Assessing routes into the reinsurance broking industry

Discussions with reinsurance brokers reveal the variety of routes into the sector – and the unique intricacies of what catches and holds the attention of reinsurance talent.

Pathways into reinsurance

Sharing how she joined the market, Sarah Willmont (pictured left), senior broker at Lockton Re, highlighted how she started her broking career in the non-marine retro division of Benfield. “I joined as a graduate trainee in one of the first schemes of that type back in 2001,” she said. “The timing was interesting as the market was in major flux being only a few weeks post WTC and so I joined at possibly the hardest point in the cycle.”

She loved working with that team, Willmont said, and it was a “brilliant” introduction to the industry so she remained there for 14 years. During that period, Benfield was bought by Aon, which she noted brought dramatic changes to the company, the market and the team that she embraced as the opportunity to try something new.

That ambition to always get “stuck in” and try something new is a throughline of Willmont’s career and while she never lost her love of reinsurance broking, she jumped at the opportunity to move across to the underwriting treaty team at Canopius. There she enjoyed a “fantastic” decade which saw her become one of the youngest ever active underwriters in Lloyd’s, at only 36, and later CEO of Canopius in the UK.

When the time came to rebalance her priorities and assess the impact of her career choices on her family life, Lockton Re proved a natural home, and Willmont was delighted to return to reinsurance broking.

The story for George Cantlay (pictured right), a partner in McGill and Partners’ reinsurance team was a relatively similar one, as he started his career in Aon’s graduate scheme. The way the scheme was set up, he said, meant you spent three-month secondments with various teams across the wider business. Having started in the UK & Ireland property and casualty reinsurance division, he then moved to the global clients team, where he ended up spending over two years before joining McGill.  

Progressing in reinsurance careers

Tracing his reinsurance roots back, executive vice president & head of Acrisure Re’s Florida office, Craig Darling, said he was introduced to the sector during his time at Chubb, where he worked in the insurance giant’s excess and umbrella division. “During my tenure at Chubb, numerous facultative reinsurance markets called on me to place reinsurance,” he said.

“We considered reinsurance on auto-driven risks and, in some instances, the risk manager would consider grossing up the amount of capacity limit they were offering to clients. This exposure piqued my interest in reinsurance, albeit facultative. It was very technical, with an exposure-rated pricing approach and view on experience rating too.”

What first captivated his interest, he said, was the ways in which this work was similar to Chubb’s underwriting and pricing approach to the business as an umbrella underwriter. “I enjoyed discussing underwriting attributed off a risk and how I derived pricing,” he said. “The reinsurance markets were looking at the business in a similar fashion and were trying to validate our approach to risk evaluation and, ultimately, pricing.”

Eventually, Darling transitioned to a reinsurance underwriter position, managing facultative and program business across North America. There he was at an inflection point in his career – whether to continue in the underwriting vertical or try his hand at being a reinsurance broker. Having developed some very strong broker relationships while being a facultative and program reinsurance underwriter,  numerous intermediaries were offering him an opportunity to transition to the broking side of reinsurance.

“In the end, I made the decision to become a reinsurance broker in 1997, starting with facultative and program-oriented roles and gradually shifting to program, obligatory, and treaty business,” he said. “Coincidentally, I began my career as a casualty broker, having been trained as a casualty underwriter.

“However, for the last 15 years, I have focused on program and treaty business, with a strong emphasis on property critical catastrophe. I was given the opportunity to establish and expand this product offering at Acrisure Re, and I currently oversee its center of excellence initiative.”

What reinsurance brokers enjoy about reinsurance

Having enjoyed every step and stage of her reinsurance career to date, Willmont said it is its people who keep her interest alive and well because, “you don’t get on in this sector without a love for people.” Looking at reinsurance broking in particular, she highlighted the opportunity you have as a broker to really deliver for a client and that, “nothing is more satisfying than making a client happy”.

“But also,” she said, “I am curious by nature, and I get bored easily so having the privilege to get insight into the many businesses we are lucky enough to represent works for me.” In her role at Lockton Re, Willmont highlighted that shining a spotlight on the people who are behind the success of any business strategy is critical.

“As Lockton Re grows and expands its global retro capabilities it is committed to attracting and retaining the most talented people in the market, but importantly talent that wants to work in a collaborative way,” she said. “I have seen this demonstrated at every level in this team since joining., with really talented people working together to do the best job for clients. It is amazing how refreshing that is – not only to work with, but from a client’s perspective also.”

People plus technical expertise – a recipe for success?

Having enjoyed work experiences in the sector, his graduate program and his experiences at McGill, the best thing about reinsurance for Cantlay is how it combines technical expertise with the opportunity to work closely with people. It remains a fundamentally relationship-driven industry, he said, which is a large part of why he finds the industry so fascinating.

Similarly, for Darling, his interest in reinsurance broking stems from how it blends marketing, risk assessment and all aspects of the technical rating, modelling and forecasting attributes of portfolio management. “Having a background in underwriting,” he said, “I developed a technical skill set that has been invaluable in understanding and pricing business.

“This technical knowledge, paired with the dynamic nature of marketing and client interactions, keeps my role engaging. The versatility to discuss various topics, from casualty exposures to peak property catastrophe in the Southeast US and Florida property-centric companies, always ensures meaningful and interesting discussions with clients, which remains a significant aspect of my job.”

He also noted that starting his career as a primary underwriter and then transitioning to a reinsurance underwriter had been extremely helpful to Acrisure Re’s clients, as well as when broking business to reinsurance underwriters. This multi-faceted background has enabled him to sit down and talk about a variety of topics and product offerings with deep understanding of exposures, he said.

“It is also helpful when marketing to an array of clients,” he added. “As a producing broker, understanding the diversity of lines of business and products is a powerful capability in client advisory and advocacy as a reinsurance broker.”