Industry Insights

The insurance industry is highly cyclical. A soft market cycle is defined by lower insurance premiums, broader appetite and coverage, increased capacity (the availability of high limits), and greater underwriting flexibility. Alternatively, a hard market is characterized by higher insurance premiums, diminished capacity, more conservative underwriting, and fewer carriers writing certain coverage lines and specific industries. For the last few years, the insurance industry has been  experiencing a hardening of the market. Today we are well into a hard market across most insurance lines effecting the majority of industries. Insurance experts predict that the hard market will continue into 2021, […]

Resources to Help Brokers Battle the Trade War While it’s no longer front page news fodder the tariff-centered trade wars continue. Change – if not outright volatility – continues to be an understatement as it relates to tariffs on goods imported to into the United States these days. Unfortunately businesses who have import activities and the customs brokers who assist them are caught in the middle, and they can become casualties of the ongoing trade wars. While U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is publishing plenty of resources, the dedicated people on the Customs Bond team at Roanoke are here […]

It is with tremendous sorrow that I must inform you that Billie Sullivan passed away early on the morning of December 1, 2020 rather unexpectedly with heart complications. Fortunately her beloved son was by her side. Billie had two children, Sean and Nicole and three grandchildren, Chloe, Michael and Ryan, and she had been excitedly awaiting one due in the next few weeks. Billie Sullivan, Vice President Underwriting, had worked for Roanoke for 40 years, and her claim to fame was bringing Roanoke the ‘Transportation Advantage Policy’ (TAP) when she joined the company (some remember it was once called the […]

    Roanoke will take time to celebrate family and friends this Thanksgiving by closing our offices at 1:00pm on Wednesday, November 25th and reopening at 8:30am on Monday, November 30th. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday!

  Today and every day, we humbly thank our American service members and their families for their courage and sacrifice. On Veterans Day, we take a special moment to honor and remember those who have served and those who made the greatest sacrifice for our country.

  eBond is the fastest customs bond filing system ever, and it’s about to be even faster and easier. The Road to eBond Customs bonds used to be issued on typewriters. Across the country entry writers for customs brokers would hammer out importer information onto green, pink, and yellow sheets of carbon paper, and these paper pages were delivered by messenger or mail to the CBP office at the local port. There the bonds waited for their Customs Control Number stamp and delivery back to the broker or agent. Then in the 2000’s, the bond filing process went digital. Processing […]