Jason Tomitz
Co-Managing Director, North America
Volante Transaction Services
VTS offers its clients a range of targeted client focused W&I insurance solutions that facilitate their specific corporate transactions. VTS combines highly specialised product knowledge with a real commitment to innovation and service excellence to ensure clients’ needs are fully met in a timely manner.
W&I insurance provides a bespoke insurance-based solution to facilitate and support the successful completion of M&A transactions. Our W&I insurance policies are tailored for the transaction at hand. Through the use of W&I insurance, buyers and sellers involved in a corporate transaction can effectively transfer transaction risk to the insurer. This removes transaction roadblocks such as the need for an escrow retention account. By working with and as part of the transaction team, we can provide specific and timely insurance solutions that can reduce or extinguish transaction risk, enabling otherwise challenging transactions to become a reality.
A W&I insurance policy provides insurance cover for financial losses arising from inaccuracies in warranties and indemnities. Where the buyer is the insured party this cover enables the buyer to claim against the insurance policy without the requirement to pursue recovery from the seller. Where the seller is the insured party, the insurance policy will reimburse the seller for financial loss suffered due to warranty and indemnity claims made against it. W&I insurance policies are ‘claims-made’ policies and so they provide cover for policy claims made during the relevant period of the policy.
VTS policies are crafted to jigsaw with the unique requirements of the relevant transaction. VTS will work with the insured to provide a policy that fits with the risk and recourse profile of the transaction such as mirroring liability expiry periods and retention thresholds that are included in the transaction sale agreement.
In addition to a more general W&I insurance offering, VTS also offers a suite of bespoke W&I insurance solutions that include:
Insurance Simplified
INSIM is a simplified W&I insurance policy using template documentation and predefined coverage to create a commoditised and standardised insurance solution for SME transactions. This product enables insureds to obtain a more “off-the-shelf” solution.
Distressed Transactions
This product facilitates distressed transactions using synthetic warranties contained in the policy itself. This means a seller does not give the warranties directly but the buyer has the comfort of recourse for unidentified liabilities. This is relevant for example where the seller is a funder who has enforced its security or an insolvency practitioner appointed to protect the creditors of a target.
Portfolio Build
For private equity funds who are in the build cycle of their fund’s life. This product provides certainty of terms through a standardised policy appropriate for the nature of the fund and certainty of insurance capacity through ring-fencing of policy limit availability.
Secondary Funding
Product designed for funds who are in the recapitalisation cycle of their fund’s life seeking new and alternative investment. Provides cover for non-operative warranties linked to title and authority of fund assets and investments.
Sell-side
For sellers who wish to mitigate the risk of financial loss due to a claim by a buyer. This policy can be incepted before or after a transaction has signed and can assist sellers to distribute or utilise transaction proceeds (such as a fund being wound up) or where the buyer does not consider insurance to be part of its strategy.
Co-Managing Director, North America
Volante Transaction Services
Co-Managing Director, North America
Volante Transaction Services
Jason is a Managing Director of VTS- North America and is based in New York City, where he focuses on the underwriting of transactional liability risks throughout North America. Jason has 12 years of M&A experience, including almost 4 years at BlueChip Underwriting Services where Jason worked as Managing Director and Head of Tax and underwrote both tax and RWI policies. Prior to joining BlueChip, Jason was a tax attorney for more than eight years and practiced law at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, Farrell Fritz, PC and Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP. Jason graduated summa cum laude from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University in 2011
Co-Managing Director, North America
Volante Transaction Services
Co-Managing Director, North America
Volante Transaction Services
Chris is a Managing Director of VTS – North America and is based in New York City where he focuses on the underwriting of transactional liability risks throughout North America. Chris is an experienced M&A professional who has worked on a wide variety of transactions as both an underwriter and a corporate lawyer. Prior to joining Volante, Chris was Managing Director at BlueChip Underwriting Services, where he underwrote representation and warranty and contingent liability insurance policies for over five years. Chris began his legal career as a corporate and finance attorney at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York.
Co-Managing Director, North America
Volante Transaction Services
Co-Managing Director, North America
Volante Transaction Services
Jon is a Managing Director of VTS – North America and is based in New York City, where he focuses on the underwriting of transactional liability risks throughout North America. Jon has 9 years of M&A experience, including 5 years at BlueChip Underwriting Services, where Jon worked as a Managing Director and underwrote risks across a variety of industries, with a focus on healthcare transactions. Prior to joining BlueChip, Jon was a corporate and M&A attorney for 4 years and practiced law at Winston & Strawn LLP and Henry Schein, Inc.
Regional Managing Director - ANZ
Volante Transaction Services
Regional Managing Director - ANZ
Volante Transaction Services
Shaun is the Regional Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, based in Sydney. In addition to growing the ANZ business, Shaun will work on transactional liability risks with the VTS APAC team. Shaun has over 16 years’ M&A experience and for the last six and a half years Shaun has worked as a senior underwriter for AIG’s Asia Pacific M&A insurance team where he underwrote risks across ANZ and Asia. Prior to that Shaun worked in top-tier law firms in Sydney and London (including Herbert Smith Freehills) and as in-house counsel with MNCs, including GlaxoSmithKline and Booz & Co.
Deputy Managing Director - APAC
Head of Asia, Volante Transaction Services - Asia & Pacific
Deputy Managing Director - APAC
Head of Asia, Volante Transaction Services - Asia & Pacific
Daniel is a Deputy Managing Director in Singapore, working as part of the VTS APAC team on transactional liability risks. He brings over 10 years’ M&A experience and for the last six and a half years Daniel has worked in a number of roles within the transactional liability space, including most recently as a senior underwriter for Berkshire Hathaway Speciality Insurance’s Asia Middle East M&A insurance team. Prior to that Daniel spent two years in London as a Transactional Risk broker for Lockton, placing W&I and tax insurance policies and before that was a Transactional Risk underwriter in Ironshore’s (now Liberty GTS) Sydney office where he focused on transactions across the Asia-Pacific region.