Insurance news

Brokerages that had a successful business year are invited to participate in Insurance Business UK’s 5-Star Brokerages to see how they’ll rank among the UK’s best businesses.

To be eligible, a brokerage must have:

• been in business for the entirety of 2022
• three or more brokers writing business (license holders or authorised representatives)

Interested participants have until next Friday, June 9.

A place on the list provides recognition as one of the best brokerage businesses in the UK. Winners can use this ranking to enhance their business reputation and credibility.

The 5-Star Brokerages report will be featured on Insurance Business UK’s website in September.

In a Press release, Allianz Holdings noted that McGinn joined the business as a trading director in 2004 before taking on the role of director, commercial broker markets. In 2013 he was selected to join the UK management board as general manager for commercial, where he led the business through a revision of its strategy driving modernisation, profitability and a growth culture.

In May 2016, McGinn was appointed general manager for commercial and personal businesses before becoming CEO of Allianz Commercial following a restructure in 2021.

Commenting on the news, Colm Holmes, Allianz Holdings CEO said: “Not only has Simon a long history of driving success in our business he’s also been at the helm for milestones including Brexit, our joint venture with LV= and of course COVID-19. He leaves a substantial legacy and I’d like to thank him for his enormous contribution to Allianz UK.”

McGinn also commented on his decision to step down and said he was hugely proud of all the company had achieved and to have been part of building a “great business” across both commercial and personal lines.

“It’s been wonderful to work with such fantastic people,” he said, “and I wish Colm, Nadia and all the team the very best as Allianz continues its transformation journey.”

Nadia Côté’s appointment as commercial managing director UK was announced in March as part of a new globally-integrated move to align Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) UK and Allianz Holding’s UK commercial business under one strategy.

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With over 20 years of experience and credits at Hiscox Ireland and Chubb Insurance to his name, Shane Barry (pictured) is no stranger to what it takes to support the professional lines insurance market. In September of last year, he brought his expertise to Spring Insure, joining the only financial lines MGA in Ireland as senior underwriter.

His appointment followed Spring’s authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland and Lloyd’s coverholder status in Ireland, opening the doors of the wider group to Irish and European business. For Barry, a few conversations with Patrick Mettler, MD of Spring Insure Europe, was enough to convince him that the opportunity to be part of the ground-floor launch of the business was too good to miss.

“Paddy and I go way back, and it represented such an exciting move so I was delighted to come on board with Spring,” he said. “It was Paddy who set up Spring Insure Europe, based on conversations he was having with a few ex-colleagues who had moved into the MGA space. And those conversations led to him finding Spring who were looking to add a Europe string to their bow. Providing a European hub was a big thing for Spring which already had a London office and a Guernsey office.”

The challenges facing financial lines insurance brokers

Serving the Irish and broader European market from the MGA’s Dublin office gives Barry and Mettler a clear overview of the challenges facing insurance brokers in the financial lines market at this time. Having spoken to brokers, he said, there’s a real need for new capacity at the moment and for new options in this space within Ireland.

Beyond the demand for new capacity and greater choice, what brokers really want from their underwriters right now is service. And while Spring might not be able to cater for every risk all the time, he said, it prides itself on differentiation in terms of service.

What does great service look like today?

“People want to be able to talk to underwriters who can make decisions, which is where we come in,” he said. “And if we can’t do something, we’ll tell the client pretty quickly so that they know where they stand and we’re not wasting each other’s time.

“Service seems to be a big area of focus in the Irish and European markets at the moment because a lot of the composite insurers seem to be struggling with service due to staff turnover. And that’s a challenge for brokers if they’re struggling to get an answer at renewal so it’s good for them to have options – options that we hope to provide where possible.”

What’s next for Spring Insure Europe?

It’s all still early days, Barry said, but already Spring is making strong headway on the FI side and with its commercial D&O offering. Its PI binder is now up and running, and starting to gather a bit more momentum as brokers become more aware of the new option available to them. Top of the agenda now is maintaining and growing that momentum, with longer-term ambitions to expand its product line.

“In the coming weeks and months, we’ll hopefully have the ability to write some corporate legal liability and pension trustee liability to tack on to the commercial D&O, for example,” he said. “And we’d like to broaden out our cyber appetite a little bit. We want to grow the Irish business and there’s only so much two people can do so we’ll probably be looking to take on a new hire in 2023. From there, the plan is to grow in-line with the ambitious plans of the wider Spring group.”

Barry and Mettler are both familiar faces within the professional lines insurance market, and integral to their ambitions for the year ahead is getting out to meet brokers and clients under the mantle of Spring. A lot of these brokers will know them from their previous roles, he said, which he hopes will serve as an injector of confidence into the Spring proposition.

The reaction of the market to Spring Insure Europe

“The reaction of the market has been really good so far,” he said. “We’ve been out to see some brokers who have known us for a long time and their reactions have been really positive. One thing I know from working in the market for so long is that finding experienced financial lines underwriters is a real challenge. So for us to have two people both with 20-plus years of experience in this sector is a comfort to brokers. It has been really gratifying to see their reactions and we’re delighted to see that those brokers are keen to support something new in the Irish market.”

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MGAs are vital cogs in the insurance industry, placing more than 10% of the country’s £47 billion in general insurance premiums, according to the Managing General Agents’ Association (MGAA).  

• offer a clearly defined segment or risk appetite   
• show demonstrable underwriting expertise by product line or industry sector   
• have access to state-of-the-art data   

• deliver excellent service for new service and renewals   

Insurance Business UK has revealed this year’s awardees for Brokers on MGAs 2023 – the survey queried hundreds of brokers to find the best MGAs in the UK insurance industry. Brokers also ranked the critical factors to be a top-performing MGA, including technical expertise and product knowledge, overall responsiveness, ability to place niche or emerging skills, reputation, and more.  

As part of the survey, brokers nationwide shared their deciding factors when working with MGAs. The top factors are coverage or a market with limited access, specific coverage needed, specialty coverage, and checking with another wholesaler’s pricing/obtaining competitive pricing. 

One of the standout winners was Renovation Underwriting, winning gold medals for construction (large) private client categories and a silver medal for contractors. Managing director Douglas Brown’s rationale for being one of the UK’s best MGAs in insurance is to cater to underserved markets, provide innovation, leverage technology to deal with demand, and provide the expertise required to make their offer substantive. 

To learn more about IBUK’s best MGAs in Insurance, click here and access the full report.  

Insurtech managing general agency (MGA) Qlaims has signed a multi-year deal with specialist MGA Prestige Underwriting to include Qlaims insurance cover in the Prestige Underwriting Coverall Household Policy.

Under the partnership, Qlaims will provide clients who experienced a loss their own claims specialist that’s certified with the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA) to prepare and manage their property claims. The partnership aims to help on larger claims, with Prestige Underwriting selecting customer claims above £25,000 to benefit from the support of the value-added service.

Prestige’s non-standard home insurance product, Coverall, is distributed throughout the country by a network of over 500 brokers, with over 30,000 clients in total. Qlaims’ inclusion in the policy reinforces the firm’s customer approach, while Qlaims fulfills its consumer duty of supporting good outcomes for customers while managing insurer claims costs.

Qlaims CEO Liz Latter (pictured left) said the firm’s goal has always been to manage claims efficiently and effectively to ensure the correct outcome for their clients.

“We think the UK has a gap in its policy wordings and as a business we are keen to see this type of cover offered more broadly to clients,” Latter said. “A clear and well-presented claim both speeds the process and supports a fair and correct outcome for customers. With the FCA focus on this area, Qlaims Insurance can help clients at their time of need and enable them to realise the value from their insurance policy. Something I think all of us are keen to achieve.”

Prestige Underwriting managing director Alison Williams (pictured right) also praised the partnership, saying that it added further value to the firm’s Coverall product.

“Experiencing a claim event can be overwhelming for many customers and we endeavour to support in every way we can to resolve a claim efficiently and successfully. Working in partnership with the specialist team at Qlaims will reinforce the support and assistance we can offer, adding value for our Brokers and their policyholders,” Williams said.

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

This article was provided by Jonathan Forster (pictured), SME distribution director at Travelers Europe.

Even when times are good, cash flow is a struggle for small- to medium-size businesses (SMEs). According to research from Xero and Accenture, late payments cost UK small businesses approximately £684 million annually. That doesn’t even account for the time businesses lose in chasing those payments.

In today’s conditions, making ends meet is that much more difficult. Scan the news headlines right now and you’re sure to find an article about inflation, supply chain disruptions, increased energy costs, higher taxes and interest rates – the list goes on.

It’s a sobering mix for any business owner, but for SMEs, the strains intensify cash flow problems:

Fortunately, there is help for businesses needing to preserve cash flow or get back on their feet.

“SMEs are facing a lot of uncertainty, but they can access resources to help ease the burden,” said Jonathan Forster, SME distribution director at Travelers Europe. “Travelers wants to be part of the solution and has made a commitment to serving the SME space with not only a growing suite of products in areas we truly understand, but also through valuable added benefits that are free to the end customer.”

Benefits can save a business

The SME product offering from Travelers includes Cyber, Property Owners, Marine Cargo, Office, Management Liability and Professional Indemnity Combined insurance – and the roster of benefits supporting these products has been growing. Travelers SME Office policyholders recently gained the benefit of First Recovery, a service that gets an SME customer back up and running if they experience an insured event such as a fire, flood or explosion at their premises.

“A catastrophe such as a fire can bring down a business that doesn’t have a disaster plan,” Forster said. “First Recovery can get an impacted business into temporary quarters, supplied with the necessary IT infrastructure, and ready to operate again often within hours of an incident. They also help policyholders develop a free disaster recovery plan bespoke to their business. The early days following an incident are vital to take the stress away from clients so they can focus on running their businesses. Travelers is the only insurer in the UK that offers the First Recovery benefit to SMEs for free as part of the cover.”

Expertise for mitigating everyday challenges

While not all business owners will experience an event as dramatic as a fire, they will frequently face challenges that require them to consult expert support in the moment. Cyberattacks, for instance, are becoming more frequent and increasingly sophisticated: Vodafone Business research found that 54% of SMEs in the UK experienced some kind of cyberattack in 2022, up from 39% in 2020. Hiring a cybersecurity consultant can cost a business thousands of pounds per hour.

Beyond Cyber, Travelers offers Office policyholders support via free HR and accounting helplines. Through the Travelers Management Liability package offering, customers can get an hour of free legal advice from Kennedys, a leading UK law firm, about any matter relating to their policy. Customers can make an unlimited number of calls – each one just can’t exceed one hour.

In these times, more businesses are managing concerns ranging from Directors’ & Officers’ claims to Employment Practices Liability issues, which can drain an SME’s time and cash flow. Access to support is valuable to have in the moment, whether a business is facing an uptick in claims in the current environment, or it simply wants to minimise distraction and time spent away from the task of running a business each day. The support ensures that for businesses that struggle with cash flow, any money leaving the business is well spent.

“Like everything else, the cost of insurance is going up,” Forster said. “So it’s important for SMEs to ask, ‘What am I receiving in return?’ Travelers’ product offering includes these valuable benefits, and these cover enhancements can relieve so many burdens.  Indeed, they could potentially even save your client’s business.”

_{The information provided in this document is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute
legal or professional advice nor a recommendation to any individual or business of any product or service.
Insurance coverage is governed by the actual terms and conditions of insurance as set out in the policy
documentation and not by any of the information in this document}

The release of Lloyd’s nation state cyber mandate last August ballooned into a “PR disaster” following a barrage of negative coverage and the insurance industry must learn lessons on communicating, the CEO of managing general agent (MGA) CFC, which has a Lloyd’s syndicate, has said.

“It was an absolute PR disaster, it kills me,” Newman said in response to a question posed by Insurance Business at the 2023 CFC Summit in Chicago on May 18, 2023.

Newman labelled the fallout that erupted from the mandate a “frantic panic”, likely spurred on by conflict erupting in Europe with the onset of Russia’s Ukraine war, despite the clauses and intent having been in the works with the Lloyd’s Market Association for three years.

Last year, Lloyd’s unveiled suggested model clauses and a mandate, effective from the end of March 2023, for its participants to exclude certain state-impairing nation state-backed attacks and losses arising from a war, stoking broker and client fears and confusion, and resulting in a tide of what were described during the CFC event as negative headlines.

“I’ve never seen worse communication in my life,” Newman said of what followed the mandate’s release. “I would say in the insurance industry we don’t seem to be great at PR, and I think that’s something that we should all work on.

“Absolutely as insurers, we should bear a lot of culpability there for getting the messaging right.”

Counteracting the “digital equivalent of a nuclear strike” – CFC underwriter on Lloyd’s cyber mandate

Newman’s comments came during a Q&A session at the MGA’s US broker event and followed a presentation from CFC corporate cyber senior underwriter Beth Granger in which 100s of attendees heard that the changes were not a kneejerk reaction or bid to close walls entirely on nation state-backed cyberattacks, rather a response to ongoing incidents dating back as far as 2014 through which Russia has targeted Ukrainian infrastructure. Such attacks have highlighted what might be possible should cyberwarfare be used to cripple countries.

In a bid to tackle the spectre of systemic cyber risk, the clauses built by lawyers for Lloyd’s participants and the ensuing mandate was a bid to ensure carriers “excluded losses by nation state actors that were so catastrophic in nature that they destroyed a nation’s ability to function”, Granger said.

In layman’s terms, Granger said, this would have to be the “digital equivalent of a nuclear strike”, an event so vast that it would not be covered in any other standard insurance policy.

The cyber underwriter took aim at the “dozens of negative headlines” that stemmed from the changes.

“Be very clear, cyber insurers will continue to cover nation state attacks as they have been doing so for decades,” Granger said.  “It’s important to clarify that this is not a new exclusion – we are simply altering the language and upgrading it and bringing it into the modern world.

“It really is such a shame to see a change in our market that is fundamentally positive for policyholders be portrayed negatively due to essentially it being misrepresented in the press and there being a load of confusion in our market.”

Cyber remains “a priority area” for Lloyd’s following mandate, corporation says

Lloyd’s declined to comment explicitly on what was said around communication at the CFC event; however, a Lloyd’s spokesperson said that cyber “remains a priority area for Lloyd’s and we will continue to take a pragmatic and innovative approach to supporting the growth of cyber at Lloyd’s.”

“The advisory guidance provided in August 2022 ensures we manage risk responsibly on behalf of customers – including potentially systemic risks – while approaching this complex field with the expertise and diligence it requires,” the spokesperson said. “Our response ensures we maintain an adequately capitalised market for manageable events, while providing clarity for customers on emerging political risks.”

The spokesperson said that rather than applying a “one size fits all” approach, the updated guidance is intended to encourage its managing agents to “recognise and apply due diligence to the specific complexities around state-sponsored cyberattacks, which come with potentially systemic risks for customers and our market.”

The spokesperson reaffirmed Lloyd’s commitment to the changes, and said that the corporation “did not take this decision lightly”.

“It is not a blanket exclusion but a segregation of risks in a fast maturing area of insurance,” the spokesperson said. “There are a number of teams of underwriters working on developing products in the Lloyd’s Lab to satiate the demand for this cover while managing the risk with appropriate capital and pricing to reflect volatility.”

No longer the new kid on the block of insurance offerings, cyber has been enjoying a sustained period in the sun, with every day bringing new reports and market briefings emphasising the critical role cyber insurance has to play in maintaining the stability of the industry and society alike.

Among the swathe of market developments announced recently came the news of specialist insurer Brit’s decision to expand its cyber consortium, Brit Cyber Attack Plus (BCAP) – a cyber product designed to protect insureds from the impact of physical damage arising from cyberattacks. Speaking with Insurance Business, Adam Taylor (pictured), class underwriter for cyber at Brit, noted that BCAP has been in existence since 2015 and grew to a gross written premium of $100 million (approx. £79 million) in 2022.

Taylor, who joined Brit in 2015 and whose role has a specific focus on the insurer’s large business cyber portfolio and the BCAP consortium, noted that Brit sees it as its role to continually lead and innovate in the cyber insurance space.

“We have seen increasing demand for larger limits to cater for the emerging cyber threats in both the tangible and intangible space,” he said. “The move to increase the consortium’s limits was designed to support our clients as they move through the current heightened threat landscape while continuing to offer best-in-class physical and non-physical damage cover.”

Getting the timing right for cyber innovations

The expansion of Brit’s cyber consortium is especially well-timed given the upheaval felt across the global markets in recent years. The past few years have given way to a heightened threat environment, Taylor said, which is related primarily to the rising malware and ransomware threats affecting companies globally.

“This is playing out across multiple industry verticals, but we have recently seen a trend of increasing threat activity against heavy industrial companies, particularly in the manufacturing and utilities space,” he said. “This heightened threat activity has led to an increased number of attacks creating both physical and non-physical losses for companies, with the potential insurable loss reaching catastrophic levels given the severity of such attacks.

“This is now playing out in reality, with the frequency of property damage events triggered by a malicious cyberattack continuing to rise. The ever-increasing interconnectivity of devices, the reliance on automation and the interdependent nature of information and operational technology is opening up exposures for companies that were previously benign.”

While the benefits of increasing technology deployment are well known, he said, the potential attack surface created needs to be recognised by companies and alternative risk mitigation strategies need to be implemented. BCAP is designed to offer coverage for clients across both the physical and non-physical, creating an affirmative product designed to respond to any form of malicious cyberattack whether that leads to tangible or intangible loss. And taken in combination with Brit’s claims expertise, clients are strongly positioned to respond to even the most catastrophic of cyber events.

The response of the market to BCAP

Taylor noted that the response of the market to Brit’s developments has been great to see, with the insurer receiving “fantastic feedback” from all its key broking and distribution partners. Brokers continue to strive towards innovative solutions for their clients, he said, and they’re looking for solutions which cater for the ever-evolving threat landscape and offer meaningful coverage and limit scope.

As for what’s next, he said: “As we see the coverage scope within more traditional lines of insurance reduce relating to cyber, this will present further opportunities for innovation within the cyber insurance market. This combined with emerging threats and loss activity, will provide further opportunities to assess enhancements to our BCAP product offerings to provide the most meaningful solution to our clients.”

There is a pressing need for continuous innovation when it comes to the cyber insurance market, not least considering the fast-evolving nature of cyber incidents. From Taylor’s perspective, it is a “massively unspoken” aspect of the insurance market that industry players have always acted as pioneers when it comes to innovative risk transfer solutions.

“And given the fluid nature of cyber risk,” he said, “our position as cyber insurers is more important now than ever before to help our insureds respond and recover from cyber incidents.”

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The following article is written by Liz Foster, non-executive director of the CII’s professional broking community.

Have you noticed the increased profile of young insurance professionals across the sector? Those involved in underwriting, broking and claims handling are making their presence and opinions felt,  which can only be a great thing for insurance and for the long-standing issue of finding and retaining talent.

For over 10 years the CII has been encouraging firms within the sector to nominate young professionals to join the annual New Gen programme and this initiative has most definitely been a successful one. The early days of making calls to firms to encourage them to take up places are long gone, and applications exceed places. Being in the room on the launch day for the current New Gen groups (one each for underwriting, broking and claims) there was a palpable buzz; the young professionals were very focused and full of ideas for their respective group’s research paper; they had questions to ask of the more experienced in the room, and they were keen to express how much value they placed on the opportunity presented to them.

BIBA 2023 included a Young Broker Day and with the BIBA conference exceeding 9,000 delegates for the first time ever, the young professionals were out in force. Whether taking to the stage, visiting the stands, attending plenary  and breakout sessions, or networking in general, they were an obvious and vibrant presence. Hopefully this was noticed by the group of visiting school students.

The WCI and iWin, iCAN and the local insurance institutes and professional communities and societies benefit the development of young professionals across the country, as well as benefitting from the contributions made by this eager, knowledgeable, and energetic generation.

These insurance sector newbies are, of course, skilful in their use of social media; they have embraced remote learning and in the early months of COVID, were using CII webinars to extend their knowledge both of technical subjects and the softer skills. Online communication is second nature to them, but given their in-person presence – whenever the opportunity arises – they clearly have the appetite for networking too.

So, how to build on all of this and solve the talent acquisition and retention dilemma?

Organisations that have encouraged their young professionals to get out there and embrace opportunities are to be applauded, and are surely setting an example to those that don’t see value  outside of being behind a desk and attacking the keyboard. Is the recent headline “How to tackle the talent question in ‘old’ and ‘boring’ insurance sector” a result of the latter approach? 

Apprenticeships and graduate schemes are available  to those interested in a career in insurance, as has been the case for many years. However, interest must be sparked at a younger age in order to bring attention to these opportunities.

Could the energy, enthusiasm, and positive experience of  young professionals be communicated to schools, colleges and universities through a concerted effort that  brings together insurers, brokers, loss adjusters, the CII, BIBA, the WCI and other insurance related groups?

Ask the young professionals and they will sort it!