Pivix Specialty Launches E&S Brokerage Unit With Gramm at Helm

Pivix Specialty Insurance Services Inc., a Scottsdale-based excess and surplus managing general agent distributing through wholesale brokers, has opened a brokerage division.

Pivix, which is backed by Ambac Financial Group, Inc., entered the market last fall with a contract binding program that targets small commercial property and general liability risks. The new brokerage unit will focus on larger and more complex casualty risks.written on an excess-and-surplus basis and delivered exclusively through wholesale channels.

The new brokerage division will be led by Michael Gramm, a 20-year insurance industry veteran who joined Pivix as senior vice president and chief underwriting officer for brokerage. Gramm will be responsible for building out a business unit that underwrites brokered accounts.

Gramm previously was senior vice president of Futuristic Underwriters, which he helped launch in 2023. He also has held executive-level casualty underwriting responsibilities with Hallmark, Navigators and XL Catlin.

An Interview with Michael D. Miller CEO of Pivix Specialty Insurance Services

Former Scottsdale Insurance President Mike Miller is president and chief executive officer of Pivix. The company’s management team members are all Nationwide alumni. Other than Miller—who also started specialty company Ategrity Specialty Insurance Co. in 2018—Ken Levine, Joe Griffith, and Sandy Vertuno have all been involved in Pivix’s founding.

“Since ‘day one’ our vision was to build an E&S platform with two underwriting prongs—contract binding for SME and brokerage for larger accounts,” said Miller. “Our binding authority facility has had great success so far. We have similarly high expectations for the brokerage program, and we look forward to working with Mike Gramm, as well as our carrier and wholesale partners, in continuing to build and develop these programs.”

Topics Agencies Excess Surplus New Markets