A post to tie to

Norvalis Group insures commercial cargo in transit. The firm started in Stavanger in 2008 and opened Antwerp in 2011; the US head office has been in Savannah since 2013. Today 980 specialists in 12 offices write cover for the goods that move through the port and out across the Southeast.

Why the name

Norvalis joins the north, where the firm started, with valere, the Latin verb for holding good. A mooring post does one job. It stays where it was set while the tide runs and the boat pulls against the line. A cargo policy has the same job on the day a shipment goes wrong.

Very little cargo is lost in mid-ocean. Most of it goes at the edges: a terminal shut ahead of a hurricane, a reefer unplugged on a hot dock, a pallet left on a yard over a long weekend, a carton dropped at the last handover. We underwrite those edges, and we stay put when the claim comes in.

From Stavanger to Savannah

The firm began in Stavanger in 2008 with a small book of North Sea supply cargo and one rule: a policy should be readable by the person who signs it. Antwerp followed in 2011, beside Europe’s second-largest port. In 2013 we moved the US head office to Savannah, chosen for the fastest-growing container port on the East Coast and the furniture, food, parts, and building materials that move through it.

We now write cover on more than 90 trade lanes and insure about $1.4 billion of cargo a year. The book has grown. The wording still reads like plain English.

Network

Twelve offices, one way of working

Underwriters, adjusters, and surveyors sit in the ports they cover. A loss at the Garden City terminal is inspected by someone who drove there from Congress Street.

12 Offices

980 Specialists

93% Claims settled in 30 days

What we work by

How the firm is run

These are working rules. They are why clients renew, and why we turn some risks down.

Price the freight in front of us

We rate the goods you move, in the season you move them. If the numbers do not work, we say so before you have spent a week on us.

Go and look

Our adjusters walk the warehouse and stand on the dock. A photo from the carrier opens the file. The survey is done in person.

Write it plain

If a clause needs a lawyer to explain it, the clause is wrong. We rewrite until a shipping clerk can read it in one pass.

Pick up during the storm

Losses come when the port is closed and the power is out. Our loss line is staffed 24 hours a day, hurricane season included.

Pay inside the month

Ninety-three percent of claims close inside thirty days. A paid claim means a customer can reorder stock and a truck can roll again.

We started in Stavanger with a small book and a plain aim: cover that reads as if it were written by someone who has waited on a dock for a late container. Moving to Savannah changed the weather and the cargo, and very little else.
Founding partners, Norvalis Group

Talk to an underwriter who picks up

Tell us what you ship, where it goes, when it moves, and who hauls it. You will get terms you can read in one sitting, from a person with a direct line.

Ask for terms