The Voice of Insurance

Ep196 Melissa Collett CEO Insurtech UK: A sector in its own right

Today’s guest is a big personality in the UK insurance sector who has been working in and around our industry for almost 25 years. After a working as an insurance lawyer, an ombudsman, a consultant and a Director at the Chartered Insurance Institute Melissa Collett brings a really well-rounded level of experience to her current role as the inaugural CEO of Insurtech trade body Insurtech UK.In this podcast we talk about why Insurtech UK has been set up and what items are top of its agenda. There’s a huge amount going on. The UK’s Insurtech scene is the largest outside of the US and the body already has a hundred active members. There’s a lot to lobby on, from the speed and effectiveness of regulation to the many unfair quirks of the UK tax regime. There are also Government grants to help distribute and international agreements to be struck.Melissa is incredibly busy. But Insurtech UK is a very broad church and is trying to be quite a lot more than a lobby group representing members’ interests. It wants to be a club or an ecosystem that convenes Insurtechs, investors, service providers and incumbents to further the goal of fostering innovation in UK insurance via technology. Melissa is incredibly enthusiastic and bursting with energy and drive. I really enjoyed my time with her and I think you will too. After half an hour you’ll certainly be in no doubt as to what Insurtech UK is all about and how you can get involved.LINKS:https://insurtechuk.org/We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/We also thank our audio advertiser, Aventum GroupPlease contact them on: voi@aventumgroup.com

Ep195 Adrian Cox: Beating Inertia

As CEO of Beazley, Adrian Cox runs one of our sector’s fastest-moving and best-rated insurance businesses and so any time I can get him behind a microphone and talking to me is time well spent.In the past year this firm has pioneered the placement of cyber cat bonds, undergone a major restructure with the formation of a US excess and surplus lines insurance company and made the most of the new opportunities being thrown up in North American property by more than doubling its underwriting volume there.In this podcast we talk about all these and an awful lot more. Adrian is excellent company and exudes the kind of confidence that senior brokers complain that they sometimes find lacking in the modern insurance and reinsurance market. In our talk we get a clear sense of Adrian’s insurance philosophyHere is someone with a clear way of understanding the insurance world and the confidence and authority to go and execute when he feels the time is right. Given the rare series of opportunities the global market is presenting brave and decisive underwriters in 2024, I can highly recommend a detailed listen.NOTESAdrian mentions Lloyd’s and now Beazley itself as being ‘A-fifteen’ in size. This a reference to AM Best’s fifteen-point Financial Size Category scale. XV is the largest size, denoting Capital and Surplus of $2bn or more.LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/We also thank our audio advertiser, Aventum GroupPlease contact them on: voi@aventumgroup.com

Ep194 1.1.2024 Renewals: It Feels Like The Time is Now

Today’s podcast carries on where we left off after the State of the Reinsurance Market Special Episode which was released after the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous of 2023.At Monte Carlo what everyone said they wanted after the great re-set of a year ago was orderliness. Buyers and sellers alike wanted a period of rational calm after the storm which could be used to clear some of the debris and to rebuild strained relationships. And calm and rationality is what everybody got. Reinsurance capital, profitability and crucially, confidence all recovered and we ended with a largely flat renewal overall. The aim of this podcast is to see how this bodes for the year ahead and the longer-term strategic direction of the reinsurance market for those who work with it, buy from it and invest in it.The big question is how long can the good times last for the newly-re-set and now highly profitable reinsurance world? Have reinsurers hauled themselves up to a peak, only to start sliding quickly down the other rockface, or have they scaled up the side of a ridge onto a new highly profitable plateau upon which they will stay encamped for as long as they can?To help me answer this, I have been able to speak to representatives from three of the top four reinsurance broking groups. David Priebe, Chairman of Guy Carpenter (pictured left) and James Vickers Chairman of Gallagher Re International (middle) are two of the longest-serving senior executives in the business and David Flandro Head of Industry Analysis and Strategic Advisory at Howden Tiger (right) is one of the sector’s longest-tenured analysts. They have all been providing insightful commentary on the industry for longer than I have been an insurance journalist and I have been interviewing them all for almost 20 years.I really had fun with these three interviews and the subsequent time spent blending this highly accomplished and eloquent trio’s thoughts together. It was a bit more work that usual, but I think it’s good value-added exercise and I hope you find it as useful as I did.NOTESHere are links to the reports and commentary I mentioned:Howden Tiger - A New Worldhttps://www.howdengroupholdings.com/sites/g/files/mwfley1156/files/2023-12/a-new-world-2024.pdfGallagher Re – What a Difference a Year Makeshttps://www.ajg.com/gallagherre/news-and-insights/2024/january/what-a-difference-a-year-makes/Guy Carpenter - January 1, 2024 Reinsurance Renewals Reflect a Motivated Market with Increasing Capitalhttps://www.guycarp.com/company/news-and-events/news/press-releases/january-2024-renewals.htmlDavid Flandro mentioned Charlie Goldie, CUO of MS Re. He appeared prominently in both the 2022 and 2023 Monte Carlo Special Episodes – check the 2023 one out here:https://thevoiceofinsurance.podbean.com/e/special-ep-the-state-of-reinsurance-2023/ABBREVIATIONSWACC = Weighted Average Cost of CapitalTIV = Total Insured Values
SPONSORWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Special Ep: Navigating the DDM switch-off with Paul Templar CEO of VIPR

Today’s guest is Paul Templar, CEO of insurance technology solutions specialist VIPR.VIPR started out in the London Market 14 years ago and it’s best known for providing software solutions to the endless administrative problem of the ingestion and checking of data in the Delegated Authority (DA) space.And this goes right to the heart of what Paul and I are going to talk about today. This year is highly significant for carriers writing Delegated Authority business in the London Market because DDM – the system that they use to process this business into Lloyd’s - is going to be retired in September. LIMOSS - the not-for-profit body in charge of sourcing and operating common services for the London Market has confirmed the change.So, in just under nine months, a method of underwriting that produces around 40% of London Market premiums is going to take a big step into the unknown. There is an awful lot at stake and a huge amount of work has to be done between now and the autumn.And that’s why I am really grateful to have Paul as an expert guide through this potential maze. Paul is a great ambassador for his company and the wider market and I can’t think of a better-qualified advisor as the market transitions from a centralised service model to one that is likely to be driven by data standards.NOTES: DDM is an abbreviation of Delegated Data Manager. It traces its origins back to the DA Sats system.LIMOSS stands for London Insurance Market Operations & Strategic SourcingLINKS:https://viprsolutions.com/

Ep193 Julie Wood CEO QBE North America: Acting on the best available information

Today’s guest has just become the CEO of a business writing over $7 billion in gross premium a year, which if it were a standalone company, would make her one of the most powerful female CEOs in the global insurance industry.This is a major business unit that has been through a substantial amount of change and re-focusing of strategy in recent times, but which is now well placed to resume profitable growth as favourable market conditions continue. The business is QBE North America and the executive is Julie Wood.Julie has an insurance career in its third decade with senior management experience in broking as well as underwriting. This gives her a well-rounded perspective on all facets of our industry and means that our discussion spans a broad spectrum of what is happening in the North American insurance market as well as everything that QBE is doing to maximise its opportunity there Julie is really engaging and down-to-earth and has a very approachable manner which helps fill this podcast full of insights and candid exchanges.So if you are looking for a detailed update on the largest insurance market in the world from an important and dynamic participant in that market, I can highly recommend a listen.We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/We also thank our audio advertiser, Aventum GroupPlease contact them on: voi@aventumgroup.com

Ep192 James Burns CFC: Classifying Cyber

We tend to take the institutions that serve our industry for granted. It almost seems that the hundreds of industry trade and standards bodies have always been there. So that’s why this episode is so interesting. Today’s guest is working on setting up the world’s first cyber loss classificatory body that from 1.1.2024 will serve the UK insurance and reinsurance industry and the wider UK society that it is supporting. We don’t do this very often so my chat with James Burns, Head of Cyber Strategy at UK-headquartered cyber and specialist MGA CFC is a unique chance to be in on the ground floor as an industry leader seeks to solve an emerging problem in the risk landscape. The cyber world and its insurers need be able to classify the severity of the systemic loss events that it is facing if they going to be able to continue to grow and fufill the needs of customers and society as a whole. But just how do you go about creating a pan-industry pan-societal body with a mission to work in the best interests of all? James’s answers to this question are fascinating. His expertise and gravitas, mixed with optimism and idealism are a highly effective and infectious combination.So if you are feeling jaded and thinking that what insurance does is sometimes a little uninspiring I can highly recommend a listen. This is an Episode to remind you that our industry is absolutely essential for solving some of the biggest problems of our age.LINKS:
The Cyber Monitoring Centre doesn't have a website yetBut James is happy to be contacted by anyone looking to get involved. Here is a link to a very well-circulated article he posted to LinkedIn. You can connect to him via his profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/solving-systemic-risk-cyber-markets-number-one-priority-james-burns%3FtrackingId=poupsOrSSTOlgB8stV6E4g%253D%253D/?trackingId=poupsOrSSTOlgB8stV6E4g%3D%3Dhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/solving-systemic-risk-cyber-markets-number-one-priority-james-burns%3FtrackingId=FADb4wFXTYaPoFKgLIEjHw%253D%253D/?trackingId=FADb4wFXTYaPoFKgLIEjHw%3D%3DWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/We also thank our audio advertiser, Aventum GroupPlease contact them on: voi@aventumgroup.com

Ep191 Simon Bird, Brit: Bumping along the top

Today’s guest is a well-known and respected senior underwriter with a career going back forty years.Simon Bird, Group Executive Underwriter and Active Underwriter of Brit Insurance’s Syndicate 2988, is someone who I’d heard of thirty years ago when I was a broker, but I only ended up meeting  him twenty-nine years later. Regular listeners will have heard his wise contributions to the last two Monte Carlo State of Insurance and Reinsurance episodes. The rushed timetable of Monte Carlo made me wish that we could have a longer and more relaxed meeting to be able have far more detailed and nuanced conversation. And here it is. This is another vintage episode with someone who has spent a generation leading carriers through markets, variously benign, indifferent, soft, hard and completely dislocated. Very few people can put today’s market and the issues of our times into the kind of context that Simon can. But of course Simon isn’t some kind of museum piece or insurance and reinsurance historian, he is a hands-on underwriting leader who is very much in touch with the market.He is also great company and his insights and thoughts on topics as far-ranging as Ai to the structure of the syndicated insurance marketplace are highly original and valuable and I can highly recommend a listen.LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/We also thank our audio advertiser, Aventum GroupPlease contact them on: voi@aventumgroup.com

Ep190 Paul Brand, Convex: Execution is everything

Today’s episode is a real treat. That’s because I’m talking to an underwriter with encyclopaedic knowledge and over thirty-five years in the insurance industry.But what makes this interview special is that I am talking to someone with huge experience but very specifically the opportunity to put all that experience into practice for a second time.Paul Brand was Chief Underwriting Officer at Catlin for almost thirty years.Just under five years ago he founded Convex Stephen Catlin, taking over the CEO role in in the summer of 2022.Convex is proof that there’s nothing like knowing what to do and how to do it to help with speed of execution. It took over 30 years to get Catlin group to a GWP of just under $6bn. As Convex approaches its 5th birthday its likely to surpass $4bn in GWP this calendar year. But listening back, this podcast is really about underwriting. It’s about how to be a good underwriter but more importantly how to build and scale an excellent underwriting business. Paul Brand is someone who has spent most of his career outside the limelight and it’s really enjoyable to witness him moving to the centre stage and making his distinctive voice heard.He’s very considered and thoughtful but at the same time full of dry humour.He’s also incredibly generous with his time and highly tolerant of me and my constant questioning. LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/We also thank our audio advertiser, Aventum GroupPlease contact them on: voi@aventumgroup.com

Ep189 Tom Hoad Howden Ventures: Professionalising Innovation

Innovation is something we all talk about but something that is notoriously hard to do in insurance. That’s hardly surprising because in our industry we prize and incentivise all the things that are the effective opposite of innovative. We reward stable and predictable when, at least at the beginning, most innovative ventures are likely to be highly volatile and unpredictable. And then we wonder why it’s so hard to bring new ideas to fruition in our sector!To be fair to ourselves, in the past few years insurance has started to invest in people who have the word innovation in their job title and whose performance is measured more on whether they can bring the products of the future to market rather than on their initial loss ratios.Tom Hoad, of is one of this select but growing band. He moved to Howden to set up Howden Ventures, which he describes as a vehicle for professionalising innovation. Here Tom is combining seed and venture funding with distribution and the ability to underwrite through the Howden Group’s DUAL underwriting platform.In this almost breathless podcast Tom is hugely energised at the prospect of having all the tools at his disposal to remove the main roadblocks in start-up insurance business’s paths. This is a lively chat with a real expert in innovation and a master of herding the cats of the market behind a common vision.It’s also an episode that I hope will give you a lot of inspiration and make you feel that the London-based insurance ecosystem is in rude good health and highly likely to be the crucible in which many of the insurance products of the future are going to be forged.NOTES:I mentioned I would link to Tom’s first podcast with The Voice of Insurance. Episode 124 is here: https://thevoiceofinsurance.podbean.com/e/ep-124-tom-hoad-innovation-is-really-about-doing-stuff/I also mentioned an episode earlier in the year with DUAL:https://thevoiceofinsurance.podbean.com/e/ep163-richard-clapham-luis-munoz-rojas-of-dual-group-get-the-ham-not-just-the-bone/Tom mentions a Julia at Airmic. Airmic is the UK’s Risk Management trade body and Julia is Julia Graham, its CEO.LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Ep188 Nick Cook BMS: Pedal Flat to the Floor

Given the nature of the people I talk to on this show, it’s fair to say that most of my guests are moving pretty fast.Well, in a fast-paced industry today’s guest someone who is moving noticeably faster than others. Nick Cook of BMS Group has trebled the size of this broking business in four years.And BMS has just completed a major refinancing deal that will enable it to go even faster.In this breathless podcast we cover the full spectrum of BMS’s strategy and examine the international specialist insurance and reinsurance intermediation landscape in extraordinary detail. It’s great stuff. To keep the momentum going BMS is going to push hard in reinsurance to create a unified global broker with a single point of contact that will be able to challenge the big three in select areas. At the same time it will push even harder in London wholesale and accelerate its acquisition strategy in specialist international retail markets, as well as re-evaluating its MGA proposition. What’s clear from this lively and good-humoured exchange is that Nick’s energy and passion for the job is wholly undiminished since we last spoke two and a half years ago If anything he just seems to be getting started.It’s a real tour de force in which we discuss all aspects of growing a global reinsurance and specialty intermediary. Nothing is off the menu and Nick’s enthusiasm is infectious, so I can highly recommend a listen.NOTES:We discussed BMS’s recently-completed equity financing deal with new investor Eurazeo and existing partners BCI and PCP, as well as the appointment of Emmanuel Clarke as Chairman. The details are here: https://www.bmsgroup.com/news/bms-announces-completion-of-eurazeo-investment-and-appointment-of-emmanuel-clarke-as-chairmanLINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/