Risk Management International
Helping Businesses Make Smarter Insurance Decisions

James W. Barber, CEO and Founder

Insurance is an expense most businesses accept as a given. Policies are renewed, premiums are paid and everyone moves on to the next item on the list.

But that routine can hide a costly problem. A business may be paying for protection it does not really need while missing coverage it does. It may accept another renewal without testing the market, carry losses that could have been prevented, or take on liabilities that could have been shifted to a contractor, vendor, landlord or tenant. Sometimes the gap is buried in the fine print, only becoming obvious after a loss.

None of this necessarily means a company is poorly insured. It may simply mean that no one has stepped back to look at the whole picture.

That is the space Risk Management International (RMI) has built its business around. The firm looks at the risks surrounding a business, what it is already paying to protect, what may be missing, and where responsibility could be placed elsewhere. The goal is to help businesses make smarter decisions about the risks they take, the risks they transfer and the risks they insure. That approach has made RMI a resource for businesses across industries, from manufacturers and retailers to IT companies, banks, nonprofits and local governments.

RMI's model is closer to having an experienced risk manager inside the organization than simply having another insurance intermediary at the table. In fact, that is how the company was conceived. Founder and CEO James W. Barber brings more than five decades of experience in the insurance industry. From 1976 to 1982, he served as an officer and risk manager at Warner Communications, where he was responsible for the company's insurance worldwide. He left in 1982 to build RMI around the same work he had performed for Warner, but on a part-time, fee-based basis for businesses that did not have a full-time risk manager.

That distinction is particularly valuable for smaller and midsized organizations that may not have a fulltime risk manager. RMI works directly for the client on a fee basis rather than selling insurance, effectively providing the risk-management function that a larger corporation might maintain internally. The firm takes the client's specifications to multiple brokers, obtains competing proposals and brings the options back to the client, with the goal of securing appropriate protection at the best possible price.

Looking Beyond the Insurance Policy

Once a client is onboarded, RMI looks beyond the policies themselves and assesses the broader risk picture, from past losses and prevention measures to contractual obligations, risk tolerance and exposures that may not be insured at all.

Three questions shape that review. Where can the company save money? What protection is missing from the policies it already has? And what risks is the company carrying without insurance at all?

Cyber liability is one example Barber encounters regularly. Some businesses do not realize they have an exposure, while others assume their technology systems are secure enough that coverage is unnecessary. RMI makes the exposure tangible, obtains available options and lets the client decide whether transferring that risk makes sense. If the client still chooses not to buy the coverage, RMI accepts that decision and can revisit it the following year.

“Our purpose is not to insure everything, but to make sure the client understands the risk before deciding what to do about it,” says Barber.

When the Best Risk Solution Is Not More Insurance

Take a business that brings a contractor onto its premises. If that contractor causes an accident, the financial consequences should not automatically fall on the business that hired them.

RMI examines the contractual arrangements and insurance requirements to determine whether the appropriate protections are in place. That can include hold-harmless agreements, indemnification provisions and certificates of insurance naming the appropriate party as an additional insured. RMI's risk-transfer work is built around precisely this principle, using contracts and insurance requirements to allocate liability more appropriately.

It applies the same analysis to vendors, landlords, tenants and manufacturers. When reviewing these relationships, the company looks at who controls the risk, what the contract requires and whether the responsible party has the insurance needed to back up those obligations.

This is where RMI's work moves beyond the traditional question of how much insurance a company should buy. It asks a more fundamental question. Does the company need to carry this risk at all? That question can change the economics of a risk program before an insurance policy ever enters the picture.

The supermarket engagement shows how these pieces work together. RMI took on a small supermarket chain with six to eight stores and reduced its insurance cost from about $1.2 million to $500,000 while improving its coverage. The savings came from more than shopping the insurance program. RMI also implemented simple but effective loss-prevention measures and strengthened the contractual protections around contractors, landlords, tenants and vendors. When RMI went back to the insurance marketplace, it could show insurers not only the client's loss history but also what had changed to prevent those losses from recurring or to shift responsibility to the party best positioned to bear it.

That changed the risk profile insurers were being asked to evaluate. A contractor, for example, might be required to provide a hold-harmless agreement and a certificate of insurance naming the client as an additional insured. If a product causes an injury or illness, contractual protections can similarly place responsibility with the manufacturer. The result is not simply a cheaper insurance program, but a business that has become more deliberate about which risks it retains and which it transfers.

Finding the Gaps Others Can Miss

Some of RMI's most valuable findings are buried in the language of policies clients already have.

“A program can contain multiple policies and substantial limits and still leave an important exposure unaddressed,” says Barber. “Our review is designed to uncover those gaps before a loss exposes them.”

One example Barber regularly encounters is a total pollution exclusion. RMI looks for exceptions that can restore protection for exposures such as smoke, soot and heat from a hostile fire, as well as certain gas releases from heating or airconditioning systems. According to Barber, these provisions can typically be added at no additional cost, yet RMI continues to find them missing when it reviews policies.

The same principle appears in RMI's client history. According to a client testimonial, RMI identified missing flood insurance and selling-price coverage for stock before the company later experienced a major flood loss. Another client, Key Food Stores, says RMI identified as much as $3 million in overpaid premiums while also broadening its coverage.

These examples capture an important part of RMI's value. A risk consultant does not create value only when something goes wrong. The real value is finding the vulnerability while there is still time to do something about it.

An Advisor that Stays When the Loss Happens

There is another test of a risk advisor that only becomes apparent after something goes wrong. What happens when the claim arrives?

RMI remains involved. For a major property loss, its team guides a business through documenting the damage and understanding what needs to be submitted. When specialized assistance is warranted, RMI can recommend public adjusters and other professionals. In liability situations, it helps clients examine how the incident occurred, determine whether another party may be responsible and notify the relevant insurers.

When another party is contractually responsible, RMI can put that party on notice and seek to have it take over the defense while also notifying the client's own carrier for record purposes. That preserves backup protection if the other party fails to meet its obligations.

That continuity matters because the relationship is not designed around an annual insurance transaction. RMI's clients can continue to draw on its expertise when contracts are being negotiated, when vendors are engaged, when losses occur and when insurance programs come back up for review.

That long-term model is reflected in both RMI's team and its client relationships. Barber’s top consultants have been with him for 36 and 29 years, while some client relationships date back to 1982. One of RMI's first accounts, remains a client, as does a theatrical company that owns 11 theaters in NY.

There is a simple reason for that longevity. If the only thing RMI did was find a lower premium once a year, clients would have little reason to keep it around. Instead, the firm becomes part of the client's team, helping review contracts, work with attorneys, respond to losses and reassess insurance as market conditions change. It provides the broader risk-management perspective that smaller and midsized businesses might otherwise have to build internally.

Turning Risk Management into a Business Advantage

“A business should not pay to transfer a risk it could prevent. It should not retain a risk it cannot afford. And it should not insure a risk without first understanding what it is actually buying protection against,” says Barber.

That requires looking beyond the premium. Sometimes the answer is a stronger safety program. Sometimes it is a contract that places responsibility on a vendor or contractor. Sometimes it is a higher deductible because the client has the financial capacity to retain smaller losses. Sometimes it means buying coverage that was previously missing. And sometimes the right answer is to do nothing because the client understands the exposure and is comfortable retaining it.

RMI's job is to help clients make those choices with the full picture in view. That approach has also shaped how the company grows. RMI relies on recommendations rather than conventional advertising, with existing clients often becoming the source of its next relationship. The savings provide a tangible starting point, but the broader value emerges through the improvements that are harder to see on a premium invoice.

That same approach is now shaping RMI's next stage of growth. The firm is developing risk purchasing groups that bring multiple businesses in the same industry together to purchase a single policy. The food industry is currently one area of focus. By combining their buying power, participating businesses may be able to pursue broader coverage and more favorable pricing than they could individually.

It is an extension of the same thinking that has defined RMI for decades. Look at the risk first, understand who should carry it, find ways to reduce it, and then use insurance where it makes the most sense. That approach allows RMI to turn what begins as an insurance review into something broader, an ongoing risk-management function that helps clients spend more intelligently, protect themselves more effectively and avoid carrying risks that belong elsewhere.