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“We were asked if we could assist in any way,” she said. “Originally, we said ‘right, we can send one van or maybe two’, and we put out the call for aid, both for financial aid and for practical aid – that’s clothes, washing machines, fridge freezers, toiletries, medicines, baby stuff etc. We’ve already received a lot of financial donations, in total about £29,000, and £10,000 of that has already gone to Poland.

“[…] The response was just mind-blowing. The amount of aid and financial contributions we received across the community was unbelievable, as well as the assistance we received in trying to sort it all out and box it up. Everything was boxed up and labelled so that when I got to the refugee sites, it was obvious who everything was for. In the end, we were able to send five vans across and we had two drivers in each. It was a completely cross-community effort, and the generosity of people was phenomenal.”

The open-heartedness displayed by her colleagues across McLarens and the wider sector has been so remarkable that The Joy Foundation is now planning a second trip over the Easter weekend because, even after five vans, there are still enough donations to fill at least two more. It just keeps coming, she said, and the publicity the charity has received has been incredible, allowing it to widen its scope and help so many individuals and families.

It doesn’t end here, she said, and The Joy Foundation is already planning further trips. While the team have worked with two of the camps to date, others require support – and the foundation is being kept up to date with pastors on the ground to determine what aid is required.

“Our second trip is going to be aimed specifically at what they need,” she said. “There’s no point in continuing to take reams of stuff if they don’t need it. One of the requests that has come through is that they need a lot of medicines, even things like throat lozenges etc. They’re asking for more medicinal [aid] and they’ve asked if we can try to get educational products.

“So, we’re trying to get documentation printed in Ukrainian that the kids can use because, obviously, their education is going to suffer while they’re relocated. All these things have to be taken into account and if we can sort it out, we will.”

The Joy Foundation’s JustGiving page is still open, McMillan said, and the financial factor to the aid required by the Ukrainian refugees is a key element of the next wave of support required. This effort isn’t a one-off and, as a result, it requires ongoing assistance. She highlighted the response the charity has received from local transport companies – particularly a company called McBurney Transport which sponsored all its vans and paid for its boat crossing.

“I got to be in the truckers’ lounge which was quite the experience! They were more than generous,” she said. “And it costs a lot of money to get the vans out there if you have to hire them, especially with the price of fuel at the minute. It costs us quite a few thousand to get them there and back again, so we’re hoping that financial contributions will continue because that’s what we’re going to need more of going forward.”

Read more: Russia-Ukraine war: CEO on what’s happening on the ground

When you arrive at the refugee camps, she said, you realise how much aid and support is required – but it’s also an incredibly gratifying experience. She recalled arriving on the first day and the initial wariness of the children gathered there. A friend, who is a child-minder, had the right idea, McMillan said, and brought along a giant bag of sweets and toys – the universal language of children – which quickly went down a treat.

“And the end of it all was that, before we left, it was interpreted to us that the people we were delivering aid to wanted to make us a cup of tea and cake,” she said. “We said ‘yes’ but when we went in we couldn’t believe it, in fact, I was mortified because these ladies had made us a full meal. They made us chicken soup and bread, and meat and potatoes. We were sat there thinking ‘do we eat this?’ And the pastor interpreted that if we didn’t, we would offend them. So, there was us coming to people who have nothing, and they were proud to give us what was essentially their last mouthful. It was very humbling.”

McMillan’s own experience is a testament to how rewarding it is to get involved with charitable works and she encouraged everyone to get involved. You don’t have to have any particular skills or be able to drive to Poland – donations or practical aid are both great ways to get involved.

“It’s a totally cross-community effort,” she said. “We’re a Christian charity but we’re non-denominational and we have people from all walks of life, all denominations. It’s literally just a case of getting stuck in and getting it done, and whatever you can do will be greatly received.”

The Joy Foundation is only one local charity, McMillan said, but there are so many people doing similar things, who have got themselves out of their comfort zone to rise to the occasion.

“It’s wonderful to see it,” she said. “And it just shows you that in a crisis, everybody will respond, whether it’s here, whether it’s in Poland, whether it’s in Ukraine. It doesn’t matter where the demographic is – human nature is good and will respond when required.

“It’s not hard to show kindness to somebody. It’s a tough world that we all live in. I’m at the other end of it. I’m 60 and watching my grandchildren growing up, and hoping that it’s going to be a better world for them. And if I can influence that in any way, that’s all I want to do.”

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Read more: Blue Rock Insurance Brokers opens new office

It’s something of a hallmark of the insurance profession that an off-the-cuff interview can lead to a three-decade plus career. But for Yorke, there is a great deal to enjoy about being an insurance broker, not least the huge variety that the role offers. Getting into the details of a client’s business and what makes them tick has always fascinated him. Whether you’re a people person or a technical geek, a team player, or prefer to fly solo, he said, there’s a position in insurance broking where you can add real value.

“We play a vital role in lubricating the wheels of industry and keeping things moving – I’ve always seen insurance as one of those vital keystones of commerce,” he said. “As a business, there are few better sectors to be involved in. Many of our clients have to go out and find brand new customers every single day. Our business is evergreen – if we look after our clients they’ll stick with us year in, year out.”

Read more: Broking MD offers advice to professionals looking to start their own firm

Looking back at how Blue Rock came to be, Yorke noted that he and his fellow director John McQuaid first met when they both worked at Giles Insurance Brokers. They’d talked about running their own business over the years, he said, and by 2012 he had become a partner of Murphy Insurance in Ayr. When he had the opportunity to buy out the founding partners, McQuaid came on board and they took over the business in 2015 – rebranding as Blue Rock Insurance Brokers in 2018.

“We’ve enjoyed strong organic growth and the business is four times the size it was when we took over,” he added. “Global pandemics aside, it’s been a great journey so far.”

At the core of that impressive growth, is the ethos at the heart of how Blue Rock does business. Yorke highlighted the team’s strong belief that business insurance needs to improve to produce better results for customers. There are far too many clients who have no real idea what they’ve bought, he said, and they completely misunderstand the role of the broker.

“During my career, since the 1980s, contracts of insurance have become longer, more complicated and with many more standard conditions and exclusions,” he said. “However, the broking sales and communication processes haven’t fundamentally changed to keep up.”

Blue Rock is trying to do something better. It’s not pretending that “like-for-like” quotes exist and the cheapest product is the best, he said, rather it is putting the specification first and looking for the best value solution.

“We often joke that we took over a successful business and then changed everything about it but that’s absolutely true,” he said. “As a business, we hold ourselves to an exacting standard and that can be difficult at times. But it’s something we deeply believe in and we’re determined not to compromise on quality.”

The question of what values or characteristics brokers require to be successful largely depends on your definition of success, York said. For Blue Rock it means profitably growing the business while not sacrificing its own standards. Tenacity and integrity are key to the broker’s team, and they don’t ever compromise or lower their standards, but rather state their values clearly and hold themselves accountable to the standards they’ve set.

“Some believe insurance is a commodity and cheapest is best, so our specification-first approach doesn’t appeal to everyone,” he said. “That’s fine, we don’t need to be everything to everyone. But we took the gamble that enough clients would value the way we do things and appreciate the difference, and so far that gamble has paid off.”

Blue Rock has celebrated several milestones in recent months, including the opening of a new office and the appointment of new talent to the team. Looking forward, Yorke highlighted that it has always been the plan of the business to grow beyond its base in Ayr. Acquisitions have been considered in the past, he said, but it can be difficult to bring the quality standards up to where the business would want them without the risk of destroying the financial value of the acquisition.

“We would never say never to the right acquisition but it’s not central to our strategy right now,” he said. “For now, we’re looking at bedding in our new Bellshill office and then looking at additional new branch offices further afield. Getting the right people is getting more and more difficult so, after a pause during the pandemic, we’ve restarted our trainee programme and will be looking at bringing new people into the industry through that route.

“This all presents challenges – but if it was easy, everyone would be doing it!”

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Meanwhile, Milnes is a qualified solicitor joining Arch from W/R/B Underwriting, where she was a claims adjuster specialising in international directors and officers (D&O) and financial institution (FI) insurance claims. She also held claim adjuster roles at AXA, Chubb, and Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty and was a solicitor at Kennedys Law.

In their new roles, Brook and Milnes have joined Arch’s FI claims team – with Brook specialising exclusively in PI claims, and Milnes managing claims across a broad spectrum of areas, including D&O, PI, and investment manager insurance.

A qualified solicitor, Hooda joins Arch from AXIS Capital Group, where she was most recently a senior claims specialist. Previously, she was a senior associate at Davies Group Ltd and a clinical claims manager at the NHS Litigation Authority. In her new role at Arch, Hooda has become a member of the company’s healthcare claims team to manage global claims.

Barbara Rizzi, head of third-party claims at Arch, has welcomed the three new hires to the company’s growing claims team.

“Their significant technical ability and collective experience in the market, both from a claims and legal perspective, undoubtedly strengthen our claims proposition. Their service-focused approach has also enabled us to further enhance our responsiveness to brokers and insureds,” Rizzi continued.

The entrance of Brook, Milnes, and Hooda to the claims team was part of Arch’s appointment spree this month, including the appointment of Linda Daly as its new senior underwriter for executive assurance and the promotion of ceded reinsurance senior vice president Krista Bonneau to chief reinsurance and exposure officer.

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Trade credit insurer Euler Hermes, an Allianz SE company since 2018, has rebranded to Allianz Trade.

Euler Hermes, a 100-year-strong company which boasts in-depth knowledge of markets and economic cycles, has formally changed its brand name to Allianz Trade. The move reinforces its position as a global player with the Allianz Group’s extensive global network of expertise.

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Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) has announced the appointment of Phil Curtis as global head of human resources, effective April 1. Curtis (pictured above) succeeds Dr Melanie Gillig, who is moving to Allianz SE as program lead for Future Work. AGCS employs 4,250 people across 31 countries.

Curtis joins AGCS from his current role as head of HR and change at Allianz SE. in that role, he managed HR for 2,000 employees working in Allianz Group’s headquarters unit. Curtis’ previous HR management roles at Allianz include head of global HR operations at Allianz Global Investors. Prior to joining Allianz in 2012, Curtis held a variety of HR positions in global financial services companies, including UniCredit and UBS.

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It has been four years in the making, he said, and there’s little secret to the energy and effort Lloyd’s has invested into ongoing performance management. The number that stands out for the marketplace is the underwriting profit it has posted – which is not to mention the great work done on the investment side of the firm. In terms of its day job, Neal said, Lloyd’s believes it has found its mark aDFgain and is now performing at the level everyone should expect it to – with a profit of £2.3 billion before tax and a combined ratio of 93.5%.

“I think the message which I hope is coming through loud and clear is that what we’ve wanted to do is position the P&L and the balance sheet sustainably for the medium term,” he said. “So all of the effort that has gone in terms of performance management… and into the balance sheet is not once done. It is effort we will keep going to ensure the levels of performance you’re seeing today can be repeated.”

With this strong foundation bolstering its future priorities, Neal outlined the four key pillars underpinning Lloyd’s strategic framework in 2022 – performance, digitalisation, purpose and culture.

Performance is not once and done, he said, it is Lloyd’s number one priority. And it has to remain its number one priority because, for the market to be sustainable, it needs to be profitable for the customer to be able to get to the products and services they want, and for the capital to be attracted to the market.

“I make no apology for that,” he said, “because it’s the way in which we need to run the platform. You’ve heard Patrick [Tiernan, chief of markets] talk about that consistently… and there’ll always be more work to do. So, this year, we clearly need to understand inflation and clearly need to price against it.”

The market is seeing heightened frequency and severity of catastrophe losses, he said, and there’s no doubt about climate change, so Lloyd’s is going to have to get better in its understanding of catastrophe loss. Lloyd’s also has a critical focus around price adequacy and understanding the pricing of risk – so, performance is very much at the forefront of its mind.

“[On digitalisation], it’s worth reminding ourselves that the infrastructure that underpins the London market, both Lloyd’s and the company, is a mainframe computer system… It’s a very big room with a lot of old-fashioned servers running around in it. It’s not resilient, it’s not fit for purpose, it’s not the type of infrastructure you’d want in a modern world.

“So, in digitising the market, we are going from mainframe to cloud-based, it’s a very significant shift in what we’re doing. [… The Blueprint Two Interactive Guide] and roadmap was us putting ourselves out there and saying, ‘these are the 26 key milestones that we will and must execute against for 2022 and 2023.”

Purpose is the third layer of Lloyd’s strategic framework. For Neal, while the first two layers question whether the market can perform and implement a framework that creates a modern business and addresses the cost of doing business, the third begs the question, ‘can you show some leadership?’

Neal believes Lloyd’s has the responsibility of being the marketplace that discusses the subjects that really matter – such as sustainability, climate and inclusion. Lloyd’s should want to have a leadership position in each of those discussions, he said.

“Dare I say it, I think there are certain points in time when insurance really matters,” he noted. “And there are huge swathes of time where you feel like you’re waving your arms at the back of the room, behind the queue of bankers and investment bankers and anybody else. [But] I think people truly understand risk.

“We’ve come through a financial crisis, we’ve come through a pandemic, people recognise the complications of climate change – and they’ve now got the horrors of war, playing out on their TV screens. So, for the first time, I think risk is properly understood, systemic exposure is understood [and] insurance is being discussed at the board table. And therefore, what we do can make a difference to businesses and communities.”

This is an opportunity for the insurance market to lean in, he said, and to put the right products and services in front of the customer. At the same time, he noted that Lloyd’s has pivoted this year to look at the medium and longer-term implications of war, which he believes is the right effort to consider (in the medium term) what the enduring impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will look like.

Read more: Lloyd’s of London takes action on senior underwriter

Last but certainly not least, on the culture front, Neal noted that if Lloyd’s doesn’t get the cultural piece right, it simply won’t execute against everything else. The numbers are quite startling, he said. The marketplace will hire 20,000 people in the next three years, in and around Lloyd’s, half of which will be under 30. If Lloyd’s doesn’t get its cultural fabric and its intentions around inclusion right – and if it doesn’t represent the best of society – it will not get the right talent and it will not succeed as a marketplace.  

“It’s absolutely critical that we think very differently about culture and talent in 2022 and beyond,” he said. “Yes, we put in place targets around leadership balance between women and men. Yes, we’ve thought about hiring targets for colleagues from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. But for me, we’ve got to move beyond the D into the I, and into a really deep conversation around inclusion and talent. So we don’t underestimate the importance of culture when it sits [parallel to] performance, digitalisation and purpose.”

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Generali has announced that it has suspended Luciano Cirina, the company’s head of Austria and CEE countries and one of the executives nominated for the role of CEO.

The company informed Cirina that despite his suspension, all obligations of his contract remain in force – which includes his obligations to the protection of confidential information and compliance with internal policies regarding his interactions with the media, financial analysts, rating agencies, investors and authorities.

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Keoghs is one such firm, with its head of market affairs Natalie Larnder (pictured) noting that the team was in contact with the joint committee while the scrutiny of the bill was ongoing – which led to them being invited to put forward some draft wording to be considered as the bill progressed. Keoghs has been happy to feed into the process, she said, as it’s very alive to the implications of any new measures for the wider market.

“We don’t know exactly what the amended bill will bring,” she said. “We’re still waiting for it and expect it [to be unveiled] around Easter time. The insurance industry has been calling for measures to tackle online scams via search engines, social media platforms etc, where an organisation will pretend to be a legitimate insurer.”

The way these fraudsters work, she said, is by targeting a consumer at a time of crisis – typically after a motor accident – when they are searching for their insurer or the insurer of the involved third-party online. Though the advert the consumer clicks will appear to be linked to a legitimate organisation, they will instead be directed to an alternative firm – perhaps an expensive credit hire vehicle firm or a garage with no connection to the insurer they think they’re contacting.

This can leave consumers facing an expensive bill themselves, she said, while, in other instances, consumers may never even know they were the victims of fraud.

“That’s the situation we’re hoping these amendments will cover, which would be very positive news for the insurance industry and a very welcome addition,” she said. “The next step is to see what the exact wording of the bill covers. It’s important to get this right and ensure there are proper sanctions in place to make sure companies take this new duty seriously.”

A common tactic seen from fraudsters is that the advert itself looks perfectly compliant with the branding consumers recognise while the link takes them through to an impersonation of the company they’re trying to contact. This adds another layer of complexity to the process of insurers identifying fraudulent adverts, she said, but it would be relatively simple for search engines and social media platforms to implement checks at the time the advert is created.

Therefore, the new measures being introduced must centre around preventing the publication and hosting of fraudulent adverts. It’s the hosting part that’s the critical piece right now, Larnder said, as simply checking the domain the advert links to could save consumers and the wider insurance market a lot of stress, time and expense. The time is right for more obligations to be put on larger organisations to ease the burden on individuals, particularly those who are dealing with a crisis.

Fraudulent and misleading advertisements are largely targeted at people in a vulnerable position at the point of a claim, she said, and whether or not the individual is ever aware that they were misled, fraud places a significant financial burden on all insureds. There’s also a strong reputational harm aspect to this as well, as insurers rely on insurers having confidence they can contact their insurance company and receive good and reliable service in the event of a claim.

“How can you ensure that confidence, if you can’t control who [your clients] are even in contact with? Insurers are battling this every day,” she said. “And insurers are not waiting around saying, ‘oh we don’t have what we need in legislation so we’re stuck’. They’re reporting all these [incidents] when they happen, but they take a long time to sort out. That’s something I’d like to see change with the new duty in place

“Firstly, we don’t want to see this activity at all. But secondly, we want to see anything that does end up online like this is removed immediately. At the moment, it’s so easy for these fraudsters to put these adverts up that in the time it takes an insurer to get one taken down, you could have five or 10 up in their place. It’s a constant battle.”

Read more: The area of insurance fraud that companies ignore at their own risk

Insurers spend a lot of money on advertising, Larnder noted, in a bid to ensure their brand comes up first when a consumer is looking for them. But it’s easy for fraudsters to outbid that process and have their misdirected website appear before the legitimate site in an online search. The process to get these adverts removed is ongoing for insurers, she said, but it does take time.

In addition, she said, insurers are investing in advertising campaigns to familiarise consumers with the best ways to get in touch. Unfortunately, these efforts resonate best with current clients than with those insured by another insurer. In the event of an accident, third-party customers will likely research the contact details of the insurer they’re looking to reach online – and it is during that search that they are vulnerable to fraudulent activity.

“Constant work is being done by the insurance industry to try to tackle this,” Larnder said, “but at the moment it is a really long, drawn-out process. And online search engines and social media sites do have a certain level of processes there to try and tackle, this but I think the incentive just really isn’t there for them right now.

“What we’d really like to see is more being done on the front end, so that when these adverts are being placed, [these sites] are taking those additional steps before they come online – and that by being more proactive, there’s less need for that reactive work to take them down.”

That’s what the team at Keoghs and across the wider industry are hoping will be the result of the upcoming bill amendment – that it will move the dial on the ongoing fight against insurance fraud. “We want to see the amendments go far enough to cover all these types of situations,” she said, “and cover financial harm as well as the psychological harm that can result from online fraud.”

With these particular situations when the individual may not know they’ve been a victim of fraud, the impact can be initially entirely financial which, in turn, can lead to a lot of stress and psychological harm, she said. So Keoghs is pushing to see the amendments recognise this financial harm element and put sufficient sanctions in place to ensure companies take their duties in this area seriously.

“Now Ofcom is going to be taking this forward, in terms of setting out more of what they expect search engines and social media platforms to do to comply with their new duty,” she said. “So that’s another step that we’re keen to keep an eye on to see what Ofcom will set out and how they will regulate this.”

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Insurance Business UK has started the search for up-and-coming stars in the insurance profession to be featured in its Rising Stars 2022 list, a showcase of young insurance professionals making waves in the early stages of their careers, proudly supported by the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network (iCAN), the African-Caribbean Insurance Network (ACIN), the Managing General Agents’ Association (MGAA), the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA).

To be eligible, candidates must be aged 35 or under, and currently working in a role that relates to the general insurance industry. Both self-nominations and entries on behalf of colleagues and direct reports are accepted.

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“So, our mission is to really transform the sector and make sure everyone in the sector is qualified – not just on the theory and the technical aspects of insurance, but also on the right set of behaviours and skills necessary to perform as a good insurance professional.”

Read more: Wiser Academy relaunches insurance graduate programme

This has been the driving force of Wiser Academy since it started trading independently about eight years ago. It recently welcomed a landmark milestone, being graded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted following a full inspection in February. The team is absolutely delighted, George said, particularly given that the academy is the only insurance-focused provider that he knows of which has received an ‘Outstanding’ designation.

Regarding the Ofsted report, he noted that he was particularly pleased that the inspectors identified that Wiser Academy’s approach to training and development is much more than a tick-box exercise. The report highlighted the value-add its programme brings for employers, he said, and its focus on making apprenticeships relevant and tailored to each employer.

“I was pleased the inspectors were able to pick that up just from conversations they had with employers and the apprentices,” he said. “We at Wiser Academy have always said we are from the insurance sector for the insurance sector and so, we’re really proud that we created this business, almost out of nothing, to really support the sector.”

The sector has always had skill shortages, he said, particularly because when young people leave school, college or university, they’re not typically thinking about insurance.

When attending career events at schools and colleges, he said, you can see young people flocking to the stands of British Airways, or IT companies, or other elements of financial services. Insurance has a long way to go to showcase the opportunities an insurance career can offer. The reason for this struggle is twofold. Firstly, there is a lack of awareness about what insurance covers. It is only when you get into the detail of how insurance keeps planes in the air and vaccines in production that people start to understand the breadth of its impact.

Secondly, most people nowadays, from children to grown-ups, don’t face insurance on the same daily basis that they do other sectors. They tend to have an interaction once or twice a year and that’s it. However, he said, with gadget insurance and embedded insurance solutions becoming more widely publicised, that is changing, and the insurance sector should capitalise on this market shift.

The time is right for insurance businesses to further invest in training and development opportunities – not least because the value of professional advice has become clearer than ever during COVID.

“Consumers are now doing more research with the help of the internet, they can come more prepared than the person sitting opposite them,” he said. “They understand that there was a certain instance in another company that was dealt with in a certain way, and they question why their circumstances – which are very similar to that – can’t be dealt with in the same way. That’s what we saw with the [FCA BI] test case and it really challenged the status quo of everything.”

Read more: Insurance apprenticeships – what to look for

In addition, George said, companies should take advantage of the new reputation apprenticeships, in general, have managed to obtain over the last six to seven years. Apprenticeships have moved a long way from being seen as restricted solely to electricians, plumbers and bricklayers. The stereotyping has changed, and young people are increasingly aware of the benefits these opportunities can bring.

“However, we need to package whatever schemes are created… very well and they have to be very comprehensive,” he said. “We must show people the meaning and the benefits that they get out of it. If you approach a really aspiring, ambitious young person with a standard apprenticeship, he or she may not be as engaged with it. You need to show how this is going to transform their lives and how it’s going to add value to their career and future life. As long as we can do that, we can get more engagement.”

For George, taking advantage of such schemes from the government is a real example of a “no brainer”. Everyone should tap into it, he said, and use it as an opportunity to transform the status quo. The shift towards remote working during the COVID-19 lockdowns revealed the speed of decision-making businesses and individuals can be capable of. Now everybody needs to harness that agility of thought and use it to help create solutions to increase the number of insurance professionals.

“As a sector, we shouldn’t wait for the regulator or anyone else to come in and say it’s mandatory,” he said. “We should take our own initiative and transform the sector.”

That’s what Wiser Academy is here to do, and the business has strong growth goals set for itself – with an eye fixed on doubling its size within the next two years. The firm has a solid basis on which to grow as much as it wants, George said, and with the Ofsted inspection under its belt, the foundations it has been preparing over the last 12-13 months have been firmly endorsed by its regulator.

“That gives us even more confidence, but it doesn’t mean we’re stopping there, and there are still things that we continuously improve,” he said. “But now is the time to grow. Our ethos is strong – we want to support our learners, support our employers and give more value pound for pound, because this is public funding and we understand the seriousness of that and we respect it. So, keeping that ethos combined with the good processes and foundations we have, and we are really ready to grow.”

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