NEW YORK — Distinguished Programs (“Distinguished”), a leading national MGA and insurance program manager, today announced its expansion into the reinsurance market with the addition of Distinguished Reinsurance (“DistinguishedRe”). The new platform debuts with its first group focused on property reinsurance, led by Frank DiPaola, who will take on the role of President, DistinguishedRe Property, and is now open for business.
Coverage is backed by Antares Reinsurance Company Limited (“Antares Re”), a Bermuda-licensed reinsurer writing all major property, casualty and specialty lines of business. Antares Re is rated A- by both AM Best and S&P and is the reinsurance arm of the larger Antares Global insurance group, owned by QIC.
The Property Reinsurance group offers a broad appetite for excess of loss facultative, semi-automatic and property treaty placements, with up to $50 million in capacity. Capabilities include U.S. domestic and international property schedules, as well as direct and brokered individual risk, facultative automatic and treaty placements.
This move represents Distinguished’s first step into the reinsurance market and aligns with its broader strategy of building specialized underwriting platforms through experienced teams supported by a “support with autonomy” philosophy.
“Expanding into reinsurance is a natural next step for us, as we see strong potential for the MGA structure in this space,” said Jason Rotman, president of Distinguished. “Ultimately, our strategy is to invest behind experienced and talented teams, and we are thrilled that Frank and his colleagues have joined us. We are equally excited to work with the Antares team as we collectively build this program.”
DiPaola brings more than 25 years of reinsurance experience to the role and will lead a dedicated team of facultative and treaty underwriters, pricing actuaries, catastrophe modeling professionals and legal specialists.
“We see a strong opportunity to bring a more thoughtful, disciplined approach to the property reinsurance market,” said Frank DiPaola, president of DistinguishedRe Property. “I’m excited to lead this expansion as we build a well-balanced portfolio across key markets and partners. Our focus is on delivering responsive underwriting and tailored facultative excess of loss solutions that align with each client’s needs.”
The addition of DistinguishedRe Property Reinsurance follows recent introductions of its Marine Cargo, Crisis Management, and Transactional Risk programs, underscoring the company’s continued investment in expanding its specialized underwriting capabilities across its portfolio.
About Antares
Antares provides local and international insurance and reinsurance capacity, risk transfer solutions and products through brokers and MGAs using our Lloyd’s and company market platforms operating primarily out of the UK, Bermuda and Singapore. We cover the whole spectrum of risks from complex international business risks to local retail SME and consumer personal lines.
