★ Specialty property · Program manager · Agents only
How Aegis Works in Arkansas
Aegis is where a property goes when the standard market says no — older homes, unusual construction, rough claims history, roofs past their prime. But there's something about Aegis you need to understand before anything else, because everything else follows from it: the name on the brochure is not the company carrying your risk.
Short Answer
Aegis General Insurance Agency is a program manager, not an insurer. It designs the programs, underwrites, issues policies, and handles claims — but the company that actually promises to pay is a carrier partner, which may be an admitted carrier or an excess and surplus lines carrier depending on the program. It writes property only: homeowners, dwelling fire, renters, condo, E&S property, earthquake, difference in conditions, and equipment breakdown — no auto and no business liability. We tell you which company is carrying the risk, and whether the policy is admitted or surplus lines, before you bind.
Who is actually promising to pay you?
With most carriers this question is boring. You buy a policy from a company, that company is the insurer, and the name on the declarations page is the name on the building. A program manager works differently, and the difference is worth two minutes of your attention.
Aegis General designs and runs the program
It builds the product, underwrites to the carrier's guidelines, issues the policy, services it, and handles the claim. That is real work and it is the part you interact with. What it is not is the party bearing the financial risk.
Another company carries the risk
Behind the program sits an insurer whose balance sheet answers the claim. Depending on the program that may be an admitted carrier or an excess and surplus lines carrier — and that choice changes several things that matter to you.
Admitted and surplus lines are not the same product.
This is regulatory ground that applies across the whole market, not a characteristic of any one company — and it's the single most useful thing to understand before buying hard-to-place property coverage.
What an admitted carrier is
Licensed by the state, with forms and rates filed with the insurance department, and a participant in the state guaranty association — the mechanism that steps in if an insurer becomes insolvent. Most household names you know are admitted carriers, which is why nobody ever explains this.
What surplus lines is, and why it exists
A surplus lines carrier isn't licensed in the same way, and its forms and rates aren't filed for approval in the same manner. That freedom is precisely what lets it write risks the standard market declines. Surplus lines policies are generally not protected by the state guaranty association, and the transaction carries taxes and fees an admitted policy doesn't.
None of that makes surplus lines bad. It makes it different.
The surplus market exists so that property which cannot be placed anywhere else can still be insured. For an older home, a rural property with a poor protection class, or a house with a rough claims history, the honest comparison is not surplus lines against an admitted policy — it's surplus lines against no coverage at all.
What matters is that you know which one you're being offered, and why. Two things we'll always tell you: whether the policy is admitted or surplus lines, and what would have to change about the property for it to qualify for a standard carrier. Because it's frequently temporary — a roof gets replaced, claims age off, a vacancy ends — and we re-shop the account when it does.
Property, and nothing but property.
A short book by design. Aegis is a specialist, and specialists are narrow on purpose.
Home & dwelling
- Homeowners (HO3)
- Dwelling fire (DP1 & DP3)
- Renters & contents
- Condo
Hard-to-place property
- Excess & surplus lines property
- Older & non-standard homes
- Rental & investment property
Catastrophe & gaps
- Stand-alone earthquake
- Difference in conditions
- Equipment breakdown
What it doesn't write, and why that's fine
No auto. No general business liability. Aegis is never going to be the whole answer for a household or a business, and it isn't trying to be. We use it for the property piece and place everything else with one of our other 40-plus carriers. Splitting an account across carriers is completely ordinary — the only thing worth knowing is that a multi-policy discount generally requires both policies at the same company, so we tell you what that trade looks like before you decide.
Earthquake is a real Arkansas conversation
Stand-alone earthquake coverage sits in the catastrophe bucket, and in this state it is not a formality. Arkansas sits near enough to the New Madrid seismic zone that it comes up in genuine coverage reviews, and earthquake is excluded from every standard homeowners form. Whether it belongs on your account is a conversation about your property and your circumstances rather than a box to tick.
The whole book, in detail.
One page covers it, because the story is the same across every form Aegis writes — why a property was declined, what you're offered instead, and how to get back. The link goes live when it publishes.
Aegis Cribby reads the fine print for you.
Cribby the Chameleon is our guide to reading a policy in plain English.
A chameleon notices what's actually there. On a specialty property account that's usually the things nobody mentioned — which company is actually on the declarations page, whether the policy is admitted or surplus lines, what the deductible does on a wind or hail loss, and what would have to change about the property for it to move back to a standard carrier. That's a coverage review, in chameleon form.
Rate the company carrying the risk.
A rating is a solvency opinion, not a claims opinion
AM Best is explicit that a financial strength rating does not address a carrier's claims-handling practices and is not a recommendation to buy or keep any policy. It tells you a company can pay. That's worth knowing and it isn't the same question as how a claim will go. Anyone handing you a letter grade as the answer to everything is handing you a logo.
What we actually do at a claim
Narrower than some agencies imply, and we'd rather be straight about it. We don't adjust your claim and we can't overrule an adjuster. What we do: tell you whether a claim is worth filing before you file it, make sure the coverage that should respond gets identified, chase the file when it stalls, and move you to another of our markets when this one stops fitting. On a specialty property account that last one matters most, because the reason the property was here in the first place often goes away.
Why there's no range on this page.
Our other carrier pages publish cross-market planning bands for auto and homeowners. This one deliberately doesn't.
Standard-market ranges would mislead you here
Those bands describe standard-market, owner-occupied policies. Specialty and hard-to-place property is priced on a different basis for a different risk, and surplus lines transactions carry taxes and fees an admitted policy doesn't. Printing a standard figure here would set an expectation the quote couldn't meet, so we'd rather give you nothing than a number that's wrong for your situation.
What actually drives it: the construction type and age of the property, roof age and material, protection class and distance to a fire department, occupancy, prior claims, the deductibles you select, and which program and carrier partner the risk fits. Tell us what makes the property difficult and we'll put a real figure in front of you.
Aegis in Arkansas: common questions.
Is Aegis an insurance company?
What does Cribb Insurance Group place through Aegis?
What is the difference between admitted and surplus lines coverage?
Why would my home end up in the surplus lines market?
How financially strong is the company behind an Aegis policy?
How do I get an Aegis quote in Bentonville or Rogers?
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Tell us what makes the property difficult.
Roof age, construction, occupancy, prior claims, protection class. If it'll fit a standard carrier we'll place it there and tell you so. If it won't, we'll tell you which company would carry the risk, whether the policy is admitted or surplus lines, and what would have to change for it to move back. Aegis is one of 40+ carriers we represent.
1601 SW Regional Airport Blvd, Bentonville, AR 72713 📞 (479) 286-1066 ✉️ service@cribbinsurance.com 🕘 Mon–Thu 9:00–5:00
Fri 9:00–4:00
Cribb Insurance Group Inc. is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas. We are not Aegis, and this page is not endorsed, sponsored, reviewed, or approved by Aegis. "Aegis," "Aegis General Insurance Agency," and "Aegis Security Insurance Company" are trademarks or service marks of their respective owners, used here nominatively to identify products we are appointed to place. Aegis General Insurance Agency is a general agency and program manager and is not a risk-bearing insurer; policies are underwritten and issued by its carrier partners, which may include admitted carriers and excess and surplus lines carriers depending on the program.
This page describes coverage in general terms for informational purposes only. It is not a policy, not an offer of insurance, and not a guarantee of coverage, availability, eligibility, or price. Coverage, program terms, forms, product availability and eligibility vary by state, by program, by policy, and over time, are set by the carrier, and are subject to underwriting approval and to the terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions of the policy actually issued. Eligibility for any property is determined by the carrier on the facts of that property; this page makes no representation that any particular property qualifies. If anything on this page conflicts with the issued policy, the policy controls.
Descriptions of admitted and excess and surplus lines coverage are general explanations of how these markets are regulated and are not legal advice. Whether any particular policy is admitted or non-admitted, and what protections apply to it, depends on the carrier and program involved and will be disclosed before binding. Surplus lines policies are generally not protected by state guaranty associations and surplus lines transactions may be subject to taxes and fees that do not apply to admitted policies. Earthquake and flood are excluded from standard homeowners forms and require separate coverage.
Financial strength ratings are opinions of an insurer's ability to meet its ongoing insurance obligations, are subject to change, and are not recommendations to purchase, hold or terminate any policy, nor do they address an insurer's claims-handling practices; current ratings are at ambest.com. The A- (Excellent) rating referenced applies to Aegis Security Insurance Company and not to Aegis General Insurance Agency or to any other carrier partner.
Last reviewed August 2026.