The Voice of Insurance

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/

Ep164 Andrew Horton QBE: An injection of pace

Today’s guest is Andrew Horton Group CEO of QBE insurance.His job is to run a global insurer and reinsurer that writes over $20bn in gross premium that originates from almost every market in the world.The business has just posted a very solid set of results and at the same time issued guidance for this good run to continue in 2023.Andrew has been in post for around 18 months and in this podcast it becomes clear that he has had enough time in charge to start to execute some of his own vision. It’s not wholesale change, but it is quietly radical. QBE has been built and integrated by his predecessors over the last 20 years, so the job today is not about filling in gaps with acquisitions. The group is already global and hugely diversified.Today’s job is about optimising the business’s global processes, product and people to create a consistently profitable, and innovative firm that can continue to grow organically. This is clearly easier said than done, particularly in a business run as three divisions and present in almost every time zone on the planet. And that is the core of the interview today. Andrew is a very thoughtful and very accessible leader. His ideas on how to make a large global business more cohesive, coherent and consistent while at the same time being fast-paced, nimble and efficient are extremely valuable. He is trying to bring a small enterprise mindset to a huge global insurance group and that is a radical goal to try and pursue.From today’s talk I wouldn’t bet against him. I can highly recommend a close listen. LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Ep163 Richard Clapham & Luis Muñoz-Rojas of DUAL Group: Get the ham, not just the bone

Welcome to a very special episode because today’s guests are MGA royalty. Luis Muñoz-Rojas (pictured left) is the founder and Richard Clapham (right) is the CEO of the global MGA DUAL Group, which is part of the Howden Group.DUAL is now a business that writes more than $3bn in premium and employs 1,300 people in 19 countries.And the firm is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Luis and I have a bit of history – in the 1990s we both worked for the biggest broker in Spain, Gil y Carvajal. Aon took over Gil y Carvajal in 1998. For me that was the cue to change career and go off and become a journalist, but for Luis it fired the starting pistol on an incredible entrepreneurial journey with a friendly London wholesale broker called David Howden. I’ll let Luis tell the full story later on. But I don’t want you to think that this is a backward-looking podcast, celebrating the achievements of the past quarter century.There’s a bit of the origin story, because it’s a remarkable one. But this is just as much about the here and now of the reality of today’s market and the direction that DUAL and the MGA sector will head in in the next 25 years. Nothing is off the agenda.25 years ago MGAs were absolutely not in fashion. But today we seem to be on the third or fourth wave of a revolution in how commercial insurance is underwritten and distributed where MGAs always seem to be at the cutting edge.Who better to be our guides than today’s guests? They have built a global insurance underwriting and distribution machine that can bring geographical and product diversification to even some of the largest carriers, and from the tone of this talk, it feels like they have only just got started.You be the judge, but because I’ve known one of the subjects so long I also think it allows us to have a much more open, candid and fun conversation that we might otherwise have had.NOTES: Luis mentions the DGS. The DGS is the Dirección General de Seguros, the Spanish insurance regulator.LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Ep162 Scott Egan CEO SiriusPoint: Re-establishing credibility in the marketplace

Sometimes CEOs can be a little evasive. Of course they’re nowhere near as evasive as politicians, but, particularly if they are the CEO of a public company, they do have to be quite careful what they say to journalists.That can make interviews with them a little unengaging. All this makes today’s guest a real breath of fresh air. SiriusPoint’s various twists and turns in strategy and changes in senior management have made it a little hard to follow in the last couple of years.Was the firm a hedge fund reinsurer or was it a hybrid venture capital-style incubator and investor? Or was it actually a fairly traditional international specialist insurance and reinsurance business? In the past it may well have been all three of these and more, all at once.But Scott Egan is here to do something about all of that. Relatively quickly into the role he has acted decisively and communicated very clearly what his plan for the business is going forward.This podcast lays everything out really concisely. Scott let me ask all the questions I wanted to ask and answered them all very clearly where he could. So if you’ve been scratching your head about what Siriuspoint’s strategy has been all about, allow 35 minutes of Scott’s straight talking to make things clear. Scott’s incredibly direct and engaging and his communication couldn’t be more plain. It’s disarming and refreshing and I highly recommend a listen.LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Ep161 Greg Hendrick CEO Vantage Risk: There’s no such thing as The Vantage Way

Today’s guest is returning to the show after a 2-year gap. For most that would be a reasonable time difference between appearances on the podcast, but today it’s different because Greg Hendrick is the CEO of the start-up Vantage Risk and two years in the lifetime of a company that is less than 3 years old is practically a lifetime. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do and this episode sets everything straight at a really fine pace. Greg has always been confident and accomplished in his encounters with the media and this meeting is another vintage performance. Nothing is off menu and we rattle through where the firm feels it is performing against its original business plan and the big strategic calls Vantage has made, particularly on property cat. We examine some of the early fruits of the group’s big bet on the application of data analysis and technology in core underwriting decisions and also look at how the hard reinsurance market is affecting the insurance market and Vantage’s own development plans.We also discuss possible medium-term avenues for the firm’s original investors and the Group’s attitude to M&A.Vantage is likely to push through a billion dollars of gross written premium in 2023 and is starting to get up onto the plane as Greg would describe it.Greg himself is always on the plane and this is an energising and fun encounter that will get you right inside the mind of one our sector’s biggest thinkers and most dynamic actors. I highly recommend a listen. LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/
 

Special Ep Andrew Bart, CEO International Operations Crawford & Company: The Future of Loss Adjusting

One of life’s great paradoxes is that when something is so core to everything that you do that you can’t imagine being able to do your job without it, that’s often when take it a little for granted. And I think that’s what the insurance industry is guilty of when we think of loss adjusters and other trusted third party claims professionals. That’s why I’m delighted I was able to have such an in-depth and probing conversation with Andrew Bart CEO of International Operations at Crawford and Company. It’s clear after our meeting that while many in the sector will regard Crawford’s services as a given and a constant, Crawford itself does anything but. This may be a market-leading business with a very strong position globally, but it is constantly challenging, reinventing and disrupting itself as the world develops. For instance, how does an adjuster scale up and scale down flexibly in the face of ever more frequent, severe and global loss events? And what about when these events occur simultaneously at different points in the world? How does an adjuster rise to the challenge of new developments like parametric insurance, the huge increase in intangible assets and social phenomena like the gig economy? And how about resurgent inflation and the mega-trend of ESG and the transition to net zero which is going to change fundamentally how insurers and their customers deal with all claims in the future? Well, the answers are all here. And they involve a huge amount of technology and data and an enormous amount of collaboration as well as a subtle shift in focus from hindsight and learning historical lessons to foresight, prediction, prevention and prescriptive actions.You may not have thought of all these things, but I can assure that Andrew has very deeply. The result is a fascinating podcast that will give you a clear idea of what the third part claims professionals of the future are going to look like. And I think that after this you won’t take loss adjusters for granted ever again.

Ep160 Andrew Robinson CEO Skyward Specialty Insurance: Still navigating by the North Star

Today’s guest is returning after a very busy couple of years during which he has re-shaped, re-branded and now floated the business he runs on the public markets. Andrew Robinson came to this meeting fresh from presenting Skyward Specialty Insurance Group’s maiden results. Perhaps understandably Andrew was buzzing with energy, insight and good humour in this encounter and our conversation is at times breathless and interspersed by his characteristic directness. Here we examine in a lot of detail the prospects for the US E&S markets in the light of the major re-set at the last Reinsurance renewal as well as Skyward’s ongoing strategies and growth plans within them. We also set the insurance world to rights. I certainly enjoyed our talk.This podcast will run by very quickly and will give you a very good feel for where Skyward and the wider market is heading in 2023 and beyond.LINKSWe thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Special Ep John Neal CEO Lloyd’s: I’d love to be underwriting today

Today’s guest is John Neal CEO of Lloyd’s, back on the show after an absence of more than two years. Back then he described an ambition to put the Lloyd’s halo back in place. Well, two full years of underwriting profitability later and the market has regained a huge amount of its cachet and prestige and begun to reap the rewards of its painful remediation process.But this podcast is as far as you can imagine from a triumphal romp through the market’s considerable achievements of the past couple of years.It’s about the here and now of this still-transitioning market and the major opportunities it is throwing up for Lloyd’s underwriters.It’s also about a culture change on one Lime Street.Engaging positively with and backing smart businesses with good ideas and being more principles rather than rules-based, while at the same time remaining hyper-vigilant on any backsliding on hard-won improvements in rate and terms and conditions. And it’s about delivery and leadership – delivery on tech reform and leadership on the big calls around systemic risk and on the massive challenges and opportunities being thrown up by ESG and the transition to net zero We even make time to talk about the culture and work environment of the London Market in the post pandemic world. I’ll stop myself there because there’s a danger that these intros become just a shopping list of the topics we address. Take my word for it, we talk about literally everything on the global insurance and reinsurance agenda today and nothing is off limits.But ultimately this is a great opportunity to spend 45 minutes in a very relaxed and intimate conversation with a leader of a very important segment of our global insurance ecosystem. As you’d expect, he’s in great form and it’s clear to me that he is growing in confidence. The confidence and conviction was there before, but there’s nothing like good results to add positive reinforcement. Here is someone who is getting through to the market and clearly feels he is going to be able to carry the market along with him to face the challenges of the future – and do so from a position of relative strength. We haven’t had a Lloyd’s CEO in this sort of position for at least a couple of decades – and that’s why what he says here has more meaning than in the past. The fact is that because of the credible delivery of the objectives of the first phase of his tenure, John’s thoughts about what comes next carry more weight than before.And that’s why I highly recommend a detailed listen.