The Voice of Insurance

Ep172 Simon Lightbody CEO Rhodian: Making a home they’ll never want to leave

Given its 50% share of global premiums, it’s probably fair enough that we spend an awful lot of our time talking about the US market, but sometimes it’s refreshing to broaden our horizons a little. So today we’re going to be looking at Australia. And luckily we’re going to be guided by a real expert and pioneer in this territory. This is someone with an enviable track record and also a very strong grounding in global wholesale insurance. Simon Lightbody has had a very successful 30-plus year career which started as a broker and then an underwriter in London, but really took off 18 years ago when he helped found Miramar, an Australian MGA backed by the growing Steadfast distribution group. Steadfast went public ten years ago and these days its MGAs write well over a billion in annual premiums. After a recent career break Simon is back with Rhodian - a brand-new MGA incubator, set up with support from Amwins. When someone of Simon’s experience and success starts something new it’s always exciting and a chance to find out what opportunity it is they have seen or what gap in the market they have spotted.So what follows is an excellent tour around Simon’s big idea and the opportunities available in the Australian and wider Asia-Pacific markets. Simon’s someone I knew back in my own broking days in the 1990s and I think some of that familiarity comes through in this really friendly and relaxed meeting. But most importantly this is an encounter with a highly successful entrepreneur who knows the MGA business from top to bottom. And because of that I think this Episode has an awful lot to offer any listener, whether they have a particular interest in the Australian market or not. NOTESAPRA is the Australian prudential regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.ASIC is the conduct regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments CommissionLINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Ep171 Alex Powell of Aegis: Realistic, but with an added dose of niceness

Aegis London is one of the most consistently top performing syndicates in the Lloyd’s market. It’s also one of the least volatile. The business has a new CEO, Alex Powell and so it was only natural that I should invite him onto the show for a catch-up. Alex has been with Aegis since the year 2000 when it was a fledgling syndicate so he knows this firm inside and out – to use his own phrase, he’s been sheep-dipped in this business’s culture.It’s clear from this meeting that we shouldn’t expect radical departures from Alex – but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t expect Aegis London to be radical. Because this is a radical business at heart. It’s found a way of putting into practice what many preach but what is enormously difficult to do – grow when you can and preserve capital when you can’t – and all the while maintaining a healthy balance that brings genuine diversification benefits. It’s also pioneered the digitisation of specialist business classes with a large degree of success, which is something many would not have predicted.In this meeting we spend a lot of time examining the market and going over the secrets of Aegis’s success. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but a bit like his predecessor David Croom-Johnson, Alex seems to be a good living example of the culture he wants to engender in his staff. He is easy-going, curious, smart and charismatic and is open and honest about his strategy and what has and hasn’t worked over the yearsHe’s not prone to hyperbole and gives a strong impression that he would be an excellent person to work for. And perhaps that is the real secret as this business looks to make the most out of what remains of this hard market. But don’t take my word for it. You should hear it for yourself.LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Special Ep David Cabral: Thinking beyond ESG

Today’s guest is one of the best qualified senior insurance and reinsurance executives I have ever had on the show. That’s because in a forty-plus year career David Cabral has been in both claims and underwriting, crossed the divide between Life and Health and P&C and worked at brokers, both in good times and in very bad times.He’s also been in charge of a company in run-off and he has overseen debt and equity capital raisings on the private and public markets. He’s built and run operations, done M&A and has worked at the biggest incumbents as well as the smallest start-ups.His resumé includes amongst many other names: Starr Excess, Marsh, Endurance, Frank B Hall, Lloyd’s and latterly sustainable finance-focused start-up Parhelion Capital.He’s also been a longstanding advocate of business and cultural change and the adoption and application of the best technology in our sector. I don’t know anyone with a more 360-degree understanding of our business than David.That long preamble is important because it means that what he has to say about the fundamental issue of ESG should carry an enormous amount of weight. This is someone with the right combination of intellectual heft and real-world experience to see exactly where we are going wrong as an industry on the biggest challenge our sector has ever faced. To his brains and experience I should also add a fearlessness in telling things exactly as he sees them. If ESG represents the greatest re-set of risk since the industrial revolution, here is someone who has thought things right though to their logical conclusions and wants to help build an insurance sector that is fit for purpose in a world of ever more dynamic risk and exponentially-growing real-time data.David is an outspoken communicator and a great advocate for our sector and the transformative power it wields across the global economy and wider society. I have rarely interviewed someone able to express themselves so freely and this is what I think makes this Episode something a little specialNOTESAbbreviations. ESG stands for Environmental Social and GovernanceIoT is Internet of Things. A Julian is referred to. That is Julian Richardson, CEO of Parhelion Underwriting.LINKSWe thank our Special Episode sponsor Stephens Rickard:https://www.stephensrickard.com/David Cabral: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-v-cabral/

Ep170 Simon Wilson, President Markel International: The market will dictate

One of the only real qualifications for my job is to be good at getting on with all sorts of people – I really couldn’t do it if I was too cranky or too shy. In contrast some of the people I talk to aren’t natural communicators but as their careers have progressed and they had to take on more public-facing duties within their organisations, they have been forced to learn that particular skill. Happily today’s guest is an insurance professional who is a natural born communicator. Because of this I think this Episode contains way more content per minute than the average. Simon Wilson is President of Markel International and is responsible for a business that operates in 13 countries and counting on three continents. It’s also incredibly diverse, spanning micro retail all the way to the biggest ticket London Market wholesale business placed at Lloyd’s.Simon’s comfortable talking on an extremely broad range of topics – from specialty  classes and the effects of the hard reinsurance market and the discipline of writing net lines in dislocated markets, to casualty reserving and comparative strategies for global business building and the development of highly specialised industry vertical niches. We even dissect ESG and the opportunities that vast swathes of green investment are throwing up for the industry.It’s a breathless encounter that rattles through an enormous amount at a very fast pace. Simon’s clearly enjoying his role and his intelligence, insights, passion and excellent humour shine through every minute of this episode.Listen on, I think you’ll be impressed and you’ll learn an awful lot.LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Ep169 Keith Meier of Assurant: Listen to your customers

The more time we spend in this industry the more we learn that there is very little that is genuinely new. Take the insurtech community’s recent discovery of the idea of embedded insurance. To read some of the posts about this on social media, this is an idea forged in the white heat of technology and so recently-minted that it’s still hot to the touch. Well, today’s guest puts that idea into considerable perspective. Keith Meier is Chief Operating Officer of US-headquartered Fortune 500 insurer Assurant and has spent a career of over twenty-five years working in the business to business to consumer insurance space – or B2B2C as it is more often called.Operating in 21 countries, there is almost nothing that Keith and Assurant don’t know about embedding insurance right into the heart of the product offerings of the world’s largest consumer brands. So this is a very mature sector and what follows is a masterclass on how to succeed in this specialist niche of the industry. Keith’s absolute customer-centricity will be a revelation to many listeners from the wholesale world.What’s clear is this is a long-term business that needs the right cultural approach to work for all parties. You have to offer real value or you just won’t last. But when it works, it really works. The insurer grows profitable business and service revenues, consumers get great service and added-value products and the consumer giants get new revenue streams and more loyal and better-quality customers.What’s also clear is that technology is enabling this segment to be so much more responsive than it has been in the past, with new products configurable at scale in a matter of days and weeks at negligible cost. That’s clearly the part that’s exciting the insurtechs – and the growth prospects are indeed considerable.But here is one embedded incumbent who is way ahead and is going to be very, very hard to disrupt!LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Ep168 Sean McGovern, Chair of the LMG: On the verge of achieving real change

Today’s guest is back on the show in a role he has only recently accepted – that of Chair of the London Market Group (the LMG). Sean McGovern is probably the market’s best qualified incumbent for this job, and in this podcast I found Sean completely on top of his brief; Pushing the UK political establishment hard for changes to the UK regulatory regime to make it more accountable and conscious of the market’s global competitive position; banging the drum to attract talent and develop market-wide initiatives that benefit all participants, big and small; and helping to create consensus around and drive adoption of the London Market’s ongoing technological reform processes. We talked about everything – there were no taboos – not even Brexit! In my dealings with him over the years, Sean has always been incredibly direct and often surprisingly candid and this encounter is no different. This episode will get you up to speed on what’s topping the LMG’s agenda and what Sean, and the rest of the team are doing on the London Market and its clients’ behalf to make sure what everyone needs to happen, happens. I also think it’ll make any London Market practitioners listening feel particularly lucky to be so well represented. Well, see what you think.NOTESWe refer to a Caroline. That of course is Caroline Wagstaff, CEO of the LMG, last on the show in Episode 141.LINKSWe mentioned the London Insurance Life website:https://londoninsurancelife-lmg.com/I can highly recommend everyone forwards this to any young person looking for a job, whether they are specifically interested in a career in the London Market or not. We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Special Ep: James York of Peaccce - from inertia to outright hostility

Today’s episode is a real treat because we are doing something that we rarely do. That something is to undertake a genuine appraisal of what has gone well and what hasn’t in a business in the time since we last spoke. I often interview tech-focused entrepreneurs who have visions of how to transform the industry for the better. But what I almost never do is get them back on the show to examine in detail how their ideas fared when the came in direct contact with the often harsh reality of the industry as it is today. But I suppose James York, the founder and CEO of Peaccce is not like other insurance entrepreneurs. In fact I have never met anyone quite like James. Two years ago he was on the show espousing insurance reviews as a way of achieving a new type of consumer insurance platform sitting somewhere between search and price comparison. Now he’s back on the show to report in graphic detail how that experience went – and how he has adapted to the realities of the marketplace.It’s honest, sometimes brutally so. In tech everyone is always going on and on about how it’s so important to nurture the ability to fail fast and iterate – except almost no-one will admit to having done so. Just because your idea is right it doesn’t mean that it will be accepted with open arms.But James a robust enough character to take setbacks on the chin and re-focus. His latest idea on how to advance his vision is spectacularly simple and incredibly useful and his enthusiasm and energy is completely undiminished.This is an incredibly valuable conversation because it is borne form hard experience. It’s also one that anyone interacting with the Insurtech world will easily relate to and learn a huge amount from. LINKSCAR QR: https://peaccce.com/carqrPeacce: https://peaccce.com/

Ep167 Steve McGill: A billion in revenues through organic growth

Todays’ guest is a broking pioneer with a very clear vision and an even clearer plan for how to achieve that vision. Steve McGill founded McGill and Partners almost four years ago and first appeared on this podcast about a year into the firm’s existence. It’s been over two years since he came on the show. Two years is a long time for anyone, but for a start-up business it is practically a lifetime. In two years the Steve on this podcast hasn’t change a bit, but the global business he runs has really taken shape. With revenues exceeding $170mn and the core build-out of the firm’s global infrastructure largely complete, the focus is unrelentingly on continuing and trying to accelerate growth from here on.Steve remains hugely focused and the strategy and vision remains the same from day one – acquire talent and customers, not businesses, and stay narrow and deep in specialisms while avoiding head on competition with the biggest global generalist brokers.In this podcast we take stock of how far the firm has come in a short period of time, against a backdrop of broking upheaval caused by attempted M&A, a global pandemic and major armed conflict. We also get insights into the transformed reinsurance landscape, the revolution in insurance distribution through the hybrid carrier and MGA incubator phenomenon and the logical consequences of increased digitisation on the market from one of the finest strategic broking minds in the business.LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Ep166 James Boyce CEO Global Specialties Guy Carpenter: Retro pushing peak affordability

My career in insurance was spent largely as a generalist and that’s why when I meet a specialist I really enjoy it. There is something amazing about the level of nuance and detail that specialists can reach into that adds enormous value to the rest of us if we have time to get all of the details out of them. Today’s specialist is James Boyce CEO of Global Specialties at Guy Carpenter which means we are in for a treat because we are getting the best of both worlds.That’s because Guy Carpenter can share as broad a global view of the market as is possible but at the same time we get an incredibly deep level of specialist knowledge and understanding. In today’s show we are focusing primarily on the retro markets. James and his colleagues have been in the thick of it and in this Episode we really clear the decks about where the market has landed after one of the most turbulent renewal periods in its history.I think that the picture that emerges is quite positive. The market has made rational changes that will set it in good stead for seasons to come, but although the product has fundamentally repriced right to the top of its useful range, the market is clearing and is a lot more predictable than it was at the end of last year. The underlying health of the market has also been buoyed by the news that despite Hurricane Ian and the Ukraine conflict, the retro market managed to post a profit in 2022 and has moved decisively back up the value chain, well away from attritional exposures. James is excellent company – well, he is a broker after all – and after this episode you’ll be right up to speed with the mood of underwriters and their capital backers in this the highest, but often least understood end of the capital stack that underpins the global insurance industry. LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Ep165 Bob Kimmel & David Carson of K2: Now hunting all kinds of game

I really enjoy talking to people who are full of energy because some of that energy rubs off. Bob Kimmel CEO of K2 Insurance Services’ return to the podcast with K2 CAT’s Head Underwriter David Carson is a case in point. Here we find Bob buzzing with the possibilities that significant new investment from Warburg Pincus can afford the firm as it looks to accelerate growth and double in size to a $3bn GWP platform over the next 4 to 5 years. David’s also full of energy after the decisive rupture in the reinsurance market at 1.1 has produced what he describes as the best market in property cat since 1993. This is an incredibly candid and fluid discussion. Bob is very open about the potential squeeze that may be coming for MGA and other intermediaries’ margins as reinsurers and carriers push back hard on commissions and trim underperforming agencies from their portfolios.But he’s also really happy about having fresh dry powder to make the most of cooling valuations and special situations as interest rates rise and debt-heavy buyers are priced out of out of a hitherto frothy M&A market.Bob also explains why being a hybrid carrier with a balance sheet was great when K2 was smaller and needed to incubate underwriting talent, but became a distraction to the core business as the group scaled to the $1.5bn of gross premiums it now underwrites on behalf of the market. This is fascinating under-the-hood stuff and no aspect of the market and K2’s plans is left uncovered. It’s also delivered at an almost breathless pace and with great rapport between the Bob, David and this interviewer.If you want to get well ahead of emerging trends in the fast-developing MGA world, this is absolutely essential listening.NOTES:Bob speaks first. The abbreviation LOC snuck in. It means a Letter of Credit. LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/