Risk Management at the firm is a consulting service-line — distinct from placement, although every placement engagement involves risk-management thinking. The practice exists to give clients an integrated advisor for the work that begins where the policy stops: loss control before the loss, claims advocacy during the loss, and coverage-litigation coordination when the carrier and the client disagree about what the policy covers.
The practice is led by Patricia Devanney, CIC, ARM — who joined the firm in 2001 when the Devanney Agency was acquired and who has led the firm's commercial risk-management work for over twenty years. David Erskine (ARM, CWCA) leads the workers-compensation-specific work; Jamie Holcombe leads coverage-litigation coordination.
The work is offered to commercial clients as part of the standard service-delivery — we do not charge separately for it. For prospective clients evaluating the firm, an initial loss-control or claims-advocacy review of an existing program is part of the Ashford Review™ engagement.
What the practice covers
Loss Control & Premises Survey
Site-visit reviews of client operations to identify property and liability exposures, recommend mitigation, and coordinate with carrier loss-control engineering. Particularly material for manufacturing, construction, and real-estate clients with significant property or workers-compensation exposure.
For specialized engineering work — sprinkler-systems, boiler-and-machinery, fire-protection — we coordinate with carrier loss-control engineers and an independent panel of consulting engineering firms.
Claims Advocacy
When a claim arises, the firm represents the client throughout the claim — from notice through settlement, and beyond if coverage is disputed. We coordinate with the carrier adjuster, gather documentation, advise the client on disclosure, and negotiate settlement.
The work is the most visible part of what a broker actually does. We have advocated claims on behalf of clients in every major loss category — fire, water, theft, product-liability, employee-injury, employment-practice, cyber, D&O, environmental — and have produced material improvements in claim outcomes through coordinated documentation and carrier-relationship leverage.
Coverage Litigation Coordination
When a carrier denies a claim the client believes is covered, the firm coordinates with insurance-coverage attorneys to evaluate the denial, prepare a demand letter, and (if necessary) litigate the coverage question. We do not provide legal representation — that work is done by independent coverage counsel — but we provide the contractual analysis, the carrier-correspondence history, and the broker-perspective on industry practice that coverage litigation requires.
The firm has a long-standing relationship with two Connecticut coverage-litigation firms and one Rhode Island firm. We do not receive referral fees; the relationships exist because coverage litigation is occasionally the right tool.
Renewal Marketing
The work of preparing the submission, choosing the markets, presenting the result to the client, and negotiating coverage and pricing changes. For commercial clients, this work begins approximately 120 days before each renewal and is documented in a formal renewal-marketing report.
The output is a multi-market quote comparison — typically four to seven markets per line of business — with carrier-by-carrier analysis of coverage differences, pricing posture, and the firm's recommended placement.
A claim is the moment the policy proves itself. It is also the moment the broker proves themselves.
The four pillars in practice
For a substantive middle-market commercial client, all four pillars are active at any given time. We are conducting loss-control work on the property and workers-comp programs; we are advocating two or three claims through carrier adjustment; we are coordinating, occasionally, with coverage counsel on a disputed claim; and we are preparing for the next renewal-marketing cycle. The work compounds — and the value of the firm's representation accrues across the relationship.
For a private-client family-office engagement, the same pillars apply at a smaller scale: loss-control through the property-survey and inventory work; claims advocacy through the high-frequency auto-and-property claims; coverage coordination when a fine-art or coastal-storm claim moves into dispute; and annual renewal across three to seven carriers.