MGA Insurance Software Development: Faster Deployment in Specialty Lines
The Speed Problem in Specialty Insurance
MGAs (Managing General Agents) hold delegated authority from carriers, which lets them underwrite, price, and launch products independently. That flexibility makes them a perfect fit for specialty lines — cyber, marine cargo, aviation, bloodstock, parametric covers, and all the niche risks that traditional insurers are too slow to handle.
But the same freedom that lets MGAs innovate quickly also creates enormous pressure.
- Specialty risks evolve fast.
- Brokers demand new variations.
- Carriers expect constant updates.
- Partners want digital journeys today, not next year.
And most MGAs are still fighting with outdated systems that weren’t designed for the complexity or speed specialty insurance requires.
That’s the bottleneck modern MGA insurance software aims to break.
Why Specialty-Line Software Is So Hard to Build
Specialty MGAs deal with risk categories that don’t behave like standard P&C. Their data models look different. Their underwriting journeys are more complex. Their workflows tend to be non-linear, branching, and conditional.
From a technology perspective, this creates a brutal dilemma:
Custom development
When MGAs pursue custom insurance software, they usually do it because they need total freedom. And they do get it – at a cost.
Custom development means crafting data models from scratch, designing bespoke underwriting screens, implementing unique rating paths, integrating niche data providers, building portals for brokers or TPAs, creating audit trails and permission systems, and handling compliance from the ground up. It works beautifully, but it’s slow, expensive, and incredibly difficult to maintain. Specialty products evolve constantly, and each update often means reopening months of work. The result is technically impressive systems that become harder to change the moment the market shifts.
Ready-made systems
On the other hand, ready-made insurance solutions promise speed and simplicity.
But specialty MGAs quickly discover that these systems are built around traditional P&C assumptions – linear underwriting flows, generic data schemas, and standard rating structures. They rarely accommodate the oddities of specialty risks. Try modeling a parametric payout table, a cyber risk scoring process, or a marine cargo route dependency, and suddenly the platform either breaks or demands endless workarounds.
Instead of supporting innovation, it ends up constraining it. MGAs spend more time adapting their products to fit the software than building what the market actually needs.
This is why so many specialty MGAs feel stuck.
Their business requires constant adaptation, but their tech stack resists every change.
A New Approach: Platform-Powered MGA Development
A platform approach offers a third path — a hybrid model combining the speed of prebuilt infrastructure with the freedom of custom development.
Among the best insurance core systems, Openkoda stands out because it gives MGAs both structure and full technical freedom. Instead of locking you into predefined modules, Openkoda provides a flexible foundation you can shape to your specialty line products, no matter how unusual the data or workflows are.
Here are the features that matter most for specialty MGAs:
Unlimited custom data models – perfect for unusual or evolving specialty structures.
Configurable underwriting and rating logic – adapt rules instantly as products change.
Built-in policy and claims foundations – no need to write basic insurance plumbing.
Full developer control – standard tech stack, modifiable codebase, no black boxes.
API-first architecture – easy integrations with TPAs, carriers, brokers, niche data providers.
Prebuilt portals and admin interfaces – launch underwriter, broker, or client portals fast.
No vendor lock-in – deploy anywhere, own everything you build, full IP independence.
What makes Openkoda particularly appealing is that it gives engineers real control. The platform is built on standard technology, so nothing is hidden behind proprietary logic or black-box components. MGAs can customize, extend, or replace any part of the system while still benefiting from a strong foundation that includes policy and claims components, internal portals, forms, security, auditing, and API infrastructure.
In short: MGAs get speed and adaptability instead of choosing between them.
Example: Launching a Specialty Product in Weeks (Not Months)
Here’s what launching a new specialty product looks like using a platform like Openkoda:
Step 1: Define the Product Schema: Build your unique data structures without limitations or workarounds.
Step 2: Configure Underwriting & Rating Rules: Add or update complex logic, approvals, or conditional decision flows easily.
Step 3: Build Distribution Portals and User Journeys: Generate broker portals or partner quote flows using ready-made UI components.
Step 4: Integrate Data Providers or Partners: Connect specialty data sources or carrier APIs through existing integration hooks.
Step 5: Deploy, Test, Refine: Ship quickly. Gather feedback. Adjust without breaking anything else.
Because the foundational components — security, roles, workflows, logs, dashboards, form builders, API infrastructure — already exist, MGAs can dedicate their energy entirely to product logic and underwriting expertise.
This means faster time-to-market, dramatically lower development costs, and the ability to keep up with rapidly shifting specialty-line demands.
MGAs finally get what their market demands: fast, flexible, affordable software deployment.
Closing Thoughts
Specialty MGAs win by moving faster than everyone else.
A platform-powered approach gives them the architectural freedom and execution speed needed to stay ahead. In a segment where timing and adaptability decide everything, that advantage becomes a true competitive edge.
