Insurance, Risk Management & Employee Benefit solutions built for Main Street, not Wall Street.
The Duncan Group is an independent insurance brokerage and risk advisory firm helping businesses, organizations and private clients better understand, manage, finance and transfer risk.
We combine specialized expertise, proactive risk management, thoughtful underwriting strategy and disciplined marketplace execution to help clients make better risk decisions.
Philosophy
Premium is an outcome.
Most insurance programs are marketed backwards. A renewal approaches. Applications are updated. Loss runs are collected. A submission is sent to the market. Carriers are asked for a price.
We believe the work should begin much earlier.
Insurance cost is influenced by the underlying risk, how that risk is managed, how clearly it is understood and how effectively it is presented to the marketplace.
Better insurance outcomes often begin before the insurance marketplace ever sees the account.
See how we workUncertainty gets priced.
Underwriters make decisions with the information available to them.
When important details are missing, assumptions have to be made.
In insurance, those assumptions tend to be conservative.
The Duncan Group works to help clients document the controls, practices and improvements that differentiate their organizations — so the market can evaluate the actual risk rather than a generic version of it.
Give the market a reason to compete.
The Duncan Approach
From understanding risk to managing it.
A disciplined process for moving from understanding risk to managing it, financing it and transferring it more intelligently.
- 01UnderstandRiskDiagnostic
- 02MapRisk Mapping
- 03ImproveRiskGuard
- 04PositionUnderwriting & Premium Negotiation Strategy
- 05TransferMarketplace Execution
- 06ManageOngoing Risk Management
The Duncan Difference
A better brokerage model requires more than access to markets.
We invest in the capabilities that support a more proactive advisory relationship.
- RiskAtlas
Our proprietary client-facing insurance and risk-management technology platform.
- Safety & Compliance
Proactive support around safety practices, loss control, regulatory considerations and operational risk controls.
- Claims Management & Advocacy
Claims experience that informs policy structure before a loss and advocacy after one.
- RiskUniversity
Our in-house technical development program for Duncan professionals.
- Alternative Risk Solutions
Evaluating whether traditional guaranteed-cost insurance remains the right way to finance risk.
- Specialized Industry Expertise
Specialized practices in the industries where deeper knowledge produces better analysis.
Who We Serve
Specialization changes the conversation.
The better we understand the business, the better the questions become.
- Real Estate & HospitalityOwners, operators and property portfolios priced on data and documentation.
- Construction & ContractorsContractual risk, subcontractor controls and project-driven exposure.
- Agriculture & EquineOperations where property, livestock, liability and weather intersect.
- Energy & IndustrialField operations, fleets, equipment and complex casualty exposure.
- Institutional & ProfessionalOrganizations with governance, professional liability and duty-of-care exposure.
- Private ClientFamilies and individuals with significant personal assets and liability exposure.
What We Do
Risk should be managed as a system.
Captives & Alternative Risk Solutions
Captives, large-deductible and loss-sensitive structures for organizations seeking alternatives to conventional guaranteed-cost insurance.
Commercial Insurance
Property, casualty, auto, workers' compensation, excess and specialty lines designed around the actual exposures of the organization.
Employee Benefits
Benefits strategy as an integrated part of enterprise risk and workforce planning.
Private Client Solutions
Private risk advisory for individuals, families, executives and family offices with complex homes, assets and liability.
Risk Management
Risk identification, loss control, safety strategy, claims analysis and an ongoing annual risk-management cadence.
Insurance proves its value when something goes wrong.
Claims experience influences how we think about insurance before a loss and how we advocate for clients after one.
The Duncan Group helps clients prepare for, understand and navigate claims while using loss experience to improve future risk decisions.
Explore Claims Management & AdvocacyRiskAtlas
A clearer view of your risk.
RiskAtlas is The Duncan Group's proprietary client-facing insurance and risk-management workspace. It helps organize policies, documents, requests, claims, renewal activity and ongoing risk-management work in one connected client experience.
Technology should support the advisory relationship — not replace it.
RiskThoughts
Perspective for a changing risk environment.
RiskThoughts brings together The Duncan Group's perspectives on insurance markets, claims, risk management and the industries we serve.
Insurance Markets · Featured
Why premium is an outcome
Pricing follows how well a risk is managed, understood and presented — not simply how many markets saw the submission.
In preparation
Market Intelligence
What underwriters are really pricing
Exposure data sets the starting point. What an underwriter cannot see is what gets assumed.
Claims
What happens after a large property loss
Documentation, mitigation and communication in the period when the claim file is being formed.
We are not built for every buyer.
If the objective is simply to collect another insurance quote, there are many brokers willing to do that.
Our process is designed for organizations and individuals who want to understand risk more deeply, improve where improvement is possible and approach the insurance marketplace with a deliberate strategy.
We do not measure our value by how many policies we place.
We measure it by the problems we help solve, the decisions we help improve and the outcomes we help clients create.
Start a conversation.
Tell us a little about your organization, your current insurance program and what prompted you to take another look.