MGA Helix launches Irvine-led professional lines program

By Isha Marathe

April 9 - (The Insurer) - Bermuda MGA Helix Underwriting has launched a professional lines program backed by Somers Re with a maximum line size of $10 million.

The new program will be led by Matt Irvine, who joined Helix as chief underwriting officer, professional lines from Axa XL in December 2024. Irvine has more than three decades of experience in the industry, including roles at XL Catlin, Novae and Aon.

Helix's new offering includes D&O liability, errors and omissions, employment practices liability, wage and hour, transactional liability and cyber cover.

Nigel Mortimer, managing partner at Helix, said professional lines "has always been on our radar".

“The Bermuda insurance market has three pillars: excess property, excess casualty, and excess professional lines. The launch of our new professional lines portfolio is the third critical pillar needed for Helix to better serve its clients and brokers comprehensively."

Helix was launched in Bermuda in 2020 by underwriting executives Claude Lefebvre, Nik Lucking and Neville Weston. Its existing portfolio includes a property and facultative book run by Lucking in Bermuda and an excess casualty program led by Tim Hadler, both managing partners at the company.

In December 2024, Helix launched a U.S. platform to write a portfolio of property business. The company also has ambitions to expand into the London market.

Arch in 2023 made a minority investment in Helix. Somers Re is the relaunched Watford Re, in which Arch acquired a 40% stake in 2021, with Warburg Pincus and Kelso & Co acquiring the rest.