Sutton National business insurance

Overview

Sutton National is a program carrier. It doesn't market insurance to business owners. It issues policies for program administrators and managing general agents (MGAs), who design, sell and service the coverage, and it shares most of the risk with reinsurers. If your declarations page names Sutton National Insurance Company or Sutton Specialty Insurance Company, a program put you there. Your agent is the one who chose it.

The NAIC's SUTTON NATL GRP ranked No. 85 among U.S. business insurers by 2025 commercial lines direct premiums written, with $877.4 million, based on NAIC market share data, about 0.18% of the national commercial market. It is not among the 10 largest writers of any single commercial line nationally. Its largest commercial lines were other liability ($309.5 million), fire ($255.9 million), allied lines ($107.9 million) and package policies (commercial multiple peril, $84.0 million). With personal lines such as California homeowners included, the group wrote $1.44 billion.

AM Best rates the two insurers together as Sutton National Group:

• Sutton National Insurance Company: the admitted insurer, domiciled in Oklahoma (NAIC 25798). In May 2026 it held certificates of authority in every state except Delaware, where its application was pending.
• Sutton Specialty Insurance Company: the excess and surplus lines carrier, also domiciled in Oklahoma (NAIC 16848). It is eligible to write surplus lines in all states.

The group's office is in Delray Beach, Florida. Shane Haverstick is chairman and CEO. He was earlier CFO and COO of Greyhawk Insurance Company, a program carrier sold to Ascot in 2018. Lloyd Yavener is president and COO.

History

• 2020: Sutton National starts up as a program carrier. In October 2020, AM Best assigns both insurers their first A- (Excellent) financial strength ratings with a stable outlook. The parent at the time is Brickell PC Insurance Holdings, whose main economic backer is 777 Partners, a private investment firm.
• February 2022: Integrated Specialty Coverages (ISC), a California program administrator, launches its PREMIUM general liability program for middle-market construction firms with Sutton National as carrier. It offers $2 million / $4 million / $4 million limits, starting in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California.
• June 2022: Randall & Quilter shares that Brickell PC had pledged against a loan to 777 Partners are sold. AM Best says the ratings are unchanged.
• November 2023: AM Best places the ratings under review with negative implications. The group plans to reorganize its ownership to remove the direct affiliation with 777 Partners, which AM Best says had not provided audited financial statements for two years.
• November 5, 2024: Oklahoma's insurance commissioner approves the restructuring. The insurers are now controlled by upstream and downstream trusts whose trustees are independent, long-tenured insurance executives.
• January 7, 2025: AM Best takes the ratings off review and affirms them at A- with a stable outlook.
• April 2025: Sutton sponsors its first catastrophe bond, the $100 million Greengrove Re 2025-1. It covers California wildfire and fire-following-earthquake losses on homeowners business that Bamboo, a California program administrator, produces for Sutton. A $70 million sidecar, Greenshoots Re, backs the same book.
• July 9, 2026: Sutton Specialty is added to California's List of Approved Surplus Line Insurers, which makes it easier for California surplus lines brokers to place programs with it.

Business insurance products

Sutton has no product catalog. Each program administrator builds its own coverage forms, rating and underwriting rules within the authority Sutton grants, and a panel of reinsurers takes most of the risk. Sutton says it leads with underwriting, avoids channel conflict with its partners and keeps up to 20% of the working-layer risk itself so its interests line up with theirs. It also handles actuarial, reinsurance, compliance and claims oversight for each program.

The NAIC line mix suggests what the commercial book looks like: liability programs such as contractors' general liability, property programs, and package policies. The claims page shows that Sutton also carries workers' compensation and personal homeowners programs. Read program business: niche insurance through program administrators for how these arrangements are built and fronting arrangements and fronting carriers: how they work for how a carrier can issue a policy while reinsurers carry most of the risk.

Who it insures

Whoever the programs on its paper target. The one commercial program Sutton has publicly put its name to is ISC's middle-market construction general liability program, so General contractor insurance and trade contractors in the Northeast and California are one clear segment. Beyond that, the mix changes as programs come and go. Sutton National's admitted paper serves standard-market programs nearly nationwide. Sutton Specialty takes hard-to-place risks that must go through a licensed surplus lines broker.

How to buy

You can't buy from Sutton directly. The path runs like this:

1. Your retail agent, sometimes working through a wholesale broker, submits your business to a program administrator or MGA.
2. The administrator quotes, binds and issues the policy within its authority.
3. The policy is issued on Sutton National or Sutton Specialty paper.

Before you bind, ask three questions:

• Who handles claims? In most programs it is a third-party administrator.
• Is the policy admitted or surplus lines? Surplus lines policies generally fall outside state guaranty fund protection. See admitted vs non-admitted insurers: what the difference means.
• What happens at renewal if the program moves to another carrier? Program capacity does move, and your coverage forms can change with it.

Billing, endorsements, certificates and loss runs normally come from the program administrator, not Sutton.

Claims

Report a claim the way your policy says. Sutton's claims page sets out the default routes:

• Most policies: use the online form at suttonnational.com/claims to report a new claim, request a loss run or check a claim's status. Sutton says to allow 72 hours for an adjuster to contact you.
• Workers' compensation: for policy numbers beginning SBWC, call the CarivaCare 24/7 nurse triage line at 855-871-2760.
• Homeowners: policies with certain listed prefixes report to a separate line, 877-333-6938.
• Other questions: email [email protected].

Claims are handled by third-party administrators acting as Sutton's agents. Sutton also has its own claims team; its vice president of claims spent 13 years overseeing program claims at Arch Insurance. Sutton warns that similarly named companies are not affiliated with it, so check the email address before you send loss information.

Financial strength and ratings

On January 7, 2025, AM Best removed Sutton National Group's ratings from under review with negative implications. It affirmed the A- (Excellent) financial strength rating and "a-" issuer credit rating of both insurers, with a stable outlook. AM Best assessed:

• balance sheet strength as very strong, with risk-adjusted capitalization at the strongest level of Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio;
• operating performance as adequate, with positive underwriting results through the third quarter of 2024;
• business profile as limited;
• enterprise risk management as appropriate.

It said the new trust structure relieved its concern about pressure from prior ownership. Sutton's site, as of October 2026, shows A- (Excellent) in Financial Size Category VIII and combined capital and surplus of more than $150 million. No S&P, Moody's or Fitch ratings are published.

Strengths and weaknesses

Sutton is a mid-sized program carrier with an A- rating, admitted and surplus lines paper almost everywhere, and an ownership question that was settled in late 2024. Your experience depends mostly on the program administrator and its claims administrator.

• Strengths: It offers admitted paper in 49 states and surplus lines eligibility in every state, including California since July 2026. Its risk-adjusted capital sits at AM Best's strongest level. It keeps up to 20% of the risk on its programs, so it has a stake in the underwriting.
• Weaknesses: You can't buy, quote or get service from Sutton directly, and it doesn't publish a list of its programs. Capital and surplus of a little over $150 million is small next to $1.44 billion of direct premium. That is normal for a fronting model, but it means the program's reinsurers carry most of the risk. Its ratings spent more than a year under review in 2023-2024 because of its former backer, 777 Partners. If a program moves to another carrier, your coverage moves or changes with it at renewal.

How to contact Sutton National