Welcome to the Evolution of Insurance.
Working Layer Programs delivers institutional-grade property self-insurance — built specifically for mid-market multifamily Owners/Operators who've been priced out of these types of programs.
Until now.
Working Layer Programs: Self-Insurance Made Simple.
Large multifamily Owners/Operators have run property self-insurance programs for decades. The economics are compelling. But it takes careful execution. To make it work, you need to unbundle your risk, determine what you can retain and what you cannot, and then assemble the infrastructure to execute it. That means retail brokers, wholesale brokers, captive managers, Managing General Underwriters, actuaries, and more — each doing a piece of the work and each charging for it. The coordination costs a fortune. The markups compound.
That ecosystem works at institutional scale. It is exactly what has kept mid-market Owners/Operators out.
Working Layer Programs (WLP) changes that. We took every function in that ecosystem — underwriting, captive management, claims, excess carrier procurement, lender approval navigation — and built it under one roof. The expertise behind it is 30 years deep. The proprietary software that runs it was built from the ground up. The result is a program that delivers institutional-grade economics to Owners/Operators who were previously too small to access it.
Same premium. Same full protection. Better outcome — one that puts money back in your pocket in good loss years and doesn't cost more in bad loss years.
You Pay. They Profit.
Every year you write a check for property insurance. In a traditional underwriting model, the carrier allocates roughly half your premium toward catastrophic loss coverage. The carrier then allocates roughly half your premium to high frequency everyday (attritional) losses. And to both of these buckets of premium the carrier must add overhead and profit allocations.
Every year the carrier pays your claims, keeps what's left, and sends you a renewal. If your losses were favorable, that profit stays with them. You get nothing back.
That is not a flaw in the system. That is the system.
There Is a Better Structure. You Just Haven't Had Access to It.
Every multifamily property loss falls into one of two categories: knowable risk and unknowable risk. Knowable risk is high-frequency, low-cost losses — the everyday claims that are predictable and manageable (stove fires, water damage, and the like). - which in underwriter’s terms are classified as the “working layer” of loss. Unknowable risk is catastrophic loss — the events no one can forecast (major fires, hurricanes, wildfires, and the like) — in underwriters terms these claims are known as the cat layer.
Institutional Owners/Operators figured out long ago that they do not need to pay a carrier to absorb the knowable risk. They self-insure it up to a defined cap, administer it at much lower cost, and keep the profit. They buy excess coverage to cover all losses above that cap. This unbundled solution can result in 10% or more savings on traditional property coverage.
Knowable, frequent operational risks
Predictable, high-frequency losses you can self-insure and administer at much lower cost.
Unknowable, systemic or extreme events
Catastrophic losses no one can forecast — covered by an excess policy that activates above a defined cap. This layer is most efficiently transferred to an excess insurance carrier which has a much larger pool of risk to spread these costs over.
WLP Builds and Manages the Unbundled Solution Under One Roof.
Large multifamily Owners/Operators have run property self-insurance programs for decades because the economics are compelling. But it takes careful execution. To make it work, you need to unbundle your risk, determine what you can retain and what you cannot, and then assemble the infrastructure to execute it. That means retail brokers, wholesale brokers, captive managers, Managing General Underwriters, actuaries, and more — each doing a piece of the work and each charging for it.
That ecosystem works at institutional scale. It is exactly what has kept mid-market Owners/Operators out. Until now. WLP has built the system and infrastructure tailored to the mid-market multifamily Owner/Operator.
WLP is not a replacement for your insurance broker. We replace your traditional property coverage. We are the specialist that handles the entire solution — the working layer of your property risk and the excess policy that caps your exposure.
Your total insurance spend stays the same. Your protection stays the same. Your lenders stay satisfied. Your broker relationship stays intact. But your high-frequency losses are now administered at lower cost — and the profit on your good loss history, money that used to stay with a carrier, comes back to you.
Property Risk Is Not the Only Opportunity.
WLP delivers two complementary programs. Together, these two programs represent a logical starting point in an Owner’s/Operator’s migration to the world of self-insurance — and where the profit can start flowing in the right direction.
Property Insurance
Addresses the working layer of your property insurance — the predictable, high-frequency losses where self-insurance creates the most economic advantage — and structures the excess policy that protects you above that layer.
Tenant Legal Liability
Your tenants are already paying for the mandatory renter's insurance that you require. WLP restructures that arrangement so the economic benefit flows back to you.
A wholly owned captive insurance company is formed for both programs to fund the reserves in order to run the self-insurance programs and cover losses. The captive accrues underwriting profits to the strategic benefit of the Owner/Operator. Profits may be repatriated as dividends or kept in reserve to lower future operating costs. The choice is yours.
Tenant Legal Liability — The Second Program
Your tenants are already paying for renter's insurance for the mandatory protection you require. That fee is structured to benefit the insurer. WLP restructures it to benefit you.
Your tenants carry a small monthly cost in exchange for a waiver of liability from any tenant caused damages. Those fees are aggregated by the Owner/Operator and purchase a Tenant Legal Liability policy from their captive. — comparable to what they would pay for standard renters' insurance. When a tenant causes damage and is at fault, the claim is paid from that reserve. Unused reserves flow back to the property owner.
The tenant gets coverage. You get the economic benefit of a well-managed pool. The TLL program can be run alongside the primary program or as a standalone. Either way, the economics are straightforward: you are creating a profit center with no additional premium burden on your tenants.
The Tenant Legal Liability Process
The Infrastructure Is the Product.
Self-insurance sounds straightforward. It is not. The reason this model has been limited to institutional Owners/Operators is not access to information — it is access to infrastructure.
WLP does this work. We are the underwriter, the claims manager, the lender liaison, the program manager and the facilitator of cost effective excess insurance — all under one roof. You do not coordinate a team of specialists. You work with us.
Visibility You Have Never Had
Traditional insurance gives you a renewal packet once a year. WLP clients get our proprietary risk management technology platform built specifically for this program.
This is not a reporting dashboard bolted onto an existing program. It is the operating system for how WLP manages your risk.