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British holidays group and insurer Saga Plc has confirmed discussions to sell Acromas Insurance Co, the underwriting unit of its wider insurance division, to help pay down its debt. The group declined to give details on the potential buyers or selling price.

Saga’s insurance division, the largest business of the group, has been grappling with rising claims, which led to a half-year loss and a warning on full-year earnings in September. According to Reuters, the company’s net debt was £721.3 million as of July 31, 2022.

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This question, she said, asks how the court can assess damages for ‘pain, suffering and loss of amenity (PSLA) where the claimant suffers a whiplash injury which comes within the scope of the 2018 Act and attracts a tariff award stipulated by the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021’ but also suffering suffers additional injury which falls outside the scope of the 2018 Act and does not attract a tariff award?

In addition, she said, the appeal and cross appeal in Rabot v Hassam (Rabot) and Briggs v Laditan (Briggs) concern claims which arise out of a road traffic accident as a result of which each claimant suffered whiplash and other injuries.

The acceptance of the appeals has garnered a mixed reaction from the insurance sector.

Commenting on the ruling, Nick Kelsall, head of motor claims at Allianz Commercial stated when the whiplash reforms were first introduced, they established limits to compensate claimants for their genuine injuries – done with the ambition of deterring fraudulent or exaggerated claims.

“However,” he said, “our data shows that since whiplash compensation has been capped, we’ve received more claims for mixed injuries, which would suggest that some are gaming the system to inflate their payout.”

Motor insurers have always looked to reduce claims costs to keep premiums commensurately down, he said, and in the view of Allianz Commercial, this remains the right approach, particularly at a time of such high inflation. He added that the business will monitor the impact of this ruling, but is sure it will now see further ‘gaming’, potentially reducing the benefits from the whiplash reforms.

Martin Milliner, LV= GI claims director, added: “Today’s judgment is a hammer blow to hard pressed motorists. The ruling will undermine the intention of the whiplash reforms that were designed to pass back millions of pounds in lower premiums as a result of reduced volumes and costs of whiplash claims. Britain could now become the bruises and sprains capital of the world.”

Meanwhile, Matthew Maxwell Scott, executive director of ACSO (the Association of Consumer Support Organisations), heralded the judgement as “worth waiting for”, especially due to the court’s view that compensation for mixed injuries should reflect each injury.

“It seemed to us perverse that an injured person received less compensation for, say, a fracture or laceration, because they also suffered a whiplash injury,” he said. “The court prioritising the needs and requirements of injured people should be welcomed by all who believe in good consumer outcomes.”

Scott added that the absence of judicial direction on how to compensate for mixed injuries in the Official Injury Claim portal has been a significant problem since the portal was launched over 18 months ago. Today’s judgment will come as a relief to many, he said, and looking forward the ACSO urges both claimant and defendant representatives to collaborate to improve settlement times and make sure consumers get the right service levels.

“The government’s rationale for its reforms was partly to make the process more consumer-friendly, but the OIC has been dogged with problems, including the mixed injuries position,” he said. “This inevitable issue was clearly flagged to the Ministry of Justice before implementation, but ministers chose to proceed anyway. Regardless of today’s positive news, it’s not acceptable that consumers and practitioners have been forced to wait until 2023 to get this important matter resolved.”

Stewart McCulloch, MD of the digital ADR provider Claimspace, highlighted the “clarity” provided by the Court of Appeal’s ruling today, noting that thousands of backlogged disputed cases can potentially be brought before the courts for resolution. These cases can now be arbitrated against a background of clear legal principles that were lacking until today, he said.

However, he also noted his concern that there is now the risk of a logjam of mixed injury OIC cases building up at the courts. Only around 1500 disputed OIC cases have been processed by the courts since June 2021, he said, but it has taken an average of 20 twenty weeks to dispose of them. He noted that delays at court can expect to become significant which has “the potential to be a calamity” and so encouraged the use of ADR whenever possible.”

Following the decision, Andrew Wild, head of legal practice at First4InjuryClaims, said the “long-awaited ruling is welcomed.”

“Today’s decision will assist with putting to an end the limbo that lawyers and claimants have found themselves in since the Official Injury Claim portal went live,” he said. “Having clear guidance should enable the personal injury sector, and the team here at First4InjuryClaims, to clear the bottleneck of cases that have been building up whilst waiting for this decision.”

He continued that hopefully the decision should help reduce the average length of time it takes to settle a case in the portal – which currently stands at 227 days – enhancing the claims experience for clients.

Matthew Currie, chief legal officer at Minster Law also emphasised the clarity invited by the court’s decision and stated that the ruling provides “some certainty for insurers and means that a potential wave of litigation can be avoided”. He added that this should help remove potential pressure on the court system which has been struggling to cope for a long time.

“It remains disappointing that both consumers and insurers have faced uncertainty in relation to this issue until now,” he added. “The policy and guidance could have been developed as part of the reform package and included in legislation; lessons must be learnt for future reforms in this and other areas, especially those which directly impact the general public.”

Ian Davies, partner and head of motor at global law firm Kennedys also commented on the decision, noting that today’s judgement, “Perhaps unsurprisingly [confirms] the approach in the 2011 Court of Appeal ruling in Sadler v Filipiak.

“With the comments of Davies LJ providing encouragement to the claimant market and the dissenting judgment of Voss MR ensuring the defendant has more than a little hope going forward, the focus will turn back to the detail of each medical report and the case presented on an individual basis. More appeals are a strong possibility.”

The ABI’s assistant director, head of general insurance policy Mark Shepherd, also commented on the ruling, calling it a “disappointing judgment from the Court of Appeal that lacks the desired clarity for claimants and defendants on how to value mixed injuries.”

The ruling risks undermining the intent of the whiplash reforms to create a simplified and cost-effective system, he said, while opening the door to double counting of injuries that could significantly erode the benefits of the reforms for premium paying motorists.

“It is unfortunate that the approach advocated by the Master of the Rolls was not adopted by the majority of the Court, as this would have provided the clear guidance that is needed whilst ensuring access to fair and proportionate compensation for claimants,” he continued. “In the face of rising cost pressures, motor insurers are doing all they can to keep prices competitive for customers, but today’s decision will only make it harder to keep premiums as low as they otherwise could be.”

What are your thoughts on this ruling? Please feel free to share your comments below.

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Drawing on the insights and experiences of leaders across nine industry segments, the research is the largest UK-focused insurance report of its kind and, at first glance, the outlook for UK businesses looks decidedly, though perhaps unsurprisingly, bleak. Breaking down the most pressing risks facing UK businesses, Aviva mapped out the following concerns:

1. Economic concerns (the top risk for the second year running)
2. Skilled workforce challenges
3. Impacts of Brexit
4. Loss of reputation
5. Supply chain interruption
6. Business interruption
7. Legislature and regulation
8. Public health events
9. Market developments
10. Cyber security, and mental health & wellbeing (tied)

In a panel session chaired by Jane Poole, CFO, Aviva UK&I General Insurance, Winslow joined Paul Wilson, policy director at the Federation of Small Businesses, and Rodney Bonnard, UK insurance leader at EY, to review the changing risk profile of UK businesses. Amid discussions around the key takeaways of the report, two underlying factors became increasingly evident – the interconnectivity of the risks concerning UK businesses, and the disconnect between concern and protection.

The interconnectivity of the risks facing UK companies

“If the last few years have taught us anything it’s that businesses need to be prepared for the unexpected,” Winslow said. “And as the report says, the sheer breadth of issues businesses face, as well as the interconnected nature of those issues is, I think, the key thing that businesses need to face into to trade successfully. One way through that, with my insurance lens on, is proactive and holistic risk management – what is the plan for the plan?”

Among the findings of the Risk Insights Report, Aviva revealed that only 14% of small businesses have business continuity plans in place. So, very few of these businesses have really thought about the impact and consequences of these risks, he said, as well as how they play together. What they need to be doing is actively considering these and working with brokers and insurers to ensure they have the right response plans and coverage in place to continue to trade effectively in a fast-changing and tumultuous risk environment.

Underinsurance among UK bsuinesses

Following on from this, Poole emphasised the particularly concerning statistic that Aviva estimates that as much as 5% of UK businesses are likely to be underinsured. Underinsurance is a true measure of the gap between concern and protection – and she turned to Winslow for his thoughts on how the economic backdrop is impacting the insurance needs of businesses.

In a tight economic environment, he said, underinsurance is the risk that Aviva’s team have seen emerge and re-emerge over many cycles. The report specifically references that many businesses aren’t inflating their sums insured i.e. their inventory stock, machinery and all the other things that would need replacing in line with inflationary increases should the worst come to pass.

“Now, there’s an advantage to businesses not doing that, because clearly, they’ll pay less,” he said. “But there’s a disadvantage in that if that’s not a conscious choice, in the event of one of those perils coming to pass and a claim being made, then the payout won’t cover effectively what’s needed to get them back working, get them back trading and get them back on their feet.”

Navigating tough trading conditions

Winslow noted that the same is happening around the business interruption piece, with disruptions in the supply chain making it very hard for businesses to get their hands on parts and inventory as quickly as they might have previously. Aviva understands how important it is to be conscious of how tight trading conditions are, he said, as clearly businesses can’t automatically afford to pay more year-on-year-on-year.

“So, [it’s about] making a really conscious choice,” he said. “I think this is where the broker comes in, on having that conversation. We encourage businesses to sit down with their broker to talk about what’s on their mind, what they’re worried about, and then create a programme that effectively responds both from a cost and a coverage perspective to those concerns.”

From Aviva’s perspective, offering the right tools and data to brokers to empower to have proactive discussions with the clients around underinsurance is critical, he said. Claims happen in insurance and the last thing the profession wants to happen is the development of a “mismatch between expectation and reality” among insureds.

How aware are SMEs of the risks around underinsurance?

Touching on the level of awareness he sees among SMEs about this concern, the FSB’s Wilson highlighted that there is some awareness but that all too often being underinsured is not a conscious decision being made by small business leaders. The FSB did a report on insurance last year which found that one of the ways firms have reacted to rising premiums is just by reducing their insurance levels.

“Now if that’s after a conversation with a broker, and they get the decision that they’re making, and they’re balancing it against other things they could be spending their money on then fine,” he said. “It’s not ideal, but it’s fine and potentially a good risk-based decision. However, if they’re not sure exactly what their coverage is, and if they’re not aware they’re underinsured, then that is concerning. Because then, if and when something goes wrong, that will be more difficult to deal with.”

The full extent of underinsurance as a risk

Another issue around underinsurance, noted EY’s Bonnard, is that too many people think of insurance just in terms of bricks-and-mortar business interruption. The reality, he said, is that the actual risk landscape has shifted dramatically and is no longer just based on physical risks, with concerns such as cyber presenting a looming threat.

“If you look at all the aspects of the Ukraine war and just the number of hacks that are happening, it’s just unbelievably ubiquitous,” he said. “A lot of the value of companies isn’t just in their bricks and mortar, it’s also in their reputation and it’s in the data they hold for the customers that they manage.”

Companies need to register that their insurance decisions are not just about choosing whether or not to cover their physical premises, he said, but they also need to consider the range of intangible assets that also require protection. On that point, Winslow added the report’s finding that large corporates tended to be better at thinking about such risks – with a huge percentage of small businesses unaware that cyber insurance even exists.

“So again, you come down to businesses needing to make consciously aware choices about what they’re covering and what they’re not,” he said. “And there’s a real awareness and understanding gap [among some SMEs].”

What are your thoughts on this story? Please feel free to share your comments below.

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This was swiftly followed up by the launch of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2023 which highlighted the burgeoning tensions caused by the relative attention being paid to short- and long-term risks respectively. In an interview with Insurance Business, Marsh’s Carolina Klint emphasised the need for firms to take a longer-term, holistic approach to examining and navigating their risk environments and not to be too swayed by more immediate concerns.

The message of each of these reports cements a sentiment unique to the spirit of the New Year and particularly those few weeks after the initial celebration has passed – that feeling of anti-climax when the ‘New Year, New You’ sentiment drifts away and the changes you envisaged don’t immediately materialise. New Year feels like it should be a fresh start, a place and time untouched and unperilled by the challenges and consequences of what came before – but every year without fail it serves as a reminder that time runs on a series, not a parallel circuit.

Whether it’s the challenges facing the reinsurance market, the increasing awareness that it’s crunch time for the cybersecurity sector, or impending regulatory upheaval – what was worrying insurance businesses three few weeks ago is likely still worrying them today. That these concerns are playing out amid such a tumultuous external environment is only adding to the stress of insurance advisors looking to help their clients thrive or even just survive during the coming months.

To ‘ostrich’ the situation – putting your head in the sand and hoping for the best is counter-productive at best and outright dangerous at worst. But to zero in on these headlines for too long is to lose sight of the bigger picture and, with that, your view of the progress that has been made by so many insurance firms in recent years.

Over the Christmas break (which I’ve been assured by many across the market does feel as though it was 100 years ago now), I was recommended by a friend that early in the New Year, everybody should open up their phone’s photo gallery and look back over the year that was. His reasoning, he explained, is that generally speaking, you tend to take pictures during good times with good people – and looking back may call to mind occasions you’ve forgotten.

I suggest that the insurance profession does the same in these crucial early weeks of 2023, whether that’s looking back through personal galleries, or LinkedIn updates, or intranet callbacks. Because great strides have been made in the last year and these shouldn’t fly under the radar. After all, impossible though it may seem, it bears recalling that though the lockdowns had lifted by January 2022, the official events celebrating the New Year were cancelled in London.

Every in-person meeting, conference, seminar, concert and informal gathering since then has been an instrumental step away from the dreaded ‘new normal’ and a step towards a healthier, more sustainable and flexible approach to life and work. With a renewed understanding of what a healthy work/life balance looks like for employees and a shift away from a presenteeism mindset, many insurance businesses have made a success story of their hybrid working plans.

The news cycle brings near-constant updates on new employee benefits solutions and people-first initiatives from a host of companies of every size that are leaning into the challenge presented by the current job market by finding new ways to delineate themselves as employers of choice.

Beyond the internal mechanisms of the industry, there are positive shifts unlikely to be discerned from any slideshow of pictures but nonetheless real or relevant for that. Insurance brokers have left the pandemic behind with their reputations for customer-service and customer-centricity largely intact. High-quality brokers up and down the UK have done exceptional work in raising the profile of the profession and their actions are paying off dividends for the wider profession.  

Now facing into an uncertain economic environment, brokers are well-placed to leverage the trust their customers place in them to advise and support them through challenges including inflation, underinsurance and the energy crisis. This is a win for the broking profession and, while rarely the type to rest on their laurels, everybody with a part to play in that deserves acknowledgement of the work they continue to do to protect businesses and people alike.

So, even if every other resolution you made in the New Year has already gone the way of all flesh, here’s one to keep in mind – there’s no harm and plenty of good in well-reasoned optimism and in affirming what you’ve done well and what you’ve done right. So, if you get the chance, perhaps rather than look back at a photo reel at the end of the year, instead, on a daily basis, take the advice of Kurt Vonnegut: “I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or think at some point – if this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”

What are your thoughts on this story? Please feel free to share your comments below.

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Earlier today, Scarrett revealed that Woodgate & Clark has restructured to fully integrate Quadra into its operations as the combined business faces into what promises to be a “volatile market” in 2023. Following the merger, all Quadra’s staff have transferred across and he now heads up a four-strong C-suite including Quadra’s Dave Greenwood (director) and Simon Jones (client services director), as well as operations director Graeme Fitzpatrick.

Getting the timing right for an insurance merger

Speaking with Insurance Business, Scarrett identified why the time was right for the merger – noting that the move followed two years of Woodgate & Clark getting to know the business, its team, its customers and the work it does to support those customers. With that in place, he said, the collaboration seemed a natural next step, offering opportunities to scale up Quadra’s expertise while further cementing the Woodgate & Clark service proposition and brand.

“This ‘best of both worlds’ move has resulted in a change for both legacy parts of the business in that each of them had quite a flat structure before as they were relatively smaller businesses,” he said. “But as we gain scale, it’s necessary to have a little bit more structure in terms of leadership and governance and support.”

What does Woodgate & Clark’s restructure look like?

The combined firm has restructured to set up three regions of operations, he said, each with a director running them and looking after customer delivery at the front end and making sure there’s the right level of ‘pastoral care’ to support loss adjusters and maintain strong market relationships. Those regional operations are a new element of Woodgate & Clark’s operational structure as are the four technical directorships the business is creating.

“So, while part of the team is out there looking at how we are delivering service on a day-to-day basis, others are looking at what we’re doing in property, for instance, or how we’re making sure our proposition continues to evolve to meet and exceed the expectations of our clients,” he said.

“They’re looking at how we are going to deliver the right technical training, how our loss adjusters are coping… and they’re making sure that we’ve got that technical supervision going on as well as our regional operations supervision. We’re taking a real matrix approach so somebody’s focusing on [each of our areas of specialism] all the time.”

Leveraging new career development opportunities

Among the advantages of the merger, critical to Scarrett and his newly formed C-suite are the implications the move has for the career development of the team and the succession planning of the merged business. Career development has long been a key area of focus for the MD and he’s excited about the new progression opportunities now available to his team.

“Having this wider talent pool, all under the remit of one employer makes it a lot easier for people to now manage their careers within Woodgate & Clark whereas before people may have considered leaving one company to join the other, with all the complexity that brings,” he said. “[Also] our new scale gives us the ability to invest in central services to support our employee progression.

“We’ve invested in our HR team providing training and development, coaching, and mentoring. And we’re factoring that activity into our resource plan so that people don’t have to try and squeeze this into their spare time, rather it’s part of our core employee proposition.”

Crucial to Woodgate & Clark’s employee proposition is its commitment to giving the team interesting work to do, Scarrett said, with the loss adjuster tending to focus on more complex losses rather than high-volume, relatively low-value claims work. For those professionals looking to learn their trade and increase their experience in complex loss-adjusting – the firm is the right place to be.

“Lossing adjusting is a profession where you can learn so much in the classroom and you can learn so much from qualifications but really, the loss adjuster of the future will learn a lot of his or her experience from on-the-job training and attending larger losses,” he said. “So, we’re also working with the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA) to support the work they’re doing looking at resource planning for the future.”

Preparing for volatile market conditions in 2023

In addition to the career development advantages of the merger, the decision will also have significant advantages for Woodgate & Clark’s partners and clients, given the streamlined compliance of the combined firms. And facing into a period of market volatility, this reorganisation is critical to the firm’s ability to navigate the market challenges on the near horizon.

Volatility comes in different guises, Scarrett noted, with some challenges representing brief periods of volatility while others remain in play for longer. Looking at the subsidence claims of last year, and the deep freeze and sudden thaw before Christmas, he highlighted how the loss adjusting world is no stranger to moments of surge. While that spike in activity thankfully calmed relatively quickly, he expects to see more surge activity before the spring arrives.

“So, we’ve got to expect more surge activity coming through, but then you overlay that with the logjams and bottlenecks in the supply chain, particularly for building and construction materials,” he said. “And it’s not just materials, actually, but the actual people who fit them and repair them as well because getting the tradesmen as well as the materials can be quite a challenge.”

These challenges in turn are overlaid with the industry’s collective responsibilities around sustainability, Scarrett said, with insurers setting out ESG agendas mapping out their journeys to carbon net zero. Woodgate & Clark has its own agenda around what that journey will look like and he sees the importance attributed to these initiatives only increasing as the year unfolds. Firms must be on the front foot, which is why the team is so actively identifying and engaging with opportunities to support and lead sustainable initiatives including sustainable repairs and recycling.

With the restructure complete, Scarrett and his team feel more confident than ever when looking to the future and he highlighted how the success of the merger has contributed to that positivity. From the beginning, the merger needed to be a collaborative process, he said, with both legacy communities understanding the critical role they get to play in the new organisation. Feedback from colleagues has been very positive so far, in large part due to the consultative approach taken throughout the process.

“It felt like the right time for all of us,” he said. “It’s a New Year and a new start, and timed with the second anniversary, it all really came together… And while some mergers are predicated on cost-savings, ours was always about how we get the best of both worlds and grow even further. And the commitment that nobody would lose their job as a result of this merger was made right back when we announced this internally in November.”

What’s next for Woodgate & Clark

Looking to the year ahead, Scarrett noted that the emphasis is on the newly restructured Woodgate & Clark doing what it does best – supporting its clients and partners, continuing its work around training and education, and steadily growing the business.

“We’re still growing, so we’re keen to recruit,” he said. “It’s all really about making sure the service delivery is there so that we are supporting the insurers in what they need to do while gearing ourselves up for the future by investing where we need to in ESG, counter fraud and other areas like that. And also, if the right opportunity came along, maybe making further investments where we find other businesses that we feel will fit our model.”

What are your thoughts on this merger? Please feel free to share your comments below.

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The Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) has released its first Target-Setting Protocol at the World Economic Forum, accelerating the transition to a global net-zero economy.

Launched at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, version 1.0 of the NZIA Target-Setting Protocol will enable NZIA members to independently set science-based, intermediate targets for their insurance and reinsurance underwriting portfolios, aligned with a net-zero transition pathway consistent with a maximum temperature rise of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. It requires the members to set and disclose their initial targets by July 31, 2023.

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The report revealed 410 cybersecurity M&A deals announced globally during 2022, with the disclosed value of these deals totalling $48.3 billion, a 14.6% decline in deal volume and a massive 56.7% decline in deal value compared to 2021.

“Although overall M&A activity remained subdued for the sector, the decline is more prominent in terms of value than volume, suggesting that investors were increasingly cautious in committing to big investments amid volatile market conditions,” said Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData.

Cybersecurity M&A deal volume over the years

According to GlobalData’s report, M&A deal volume remained above 400 for the fourth consecutive year.

In 2021, M&A deal volume reached an all-time high, with 480 deal announcements. In 2022, despite suffering a 14.6% year-on-year (YoY) decline, the deal volume remained over 400.

Cybersecurity M&A deal value over the years

In 2018, total M&A deal value in the cybersecurity space reached an all-time high at $126.7 billion on the back of some high-value transactions.

Similarly, in 2021, total M&A deal value remained significantly high and stayed above $100 billion due to the announcement of big-ticket deals, such as the acquisition of McAfee for $14 billion by a consortium (composed of Advent International, Crosspoint Capital Partners, Permira Holdings, CPP, and GIC) and Thoma Bravo’s acquisition of Proofpoint for $12.3 billion, among others.

However, 2022 did not have announced deals valued at over $10 billion.

“Resultantly, there was a massive Y-o-Y drop in total deal value in 2022,” Bose said.

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Miller has appointed Claire Connolly (pictured above) as head of M&A. She reports to Ben Speers, chief corporate and legal affairs officer.

Connolly has significant experience in M&A, corporate development, and finance in the insurance industry, having held various senior M&A roles at Jensten Group, Aston Lark and Gallagher, where she worked on M&A transactions in multiple regions and oversaw the development of the firms’ M&A strategies.

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Sharing his insights, Jon Walker (pictured left), CEO of AXA Commercial, highlighted why he hopes collaboration will be a key area of focus as the sector works towards the Consumer Duty deadline in the middle of next year. Firms will need to work together to deliver change, he said, and insurers should be putting themselves in their customers’ shoes to really get to grips with the requirements.

“Within intermediated business, brokers are essential in doing this,” he said. “With an in-depth understanding of their customer base, brokers are best placed to identify, evaluate and communicate a customer’s needs and work with insurers who are, in turn, designing, producing and servicing the products that meet their needs.”  

The Consumer Duty rules are entirely consistent with running a business oriented towards the customers it exists to serve, Walker said. Working in partnership towards this end throughout the distribution chain will not only help insurance businesses deliver more value for their customers but it makes strong business sense too. Consumer Duty will enable insurers to further ensure the best possible customer outcomes and we welcome the opportunity to place a greater emphasis on consumer protection.

Adding his perspective, Matthew Edwards (pictured right), consulting actuary at WTW, noted that the FCA’s Consumer Duty has ramifications across all product lines, and it will be important for firms to ensure their approach to this on the in-force is well thought through – it’s not just about new business pricing.

“[Meanwhile], for savings products, demonstrating the ability to cope with high inflation in a way that offers value compared with non-insurance investment alternatives,” he said. “For post-retirement, the challenge is finding a good ‘half-way’ between drawdown and annuitisation. The current higher interest rates help make annuities look more attractive, but the problem remains. Various firms are considering new approaches to longevity risk pooling.”

Will 2023 be a difficult year for the insurance industry?

The winds that buffeted the insurance sector in 2022 did not dissipate with the tolling of the New Year, and Walker emphasised how with the enduring cost-of-living crisis and ongoing uncertainty throughout the UK, 2023 may sadly be another difficult year for many. Following the pandemic, he said, the emergence of new risks and issues shows no sign of relenting and our customers continue to face substantial obstacles.

“I expect rising inflation to continue to have an impact across the insurance sector, from pricing and claims, to repairs and procurement,” he said. “The rise in claims costs across this sector has been driven by a number of factors including COVID-19, the geopolitical situation and Brexit causing global supply chain disruption and skills shortages.

“Unfortunately, there is little sign of this letting up. At AXA, we will continue to work with our customers to manage this impact and ensure our customers are treated fairly and claims are dealt with promptly.”

The outlook for mortality and longevity has remained highly uncertain, Edwards added. Insurers had hoped, during the pandemic, that things would revert to some form of ‘new demographic normal’ post-pandemic, but the mortality experience of 2023 is proving hard to decipher.

“The outlook for future longevity improvements is also more uncertain, especially given NHS and related pressures,” he said. “We’re hoping that, by the end of 2023, insurers will have made whatever changes are appropriate and have found good evidence for such changes.”

Insurance challenges in 2023

Assessing the challenges awaiting the market in 2023, Walker spotlighted the continued issue presented by talent attraction and retention. These are not new challenges for the insurance industry, he said, but the specifics of the issue change year on year.

“We can’t continue to blame the spike in vacancies and rising salary costs on a post-COVID ‘lifestyle’ narrative,” he said. “We’re a people business and, if anything, we, along with our competitors and brokers, have to put extra effort and investment into attracting and developing the next generation of industry talent and leaders.”

Looking at the regulatory challenges facing insurance this year, Edwards noted that for many firms, 2022 has been the year of IFRS-17 preparation. 2023 will correspondingly be the year of making IFRS-17 work as BAU, he said, ensuring all relevant internal and external stakeholders understand the results – and reasons for variation from the previous reporting regime – and thinking through knock-on impacts of the new reporting regime.

Insurance opportunities in 2023

There are plenty of opportunities for the market too, alongside these challenges, however, and Walker emphasised that 2023 has the potential to be a great year for the insurance industry. With the rapid uptake in digital solutions and technology across the personal lines market, he said, he hopes to see commercial lines catch up this year.

“I believe digitalisation of commercial lines is already accelerating and the crux will be to keep pace and maintain the rate of change,” he said. “As we move beyond modernising internal processes, the next step will be to enable more digital interaction, more self-service and more innovative products. The key will be anticipating customer requirements before they have happened as well as upskilling our experts with the tools that will allow streamlined processes to become the norm.”

Looking forward, Walker said, he believes the market will see customer expectations evolve and insurance will increasingly need to focus on personalisation, prevention, sustainability and digitalisation. It’s up to each market player to embrace these opportunities to remain competitive and continue to serve their customers.

“Much of the talk during the late 2010s of the opportunities offered by good use of analytics, unlocking the patterns in data and doing so in a way that helps shareholders and policyholders, was deprioritised due to the pressures of the pandemic and IFRS-17,” Edwards added. “This year could be the year firms ‘re-find’ their ambitions regarding broader use of data analytics, with corresponding systems redesigned to better allow the use of new data-driven insights.”

For Edwards and his team at WTW, the key area of focus in 2023 is supporting clients in navigating the challenges facing the markets while accessing all available opportunities. It’s a similar story for Walker and his team at AXA Commercial and besides continued growth and profitability, they’re focusing on areas such as service delivery, regulatory response, delivering for our customers and change and transformation.

“Over the past few years, we have established an expert Governance, Risk & Conduct function,” he said. “Moving forward, we must continue to build on integrating good customer outcomes into our working practices and business culture. We have a number of regulatory commitments to fulfil, with Consumer Duty as a top priority for 2023.”

Walker highlighted how delivering for customers sits at the heart of the Commercial team’s ambition to help their customers’ businesses thrive today and tomorrow. The business will be focusing on continuing to offer strong service that makes it easy to do business with, he said. This year, it has been working to ensure account managers and underwriters alike are available to brokers both face to face and in a ‘smart working’ setting.

“We want to make sure brokers and business insurance customers have the opportunity to communicate directly with underwriters, giving everyone a more in-depth and detailed understanding of needs and requirements,” he said. “We will also be progressing with our transformation programme.

“We’ll be looking at more ways to ensure decision-making is as close to the customers as possible, making our underwriters more accessible by providing them with improved tools and processes, and use data to enable better customer outcomes.”

What do you think 2023 will bring for the insurance sector? Feel free to add your thoughts in the comment box below.

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For the study, WTW polled 600 industry leaders in the health and life sciences sector. Participants were asked to rank what they felt were the top risks to business success in the next three to five years:

Internal risks

1. Data privacy/informed consent (46%)
2. Labelling and packaging (44%)
3. Product safety failure/product recall (40%)
4. M&A risks (39%)
5. Talent acquisition and retention (38%)

External risks

1. Environment/climate change/extreme weather (44%)
2. Cost and availability of inputs including materials and energy (43%)
3. Cyber risks (40%)
4. Changing or increasing legislation (39%)
5. Social inflation/rising cost of litigation (36%)

Collaborations and M&A

The study found that firms are focusing on collaboration and M&A over new products.

“Industry collaborations emerged as the sector’s greatest opportunity over the next two years, named by 35% of respondents among their top five business priorities,” WTW said. Thirty percent named strategic acquisitions and industry collaborations among their top three strategic objectives.

Conversely, only 15% said launching new products was among their top priorities, while only 12% named IPOs.

“This could reflect a desire to pause and recover after a high period of activity, including the rush to develop new vaccines,” WTW said.

ESG risks

Data privacy and informed consent issues were top of mind for many in the sector, WTW said.

“As the sector becomes more dependent on data to inform strategy and drive innovation, firms are also more conscious not only of the opportunities but also the risks this brings,” WTW said. “With the rise of digital healthcare, life science companies are coming under increasing scrutiny from regulators, courts and the public for how they use patient data and how they obtain their consent.”

Fifty-two percent of survey respondents said that improved data and data access were among their top five opportunities from digital transformation over the next three years. However, 46% said data privacy and informed consent were among the top internal factors posing the greatest risk to their business over the next few years, and 38% named data privacy as one of their top three ESG risks.

Health and race equity is also becoming a more pressing issue for the sector. Fifty percent of respondents said health and race equity was among the top three emerging themes that will have a positive impact on the sector over the next three to five years, and 42% said issues related to health and race equity and access to medicine were among their top three ESG social risks.

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