Interview: Phil Enan, SiriusPoint

What strategic gap does acquiring Assist America and World Nomads fill for SiriusPoint/International Medical Group (IMG), and how does it strengthen your value proposition to insurers and reinsurers?

Together, IMG, World Nomads, and Assist America have created a truly integrated insurance and assistance provider, poised for further growth. IMG will now have a presence in 34 countries, distribute its products in six continents, and provide around-the-clock service.

IMG and Assist America have been providing assistance services for more than 30 years. The acquisition of Assist America creates a worldwide service platform, with teams on the ground in Asia and the Middle East in addition to IMG’s existing locations in the US and the UK. Bringing together these companies crystallises a global strategy where IMG employees support customers in daylight on a truly global basis. This significantly strengthens IMG’s proposition and enhances its service capabilities.

IMG has had great success in building distribution capabilities over the past decade, and World Nomads brings with it a preeminent consumer brand and significant distribution capabilities to amplify that success. It expands IMG’s reach, with business being written directly in the US, Canada, Brazil, UK, EU, Australia, and New Zealand.

World Nomads currently writes more than US$40 million of travel insurance premium. The acquisition will increase our travel insurance premiums and revenues and meaningfully expand our global distribution capabilities. These are areas that we have grown significantly over the past 12 months under the IMG brand.

How are the acquisitions expected to affect SiriusPoint’s revenue mix – particularly in terms of fee-based income versus underwriting risk?

Assist America will add more than $20 million of fee-based revenue but will not come with any additional underwriting risk. Initially, World Nomads will bring over $20 million of managing general agent (MGA) commission. Over time, we will assess the benefit of adding underwriting revenue as we evaluate transitioning some business over to IMG and SiriusPoint.

How does owning Assist America and World Nomads change SiriusPoint/IMG’s competitive position relative to other specialty insurers or MGAs offering embedded assistance or travel-related benefits?

Very few, if any, travel insurance MGAs have a truly global, in-house assistance services platform with the backing of a parent like SiriusPoint. Through the acquisition of Assist America, IMG has greater control over service quality, which gives them the opportunity to work with larger business partners with more complex assistance needs.

World Nomads is a premier consumer brand with a long history in the market. Having that brand within IMG greatly enhances our distribution capabilities relative to other MGAs.

Are there any integration challenges (technology, culture, regulatory, global operations)?

Ahead of both acquisitions, we completed comprehensive diligence across technology, culture, regulatory, and global operations, giving us strong confidence in the fit and leaving us genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead.

Assist America and World Nomads are both well-established businesses, each bringing strong infrastructure and proven operating models. Our focus now is on delivering a seamless service experience across all offices and brands. Initial integration activity is centred on aligning both businesses onto the IMG technology platform to enable more consistent service delivery. We have seen strong cultural alignment across all three organisations, with early feedback from employees being very positive.

Does this acquisition signal a broader shift by SiriusPoint toward vertically integrated insurance services, and should we expect similar acquisitions in the future?

IMG is already a full-service MGA, and these acquisitions strengthen IMG’s existing vertically integrated insurance and services offerings. Our current focus is on growing our business organically while ensuring the smooth integration of Assist America and World Nomads, but we are open to future acquisitions that align with our growth strategy.