Max Rhulen started the Rhulen Agency in 1934. Originally conceived as a main street insurance agency in Monticello, New York, it quickly became a specialist in certain areas. The Catskill mountains where the Rhulen Agency was located had a density of seasonal summer resorts. Many of these resorts were insureds of the agency. Due to the fact that they were only occupied during the summer, the resorts suffered from an inability to obtain property insurance. Insurers required that a dwelling be occupied through the majority of the year.

As a result of this displacement, Max Rhulen recognized the opportunity to create one of the first specialty programs. He realized that by aggregating homogenous groups of insureds he could approach carriers and get them to write the exposure, because there was a spread of risk. Once Max wrote his first program, the strategy took off.

When Max's children joined the business in the 1950's, they started many other specialty programs. Several of these programs grew to be the largest in the world. The children's summer camp program, the animal mortality program, and several others made the Rhulen Agency into the "go to" partner for many insurers, agents, insureds, and others.

By aggregating similar risks, the experts at the Rhulen Agency started to develop a knowledge of the risks and exposures that was different from what was otherwise known in the industry. This enabled the Rhulen Agency to start its own claim division, and ultimately become one of the first MGAs in the country. Ultimately, the Rhulen Agency became one of the largest specialty writers in the United States, and it was acquired in 1989 by Markel. Many of the Rhulen programs are still written by Markel today.

Rhulen Specialty was created by three people, two of whom are Rhulens. They took the knowledge gained from developing specialty programs and combined it with the experience from managing thousands of crisis events in their company Firestorm. As a result, they were able to create a new kind of firm in the insurance industry. Rhulen Specialty is a program improvement firm. It is designed specifically to help insurers, reinsurers, MGAs, and other risk bearers in creating better programs. Rhulen Specialty utilizes several entities and proprietary tools to accomplish the goals of its partner organizations.

CrisisRisk, Firestorm, and Due Diligence Inc. are used for different purposes to create program improvement services that differentiate the program partner's business, reduce frequency and severity, improve broker satisfaction, and create better insureds. The Crisis Coordinator Certification, the Virtual Crisis Response Advisor, the ABC's of Crisis and other tools are unique in the industry and help create a sustainable competitive advantage.

Whether a partner is looking to protect an existing book, take business from a competitor, reduce frequency and severity, or accomplish some other goal, Rhulen Specialty has the tools, processes, and procedures that make our partner organizations more successful.