Placing vacant properties, short-term rentals and similar nonstandard risks requires the kind of flexibility that is possible only through successful relationships with the excess and surplus market.

“If you’re a personal insurance broker or agent, you might not be familiar with working with the excess and surplus market. If you’re a commercial broker or agent, you may not be aware that four-family or smaller rentals can be written on dwelling fire or modified homeowners forms,” says Donna Dodd of Burns & Wilcox.