give his clients the best policies for their individual situations. Underwriters often rely on their experience and their instinct in many cases, as well as their understanding of the policies their company offers. Deramo has developed excellent instincts and abilities throughout his career.

Philip Deramo gained experience as a mentee of experienced underwriters on his way to leadership positions within the insurance industry. He trained hard to gain the knowledge he needed to get started, but he has also taken advantage of the help that others offered him.

Philip Deramo - One-Time In-House Counsel for Kemper Insurance

Philip Deramo earned his law degree from Quinnipiac University Law School in 1987. From there, he worked as an assistant state prosecutor for Connecticut. After a few years working in this capacity and earning litigation and trial experience, Deramo moved on to the private sector. He became official in-house counsel for the insurance company Kemper Insurance. He worked as in-house counsel for three years before moving on to underwriting. As an underwriter, he found his true calling. Deramo would later make a career out of underwriting insurance policies and eventually join a company called WR Berkley. He held various high-level positions within the WR Berkley companies, including the position of Vice President.

Kemper Insurance is a family of companies that offers its clients insurance policies and the proper expertise that should come with them to families across the United States for their lives, cars, homes, and more. Kemper Insurance also works closely with small businesses to create professional liability policies and many other policies that keep local businesses alive and making local services available to everyone in communities across the US. Philip Deramo helped with many legal issues that many customers and company officials deal with on a daily basis in this industry as in-house counsel. When Philip Deramo moved on to underwriting, he was able to effectively negotiate insurance contracts and policies that were mutually beneficial to both the company and its customers. 

Philip Deramo went on to join a startup called Berkley Capital Underwriters, along with a few other associates, in 2002. When he left as the company in 2015, the company had helped a great many clients solve their insurance issues.

Philip Deramo - Quinnipiac University Law School Moot Court Judge

Philip Deramo earned his law degree from Quinnipiac University Law School in 1987. He had many responsibilities as a law student there, including volunteering as a judge in the law school’s moot court. He heard cases and made rulings in this optional club for law students to practice their skills in front of their peers. Despite all of the extra work Deramo did as a moot court judge, he loved being a part of the moot court and the experience helped him hone his skills and talents in the courtroom, skills that he would later use to great effect in his career as an attorney and then insurance underwriter.

Moot courts are simulated court rooms set up by law students to test their skills in the courtroom. They help students apply the concepts and knowledge they developed in the classroom in scenarios very close to real life. Philip Deramo started in the moot court at Quinnipiac University Law School as a litigator and eventually by the strength of his commitment to the moot court and its core purpose, which is to provide law students with the practice they’ll need to improve their skills and help people after they graduate, that he became moot court judge, testing his fellow students in their litigation ability.

Philip Deramo gained valuable experience as a litigator and a judge in moot court. He went on to work for the Division of Criminal Justice in Connecticut and has worked as an insurance underwriter for several insurance companies, including WR Berkley.

Philip Deramo - Former Vice President of WR Berkley Re America

Philip Deramo is a professional insurance underwriter who joined a small underwriting outfit in 2002 called WR Berkley Capital Underwriters. At the time, it was a company of only four experienced underwriters, including Deramo. He started as the Assistant Vice President of the company when he came aboard with his many years of experience working as an insurance underwriter and claims manager. One of his first large accomplishments for the company was producing and underwriting the Quota Share Treaty Reinsurance program that provided ceding companies with capital surplus relief. This helped the company grow and shot Deramo ever higher in the ranks.

Philip Deramo stuck with the company when it changed its name to WR Berkley Re America. He remained Assistant Vice President but his responsibilities grew. He managed a $15 million treaty book and became responsible for the review and approval of contract language. Philip Deramo has a deep background in law. He worked as the Assistant State Prosecutor for Connecticut in his early career. As WR Berkley Re America continued to grow, Deramo moved up to Vice President of the company in 2005. He established the professional liability department for the company when he took over as Vice President, and eventually achieved a combined gross loss ratio below 30% over ten years.

Philip Deramo is proud to have worked for WR Berkley Re America. He helped the company grow from a small startup into a national player that works with insurance companies and sections of insurance companies to underwrite clients and assist in their operations.

Philip Deramo - Three Skills All Insurance Underwriters Need to Succeed

Philip Deramo has worked as an insurance underwriter for many years for several different companies. Most recently, he worked for WR Berkley Re America, an insurance company that began as a small startup with only four employees and is now a national insurance company player. Deramo highlights three skills that he had to develop to be successful as an insurance underwriter:

Analytics. Underwriters have to be able to pull out pertinent information from clients’ files to determine what kind of insurance products their companies can offer them. Philip Deramo started developing these skills in his early days of law school at Quinnipiac University School of Law.

Decision-making. Underwriters often have to make difficult decisions sometimes based on incomplete information. Philip Deramo had to make time-sensitive calls based on the data in front of him and what he feels is right. This is not an easy thing to do on a daily basis, but if you can start to analyze the decisions you make in your day-to-day life, you can start to make better decisions in your work.

Attention to detail. Minute details in customer files can make all the difference in the insurance coverage they receive. You owe it to the customers and your company to retain small bits of information so that you can analyze it and make decisions based on it.

Philip Deramo worked hard to develop these skills so that he could perform his duties as best he could. He worked as the Vice President of WR Berkley Re America until 2015.

Philip Deramo - Former Kemper Insurance In-House Counselor

Philip Deramo has worked for many insurance companies as an underwriter, rising as high as Vice President of the insurance startup company WR Berkley Re America. Deramo got his start at an impressive position as the Assistant State Prosecutor for Connecticut. Eventually, his career journey led him to Kemper Insurance, where he worked as in-house counsel for three years before he moved on to work as an underwriter for the company, opening another door for his future employment. Deramo wanted to work for Kemper because he thought that he could help the company help its clients with his legal expertise and advice.

Kemper is actually a family of companies that offers customers comprehensive insurance policies for their lives, cars, houses, and more. The company also works with small businesses as well. Collectively, the Kemper Insurance family of companies services six million policies throughout the United States, employs over 30,000 independent insurance agents and brokers. Philip Deramo worked as in-house counsel so that he could help them work with their many partners throughout the United States and ensure that all of its employees are licensed to sell insurance in all 50 states. Philip Deramo worked for Kemper because it is helping to improve the world of insurance, which can be frustrating and prohibitive for many families throughout the country.

Philip Deramo worked for WR Berkley Re America as the Vice President and senior underwriter until 2015. He lives in Fairfield, Connecticut, not far from where he grew up, in Easton, Connecticut. He graduated from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield in 1984.

Philip Deramo - Former Connecticut Prosecutor

Philip Deramo was the Connecticut Assistant State Prosecutor for six years. During that time, he prosecuted many cases ranging from misdemeanors to gang-related homicide and narcotics cases in the state from his office in Norwalk, Connecticut. He also appeared on television as a Court TV commentator and became forensics certified by Dr. Henry Lee. During his time in this position, he also spoke regularly at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He went on to work for a successful insurance startup company, WR Berkley Re America. He is a professional insurance underwriter and former Vice President of WR Berkley.

Philip Deramo worked hard during his early academic career to earn a place on the state of Connecticut’s prosecution team. He excelled in law school and developed as much experience as he could while clerking for attorneys and taking internships when he could. Many lawyers apply to be prosecutors only after they have developed considerable professional experience as litigators, but Philip Deramo was able to get a seat at the table by earning an Assistant State Prosecutor post in Connecticut. While all lawyers have to earn a bachelor’s degree, then a law degree, then pass the bar exam in their state, becoming a prosecutor usually takes years of trial experience. Deramo was able to get his position in the state prosecutor’s office by honing his courtroom experience as a moot court judge in law school.

Philip Deramo began his successful career as an attorney helping to keep Connecticut safe and just for everyone.

Philip Deramo - Effective Tips for Publishing a White Paper

Philip Deramo has been authoring his company’s cyber liability white papers for the better part of his tenure as Vice President. He created and presented a cyber liability business model that enabled the company to entertain various exposures, and in doing so created an opportunity to come up with informative white papers on the topic. He knows publishing white papers is not an easy job, and he offers a few tips.

                                         

Lots of marketing

Getting your white paper out there is a lot like marketing a new book – you need to start early. Marketing beforehand ensures that there is a ready audience willing to read the white paper as soon as it’s published. However, unlike marketing a book, you don’t have to spend months on the marketing aspect. If you start a week (or two) before publishing, you should have generated enough buzz to prepare your readers.

Review the content

Have the content reviewed and edited at least two weeks in advance. Have a professional proofread, edit and add any design aspects that may be necessary. This ensures that you don’t run into any issues during publishing. Having another set of eyes go through the content ensures they catch any errors or oversights in your work.

Promote the paper

If you have a blog, generate excitement by posting a series of blog posts that promote the white paper. At the end of each post, include a call-to-action type message that keeps readers informed about the white paper. Include links to a landing page if you have to.
Philip Deramo has more than a decade of experience in insurance underwriting.

Philip Deramo - Issues That Plague Many Startup Businesses

In 2002, Philip Deramo was part of an initial four-person team that started Berkley Capital Underwriters, Inc. He served as the Assistant Vice President and was responsible for producing and underwriting quota share treaty reinsurance to provide ceding companies with capital surplus relief. Deramo’s work as a startup executive enabled him to see and experience some of the challenges that face startups, a few that are explained below.

Market issues

One reason why startups fail is because there’s little or no market for their product offering. In some cases, the startup fails to generate a compelling value proposition that will make buyers want to purchase the product/service. In other instances, the timing of the product launch could be wrong. A startup can be ahead of the market by years, meaning the market is not ready for the solution.

Business model issues

Another cause of startup failure is that many entrepreneurs overestimate the work it takes to attract and acquire customers. They assume that because they have a nice website, service or product, that customers will scramble to buy it. That may be the case at the beginning, but it becomes costly to attract and keep customers.

If anything, entrepreneurs have to figure out a realistic cost of acquiring customers.

Poor management

Poor management dooms startups from the start. A weak management team will struggle to generate a sound product development strategy, will probably be poor at execution, and generally may fail to have a strong team working for them.

Philip Deramo’s experience at the startup enabled him to make the move to Berkley Re America in 2003, where he’s been working ever since.

Philip Deramo - How Underwriting Works

Philip Deramo has extensive experience in insurance underwriting, and he knows it’s an essential aspect of the insurance application process. When an individual makes an application for insurance coverage, he/she is asking the insurance company to take on the potential of having to pay a future claim against the insured risk.

In some instances, like life insurance, the claims can be quite expensive. It is very important that the insurance company not take on great risks during the application process, which is where underwriting comes in.

What is underwriting?

In a nutshell, underwriting refers to the process of evaluating the potential risks that are associated when considering an insurance applicant. During the underwriting process, important decisions such as the value of coverage and premiums to be paid are considered against a number of factors. The work of an underwriter like Philip Deramo is to attempt to protect his insurance company’s books from risks that can cause losses. With this in mind, it’s quite possible for an applicant to be denied coverage if they present too high of a risk.

Factors to consider

Continuing with the life insurance example mentioned before, various factors will be considered. For starters, the underwriter will want to consider the probability of the applicant living longer than the average life expectancy. Underwriters will also consider factors that can cause the applicant not to realize their life expectancy, including (but not limited to) history of health issues, current occupation, income and lifestyle habits, among others.

Philip Deramo - Finding a Balance between Work and Life is Important to Success

Working extra hours at the office is something Philip Deramo is accustomed to. Ever since he finished graduate school and got into the “real world”, he’s worked extra hours to improve his skills and knowledge. However, he has always appreciated the value of having the right balance between work and life. While many employees in the modern world might find this elusive, Deramo knows it is achievable with the right attitude.

Philip Deramo

 First, it’s important for individuals to understand that a work-life balance goes beyond having a nice benefits package at work. Some employers may offer flexible work schedules and tack on impressive benefits, but these only help you manage your life. To achieve a good balance, you have to steer your life in the right direction.

It’s not easy for many people to come to such a conclusion, thanks in part to messages such as “It’s a tough economy to find work in,” or “Be grateful for having a job.” They might be true, but they are no reasons to focus too much on one area and forget on other crucial aspects of life. Valuing work over good physical, mental and emotional health is wrong. Living each day to “meet expectations and deadlines is akin to living in survival mode, and contributes little towards a healthy balance.

To find the right balance requires shifting perceptions from surviving to enjoying life. Just like you have career goals that you strive for, having goals that improve your health, mental capacity and social life enable you to enjoy life.