The Bermuda market's longevity and accessibility to decision makers are just two of the positives highlighted at a seminar at this year's Risk and Insurance Management Society conference in Philadelphia.

The workshop titled "Accessing the Bermuda Market ? A Case Study (101)" was designed to offer a step-by-step guide for risk managers who are looking to do business in the Bermuda Market but are unsure of how to start the process.

While more than 45 people registered for the late afternoon session, the actual attendance totalled just over a dozen delegates, three members of the media and representatives from Bermuda.

Henry Scully, president of Willis (Bermuda) Ltd joined Andrea Dudek of Gap Inc., and C. Jeffery Triplette of Duke Energy Corporation sat on the panel moderated by Allison Towlson, chairman of the Bermuda RIMS committee.

Mr. Triplette told the crowd that when it came to captives, the Bermuda market understood that risk "probably better than anyone else in the world".

He added that the Bermuda carriers also offer coverage that many markets in the US or even Europe will not talk about. In his own experience, he said the Bermuda markets have been very responsive in paying large claims filed by his company.

"I'm not saying they are going to open up their cheque books to you without asking questions but they are certainly there. If they know they have written the risk, if the incident has happened, they are there to stand behind you so they are really there for the long haul."

Ms Dudek said that while there were some obstacles in doing business with Bermuda ? such as there are no direct flights from the US west coast, applications cannot be filed on the Internet the benefits of doing business in Bermuda outweighs the drawbacks: "Bring your walking shoes.

"In a couple hours, a couple days you can meet with everybody you need to meet with. You can sometimes go between insurers quicker than you can get up a high rise tower in New York so it is pretty effective."

Ms Dudek added that on the D&O side, a lot of the newer entrants to the Bermuda market do not have the claims to pay and have very limited legacies.

On the liability side, there are large blocks of capacity available through Bermuda so "you don't need 14 insurance companies to fill out your programme.

"You don't want to go too deeply with any one insurer and you don't want to go too deeply in any given market. Whether D&O or whether it is your property programme, it is nice to have a balance," she said.

"Having balance means that you can really maintain balance in your programme when things start to go a little haywire."

Accessible relationships with senior people are another factor the risk managers like about Bermuda.

"You are meeting with the decision makers and you can get decisions very quickly," Ms Dudek said. The risk managers saw the Bermuda and London market as very similar, although "one was prettier and one rained a lot more".

"Think about the flexibility, the access to the senior underwriters the ability to meet all of your markets in a short period of time as well as the concentration.

"You have all these underwriters in one section of London called Lloyd's, you have all these underwriters in one section of Bermuda called Hamilton.

"You have the flexibility, the markets that don't dry up when things get a bit iffy. They are still there; you have people that are there for along long time. You have the infrastructure," Ms Dudek said.

Mr. Triplette said Bermuda leads the way in getting policies out whereas London remains challenged in this area. He said the Bermuda market also tended to lead in innovation.

"When new risks come along certainly the underwriters in some of the Bermuda markets are very innovative and I would put them first in a lot of situations," Mr. Triplette said.