Established in Montreal in 1966 under the name Ian Elliott Ltd.
Toronto office opened in 1976 with the aim of servicing brokers in Ontario and Western Canada.
In 1995, it changed its name to Elliott Special Risks Ltd. (ESR).
In 1997, ESR acquired 50% ownership of Vancouver based All Sport Insurance Marketing Ltd., Canada's leading provider of insurance services to national, provincial and regional sports organizations.
With the support of class "A" insurers and reinsurers, ESR introduced several specialty covers to the market that to date continue to be of great value to Canada's brokers and insureds.
In 2005, ESR was partly acquired by an investment company, thus ending the private ownerships of the company.
ESR became the canadian underwriting division of Markel International when it was acquired on October 1, 2009.