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Insurance is a maze. Don’t get lost. Mark Geoghegan asks directions from all the top people in the Global Insurance and Reinsurance Industry
Episodes
Friday Apr 09, 2021
Friday Apr 09, 2021
Today’s guest is an amazing person with an incredibly interesting story to tell.
After 10 years in the British military and distinguished service in Iraq, Forbes McKenzie was determined to apply the skills he had learned in military intelligence in the civilian world.
A decade and lots of hard work later, McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS) is bringing real-time intelligence to bear on natural disasters and manmade events alike and has won a major tender to provide its services across the Lloyd’s market.
As Forbes describes in the podcast, users of the firm’s GEO platform are improving reserving estimates by 93%, cutting claims overheads by 40% and this is making an average 2 percentage point improvement to loss ratios.
Here we talk about the art of blending multiple data sources to provide insights that insurers can use instantly.
But because this is such a cutting-edge business we get to look into the future and a world of really smart, really focused artificial intelligence, instant straight through claims payments, hugely expanded parametric insurance and the future of exposure management.
Forbes is excellent company and has a great way of turning complicated ideas into simple and understandable insights that you can use to improve the way you go about your business today.
LINKS:
Mckenzie Intelligence Services (MIS)
https://www.mckenzieintelligence.co.uk/
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mckenzie-intelligence-services-ltd
Twitter: @McKenzie_Int
Forbes McKenzie LinkedIn:
(Connect and ask him how he came to be mentioned in dispatches in Iraq)
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/forbes-mckenzie-904a4842
Twitter: @forbesmckenzie
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
Today’s guest is an example to those of us who feel we ought to change with the times but might not feel we are fully equipped to do so.
Matthew Wilson is the Group CEO of Brit and is a Lloyd’s man through and through.
He has spent most of his career going about his business in the same analogue way that most of us are familiar with.
Yet he has embarked on a transformation programme at Brit to overhaul everything it does in readiness for a digital future.
A three-year migration of systems to the cloud is just coming to fruition and last year’s pioneering launch of Ki, Brit’s algorithmically driven follow syndicate, is still being digested by the market.
In this podcast we focus on how Brit and Lloyd’s can embrace a digital future and reap expense savings, productivity gains and huge business benefits if it can turn its analogue platform into a digital one.
Whilst the technical challenges are never to be underestimated, this discussion shows that the greatest hurdles are far more likely to be self-imposed cultural ones.
From this encounter it becomes clear that only until we can learn to accept change can we innovate successfully.
I would venture that if Matthew can do it, so can the rest of the market.
So I highly recommend this one to anyone looking for pointers on where to start and how to begin embracing the insurance market of the future.
Enjoy the Podcast.
NOTES:
The iMRC acronym Matthew mentions stands for the Intelligent Market Reform Contract and is part of the Lloyd’s Blueprint 2 programme.
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) and Free Partners for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
https://freepartners.com/
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
I really enjoyed interviewing today’s guest.
I think it was because I was picking up on the energy, enthusiasm and buzz emanating from someone who is running a start-up business.
Mitch Blaser, the CEO of Mosaic has done this before and it is his clarity of vision and purpose that shines through our discussion.
He has the benefit of experience to know what he would do differently and he also has a very clear idea of how to leverage the advantages of a single clean balance sheet with new investors and no legacy risk and equally as important to Mitch, a brand new enterprise with no legacy systems, technology or culture.
The prospects of the post-Covid world of emerging risk are what are firing Mitch and his team of specialty underwriters up
But overall it is Mitch’s irrepressible positivity and confidence that is most infectious.
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) and Free Partners for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
https://freepartners.com/
Tuesday Mar 23, 2021
Tuesday Mar 23, 2021
This week’s podcast is a great encounter with a UK MGA pioneer at the top of his game.
Colin Thompson is the CEO of Nexus Group, a firm he founded in London 13 years ago.
That business is projecting punchy organic growth of a third this year to $600mn in premiums written.
It is also on the hunt for ever larger acquisitions and is looking to back some of its own underwriting with a risk-bearing entity to show its paper providers that it has real skin in the game.
During our chat Colin also confirms that Nexus will be selling its trade credit broking arm to focus exclusively on underwriting.
We cover a huge amount of ground here and a lot is revealed about the next strategic direction for what is almost certainly London’s fastest-growing MGA business of scale.
We also learn a lot about what makes the entrepreneur driving its growth tick.
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
Today’s guest is one of the best-known and most experienced executives in the reinsurance broking world.
Ross Howard is Global Executive Chairman of Lockton Re and has launched himself into a major project to help build a challenger reinsurance broker for the Lockton Group.
In this podcast we find out why he thinks the current market opportunities are some of the best he has seen in his long career and why, provided you have the right platform as a base, knowledge, expertise and relationships are more important than they have ever been.
I have been meeting and interviewing Ross on and off for around 15 years and I think some of that rapport shows in this encounter.
Ross is the consummate broker: charming, knowledgeable, accommodating, imaginative and unflappable.
I highly recommend you spend the next half an hour or so in his company.
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Friday Mar 12, 2021
Friday Mar 12, 2021
This episode could easily be called “everything you wanted to know about insurtech but were afraid to ask.”
This is because today’s guests are insurtech pioneers who spend their time finding new insurance ideas and the entrepreneurs behind them.
They knock the rough edges off, apply expertise, lend regulatory licences so that ideas can be tested and make connections with incumbent insurers as well as investors. They also deploy their own venture capital funds into the companies they find.
In short they provide one of the few full service platforms for innovative new ventures and fulfil the role of translators between the often disconnected worlds of technology and insurance.
Now with five years’ experience The Voice of Insurance spoke to Stephen Brittain and Robert Lumley of the Insurtech Gateway to find out what they had learned after being at the bleeding edge of insurance innovation for such a long time.
The results may surprise you.
Here you can get to half a decade’s learning compressed into half an hour. A pioneer like The Gateway has often had to learn the hard way.
By listening to this excellent episode you won’t have to...
LINKS
https://insurtechgateway.com/
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
Today’s guest is one of the industry’s brightest stars and I think the podcast you are about the listen to amply proves why he has earned that moniker.
The Voice of insurance has also been lucky enough to speak to him at an exciting time for him and the industry itself.
A veteran of the Bermuda class of 1992, he is back again with a substantial start-up looking to capitalise on major opportunities in the global wholesale specialty insurance and reinsurance market.
Here Greg Hendrick the CEO of Vantage Group runs us through his vision from top to bottom and dissects in great detail how he and his team is attacking a market opportunity.
Greg has long been one of the best speakers on the insurance conference circuit and here it soon becomes obvious that podcasting comes naturally to him.
Here is someone happy, confident, energised, completely at the top of their game and ready to put a career’s worth of knowledge and experience to work in a favourable marketplace.
There is a ton of useful information here and I think you can learn a lot from listening over the next 35 minutes or so.
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Friday Mar 05, 2021
Friday Mar 05, 2021
Today’s special guests are technology entrepreneurs looking to digitise and revolutionise the reinsurance marketplace.
Their radical free-to-use platform has the goal of making the cumbersome submission and placement process pain-free for practitioners.
But with these two there’s a big difference. Both Jerad Leigh and Ben Rose of Supercede gave up successful careers in the underwriting, broking and advisory side of reinsurance to found their business.
Past attempts at reinsurance platforms have tended to focus on getting the boardrooms of the biggest players signed up and mandating usage on the ground but as former practitioners their focus is on solving the problems of the individual users themselves.
As we move to an expense conscious world where big IT spend for no discernible competitive gain is no longer a boast but potentially a source of embarrassment, their free and fully independent model is a compelling one.
In this special episode we naturally go for a whirlwind tour of the Supercede product offering, but we stay much longer and get to the heart of what these two founders think the reinsurance market of the future is going to look like and their part in enabling it.
Not only are Ben and Jerad exceptionally bright, they are excellent company.
I highly recommend listening to what they have to say.
NOTES:
You may already know Supercede by its original name, Riskbook.
Ben mentions a business called Rightmove. For non-UK listeners this is the main UK platform for residential real estate, connecting realtors/(real) estate agents and individual buyers.
LINKS:
https://supercede.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/supercede1/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeraddleigh/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-rose-supercede/
Tuesday Mar 02, 2021
Tuesday Mar 02, 2021
After an extended build-out Pina Albo’s Hamilton Group now has significant Lloyd’s, Bermuda and Dublin platforms covering specialty insurance, reinsurance and third-party asset management and is building further capabilities on the ground in the US E&S market via an MGA structure.
It’s also fully committed to a tech-enabled US brokered small commercial joint venture operation in Attune.
Listen to Pina as the group moves to the execution phase of its strategy and looks to be rewarded for the patience it has shown throughout the prolonged soft market into which it was born.
Pina is a focused leader with strong convictions about where the market is headed.
Her conclusions are concise, unambiguous and easy to follow.
I highly recommend a listen.
NOTES:
Pina refers to Ada Re in relation to Hamilton’s party capital management operation. Ada Re is specifically Hamilton’s retro sidecar vehicle. She of course meant to say Ada Capital.
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Tuesday Feb 23, 2021
Tuesday Feb 23, 2021
Today’s guest is a broking CEO on an ambitious mission to grow global revenues many times with the backing of a strategic owner.
That may sound familiar to regular listeners, but Steve Hearn of Corant Global is going about things quite differently.
At a time when most broker holding companies are at pains to hive up all their underlying brands into an overarching global brand identity, Steve is allowing multiple broking houses to flourish under the newly-minted Corant banner.
A veteran of senior executive positions at large and small brokers alike, Steve now runs a holding company and not an operational broking business.
This means he isn’t bogged down or distracted by the day to day and has the job of thinking strategically about where broking in our market is going in the short, medium and long term and positioning Corant accordingly.
Corant also has a different sort of owner – the capital markets focused BGC and ultimately the Cantor Fitzgerald group.
And the influence of this different variant of financial services culture is highly noticeable.
And that’s what makes this podcast special.
Rarely have I had such a focused conversation on what is happening in the broking landscape and where things are headed.
LINKS.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Tuesday Feb 16, 2021
Tuesday Feb 16, 2021
This week’s guest is a longstanding and integral member of one of the most successful underwriting teams in the specialty insurance and reinsurance world.
Charles Mathias was an original member of staff at Lancashire and is now a core member of the team at Fidelis.
As Chief Risk officer and board member he has total visibility of Fidelis’s strategy and here he doesn’t duck any questions.
I was surprised by how open he was with me about which segments of the market the now capital-loaded Fidelis is finding most attractive as well as its approach to developing proprietary technology.
Again he is completely transparent about the special culture and work ethic that has made Richard-Brindle led carriers so distinctive, and so successful in the past 15 years.
This longstanding market practitioner is also incredibly polite and good humoured company.
All this makes this episode one not to miss for anyone who wants to learn the secrets of underwriting success in the hardening market of 2021.
NOTES
Charles refers to a charitable foundation, he is of course referring to the Fidelis Foundation.
LINKS
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Friday Feb 12, 2021
Friday Feb 12, 2021
In my job I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and particularly insurtech entrepreneurs.
Very often I find that they know their tech but really haven’t yet got to understand the insurance world.
And that often means that they are solving problems that perhaps don’t exist in the minds of insurance people and their business are unlikely to succeed.
Well today I’m talking to a start-up founder who has insurance running through his veins.
James York knows the insurance value chain inside and out.
Because of that he knows that anyone who can cut into the savage acquisition costs insurers load onto themselves year after year is onto a winner.
In an industry that spends billions on marketing anyone who can make that spend more effective is going to be in high demand.
James is the founder of Worry + Peace, which is aiming to do just this via the medium of insurance reviews.
It’s a bold and extremely ambitious global vision that goes way beyond reviews and into a whole insurance ecosystem that will aim to bring buyers and sellers together in a trusted world but which isn’t actively trying to sell insurance to anyone.
Are you intrigued? I certainly was and the more I talk to James the more I think he is onto something.
I think you should hear him out.
LINKS and Contacts:
James’s Twitter handle is: @JamesJWYork
Tuesday Feb 09, 2021
Tuesday Feb 09, 2021
Nick Cook of BMS Group is a man in a hurry to make the most of global opportunities to grow the 41-year old firm he runs.
Nick is refreshingly straightforward and to the point and here we get detail on BMS’s ambitious global buildout away from its more traditional markets in London and North America and into Latin America, Asia and Europe.
We also get a strong view on the opportunities being thrown up by big broker M&A as well as the capital factors driving substantial investment and consolidation at independents.
Nick also dissects the current fight to build challenger reinsurance brokers and how he thinks this particular game might not end well for everyone.
Finally we hear of bullish prospects for the London market and Nick’s thoughts and misgivings about the current vision for London’s future.
We pack in a lot here but listening back it is Nick’s boundless energy and no-nonsense passion for the task in hand that really shines through our exchange.
Enjoy the podcast.
LINKS
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
Today we're talking to Matthew Moore President & Managing Director at Liberty Specialty Markets – LSM.
Matthew is one of the rising stars of the London Market and is currently serving as the chair of industry trade body the London Market Group.
Yet his role is global in nature.
He oversees a specialty, wholesale and reinsurance operation with gross written premiums of around $7bn of which London business is a minority.
In this wide-ranging podcast we get the benefit of this global perspective on opportunities in the hardening market as well as going into the detail on the drivers behind the essential reform process that the London Market is currently undergoing.
We also got to hear about Matthew’s thoughts on the future of insurance, industry price adequacy and reserve strength, Covid 19 estimates and how he is trying to make LSM differentiate itself in a competitive and capital-abundant marketplace.
Matthew is very enjoyable company and an insightful insurance thinker and communicator.
LINKS
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Tuesday Jan 26, 2021
Tuesday Jan 26, 2021
Today’s podcast is a meeting with a senior market figure most of us have known for many years.
Sean McGovern served in different board level capacities at Lloyd’s for just over 2 decades, before leaving to join the then XL Catlin in 2016 ahead of its 2018 acquisition by AXA.
Last summer he was made CEO of AXA XL’s UK and Lloyd’s business – the first time he has held a CEO post.
This interview is all about his plans for the role now that the difficult remedial actions aimed at turning around the large London Market insurer’s underwriting performance have been taken and market conditions have taken a decisive turn for the better.
As a veteran Lloyd’s spokesperson Sean has been in the public eye for many years and in this encounter I found him easy-going, relaxed and excited to be running a major London operation with the backing of the world’s largest P&C group behind him
Listen on for an insider’s view of the opportunities currently presenting themselves in the London market.
LINKS
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) and Insurtech Gateway for their support today:
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
This podcast is all about looking to the future of broking.
In a world of automatic, algorithmically controlled capacity where huge rivers of data flow direct from insureds and reinsureds to carriers and beyond where does this leave the broker?
Brokers and technological change haven’t necessarily always gone hand in hand in our markets.
It was brokers that spurned the early versions of electronic placing and constantly worried about whether they would be disintermediated.
But these days a new broker is emerging – one less tied up in extracting remuneration out of the transaction and more intent on adding value through advice and advanced risk management services to their clients.
This is what I am discussing today with Clyde Bernstein, Head of Broking, Willis Towers Watson Great Britain.
A Willis lifer, Clyde is an extremely well-known figure in the London Market. Anyone who has spent enough time walking down Lime Street will recognise him because he has been in the market for over 30 years.
He is excellent company, is extremely eloquent and most importantly, he knows the market inside and out.
That is why his articulation of a vision for the future of broking is so compelling and real. If someone of his analogue pedigree has been bitten by the tech bug, we all will be.
With people like Clyde around, who would bet against the electronic underwriters of the future complaining that the brokers still always seem to be one step ahead of them?
LINKS
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Today’s guest is one of the industry’s smartest analysts and it is great to welcome him back to the show.
David Flandro is the Managing Director of Analytics at HX, the tech and research-focused part of the Howden Group and today we are dissecting the state of the market after the 1.1.21 renewals.
David has had a long career in the financial markets and at major broking houses and is one of the best people I know at expressing often very complicated ideas and theories in the plainest of English.
He also has a great sense of humour and is always ebullient company which means while the English may be plain, the discussion and the mood is always lively.
In this podcast we discuss a lot of the topics raised in Howden's Hard Times 1.1 renewal report. I highly recommend you read this in conjunction with your listen today.
NOTES
Howden's Hard Times market report:
David mentions a Julian. He is referring to Julian Alovisi, HX’s Head of Research.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Monday Jan 04, 2021
Monday Jan 04, 2021
Today’s guest is one of the industry’s most experienced and most respected reinsurance brokers with an incredibly broad and deep perspective to share on the industry.
His broking house Willis Re is always first out of the blocks after the major renewal dates with its first view reports into the state of the reinsurance market
Given the exceptional nature of this particular renewal I was delighted to have some time with James Vickers Chair, Willis Re International.
We spoke at length about the hardening market, the impact of the class of 2020 and of course the potential costs and all the coverage issues surrounding Covid 19.
James is an exceptionally clear-thinking and eloquent commentator so I highly recommend the half hour conversation that follows.
And do make sure you accompany this podcast with a read of Willis Re’s 1.1.21 First View Report which they have entitled Firming Landscape.
LINKS
Willis Re Firming Landscape Report:
https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-GB/Insights/2021/01/firming-landscape
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Tuesday Dec 22, 2020
Tuesday Dec 22, 2020
Today’s guest is someone highly thought of in the London Market whose skills are in high demand.
Three years ago he set out to start his own business and reshape the MGA model in a highly radical way that seeks to align the agent as closely to the carriers backing them as possible.
Many businesses say they are going to break the mould but what Talbir Bains is trying to achieve at Volante has never been done before.
He and I had been introduced and briefly shaken hands a couple of times over the years, but I had never interviewed him in depth.
I am very glad that I did.
Talbir is as smart and visionary as you would expect, but I had no idea of the depth of his conviction, the scale of his ambition and the radical nature of the new type of MGA he is bringing to market.
Listen on if you want to learn what the MGA of the future is going to look like.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
Today’s guest is a year and a half into a role running the best performing major reinsurer of the past 15 years.
Hannover Re has been a business that has managed to grow profitably in hard and soft markets alike, maintaining a lean structure and keeping underwriting and rigorous capital management to the fore.
With a global market hardening in full swing and one of the most important 1.1 renewals in decades to navigate, I asked Jean-Jacques Henchoz to outline his plans for Hannover Re in a radically changing reinsurance landscape.
Along the way I found a charismatic leader who is looking to strike a balance between reinforcing Hannover’s core strengths and underwriting culture while at the same time gently pushing it to adapt and prepare for the future.
I enjoyed my time with Jean-Jacques and the insights he gave into Hannover Re’s strategy for 2021 and beyond and I think you will too.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) and Insurtech Gateway for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
Today’s guest is one of the most experienced and widely travelled executives in the global insurance world and someone I have been interviewing regularly for the past 15 years.
During that time he has been in the fairly unique position of having worked on either side of the fence for a broker and carriers alike as well as for the Corporation of Lloyd’s.
But what all his roles have had in common have been the formulation and execution of global expansion strategies.
And unsurprisingly that is what he is charged with in his latest role running the International Insurance business at Sompo International.
In this podcast we talk about the state of the market and current growth opportunities around the world.
Julian has been dealing with the media for many years and is a relaxed and eloquent communicator.
And given his long and successful track record of growing international insurance businesses of all shapes and sizes, this is one I can highly recommend.
LINKS
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Tuesday Dec 01, 2020
Tuesday Dec 01, 2020
As journalists we tend to sprinkle superlative terms such as industry legend around a little too liberally.
But today’s guest definitely qualifies.
As a founder of Renaissance Re Jim Stanard helped completely transform the way the industry analyses and underwrites catastrophe risk and cemented Bermuda’s place in the insurance and reinsurance world.
He also co-founded global challenger reinsurance broker Tiger Risk.
Now he is back in his heartland as chair of the newly-independent Ariel Re.
Here we talk about everything you would ever want to know about how to be a successful underwriter building a sustainable portfolio.
Listening back it is a remarkable conversation and one marked by Jim’s extraordinary good humour and openness. We spent a lot more time laughing than is normal in a serious hard market reinsurance conversation.
But that is all down to Jim’s open-mindedness and remarkably broad interests.
I hadn’t met him before this meeting but it really doesn’t show. I learned a lot, including that this industry leader has a not unimportant side line on the music scene.
So do enjoy the conversation.
A couple of Notes:
Jim told me later he misspoke about Lotus being the first spreadsheet package and meant to say Visicalc.
And the quote about predicting the future is variously attributed to Yogi Berra, Sam Goldwyn or Danish physicist Niels Bohr, depending on who you ask.
LINKS
Jim’s album "Color outside the lines" can be streamed on Spotify and is available on Amazon and other music sellers.
Go to: www.jimstanardmusic.com to find out more.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Friday Nov 27, 2020
Friday Nov 27, 2020
Ascot has been one of Lloyd’s great success stories of the past 2 decades yet its CEO Andrew Brooks doesn’t have the sort of public profile that one would expect to go with the job.
After many years waiting out the soft market Ascot is now in aggressive expansion mode backed by a very patient, very deep pool of capital.
Given its cautious and prudent track record its diversification plans make for fascinating listening, particularly the thinking behind this historically short-tailed business’s controlled entry into the casualty world.
In our talk Andrew is engaging and very open and forthcoming about Ascot’s way of doing things.
Anyone looking for pointers on how to build a successful underwriting operation that is sustainable over the long term will learn a huge amount over the next half an hour or so.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
Alex Maloney has been running the Lancashire group of companies for six-and-a-half years.
For much of that time the business has been keeping its powder dry waiting for a moment to exploit a change in market conditions and resume growth.
That moment seemed to come in Q2 of this year, with a new equity capital raise.
In this interview I ask Alex all about his plans to deploy this renewed firepower.
I found him invigorated and looking to expand aggressively and diversify in the new year as large segments of the market come back and business flows change.
I also got to know a little more of the singular and strong character that has made this business both an outlier and an outperformer since its foundation 15 years ago.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Friday Nov 20, 2020
Friday Nov 20, 2020
Mapfre Re is a top 20 global reinsurer but it probably doesn’t have the public profile that this size should command.
Given my insurance work experience in the Spanish market I thought this was a wrong that needed righting.
Mapfre Re has many peculiarities, not least that it is one of the few reinsurers to still be part of a major global insurance group decades after it became fashionable to divest and separate insurance from reinsurance.
It also looks after the reinsurance buying for its global top 20 insurer parent.
This gives it a unique perspective of the market, which I think you will find refreshing.
Mapfre Re CEO Eduardo Perez de Lema is a frank and eloquent interviewee and in this episode he gives us an unambiguous view on what he is expecting from the 1.1 renewals and the long-term sustainable partner philosophy at the heart of his firm’s strategy.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
I’ve known David Howden for a very long time. When I became a broker in 1992 he was the wholesale D&O specialist who looked after a big book of business for the Spanish broker I worked for.
When Aon took over that broker it was my cue to go off and become a journalist and for him it fired the starting gun on an adventure that doesn’t show any sign of stopping.
That’s why this episode is a bit special. It’s also a bit longer than usual.
A good interview is a bit like a portrait and the art of the interviewer is to coax the interviewee to reveal perhaps more of themselves than they were originally planning to.
David doesn’t really need much coaxing because he is always himself, and the most remarkable thing about him is that he hasn’t changed at all in the last 28 years.
Here we talk about everything you would expect to talk about, but a lot more. For instance this is the first interview I’ve ever done where poetry has been recited.
Today I really think you will get to see what makes David tick and understand what has driven him to be the most successful insurance entrepreneur of his generation.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) and Insurtech Gateway for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
https://insurtechgateway.com/
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
In today’s episode we meet a strong broker of many years’ experience and with subject expertise and contacts that many would take multiple careers to accumulate. She has had a senior career at many of the top independent brokers.
Over recent times I have come to know and respect her as one of those people that always speaks their mind and comes as a breath of fresh air with their own perspective on what is happening in the marketplace.
Vanessa Macdonald Smith is a former CEO of JLT Fac and is now in a new role as Executive Director and Head of D&F at Oneglobal Broking.
She has a broad and senior view of the market but has her feet close enough on the ground to be fully in touch.
In this podcast we look at today’s hard market and OneGlobal’s plans to grow into it, the opportunity for independents as the big brokers consolidate and what it is like to be a senior woman working in a time of cultural turmoil and great change.
I always enjoy time spent with Vanessa and I think you will too.
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We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today:
Friday Nov 06, 2020
Friday Nov 06, 2020
Today’s guest is someone with a long history of implementing technology into the Insurance Market.
Bart Patrick, Managing Director, Europe for Duck Creek really understands the demands of the industry and the sometimes fractious and strained relationship with technology that it has had over the years.
Well all of that is changing and this discussion is all about how that is going to come about.
With the advent of cloud computing the industry finally has an opportunity to leave technology to the experts and simply get on with doing what it does best – market, transact and execute innovative insurance deals.
In this brave new world, the software and systems we use are becoming simply a utility that we can avail ourselves of and don’t have to own and maintain anymore.
What’s more the best platforms can now allow us to configure them in the way we want to work and let us plug in any of the tools we want to use to help us do our jobs better and compete in the marketplace. This is what people are describing as an ecosystem.
But transitioning away from legacy systems that are in fact many systems all bolted together is not easy, particularly if we have limited budgets and the massively important requirement that nothing falls over while we are making the switch to the new way of working.
Technical debt is the difference between what you should be spending on innovation and the amount of money you are spending on just keeping the old inefficient systems running.
This talk explains how to get out of this debt.
My role in this discussion is to be the layman with insurance knowledge and make sure Patrick doesn’t get bogged down in technical jargon.
Luckily Patrick is a great explainer who knows how to talk to insurance people.
I recommend this podcast to anyone wanting to gain a broad understanding of what our legacy industry tech problems are, where the future lies and more importantly, how we are going to get there.
Many thanks to Duck Creek Technologies for their support today.
Find out more at: https://www.duckcreek.com/
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
I’ve got to know the interviewees in today’s episode quite well over the last few years.
That means I have been able to follow closely their remarkable journey from small subsidiary of the Hyperion Group to an independent employee-owned MGA writing over 500 million dollars of premium in 2020 and still projecting organic growth of 20% in 2021.
So how have David Walsh and Graeme Newman of CFC Underwriting done it?
I think one of the most striking things is what a partnership these two entrepreneurs make and how their characters compliment each other.
It is hard to think of one without the other and of CFC without either of them.
They’re also a notch below the average age of many among their peers and I think this translates to a slightly more progressive feel for the business.
But you should listen for yourself and make up your own mind.
In this episode we talk a lot about CFC’s core line of cyber insurance and building a long-term comparative advantage, its response to the Covid pandemic, what David and Graeme’s long-term plans are for CFC and how the firm is trying to distil its entrepreneurial culture as it begins to grow beyond its core London roots.
It’s a great discussion and one which I would highly recommend to any budding entrepreneurs out there looking for pointers to see how it’s done.
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) and Insurtech Gateway for their support today.
Here are links to their websites:
Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
Welcome to the Voice of Insurance in association with Advantage Go -
enabling Underwriters to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making.
It was great experience recording today’s episode because it was the first time since the Covid 19 crisis began that I was able to do an interview face to face instead of a video call.
And it seemed even more poignant that this first face to face interview should be at Lloyd’s – the only physical marketplace where insurance is traded by multiple counterparties all in the same room.
Technology has been a saviour for all of us in these difficult times, but I think this interview shows that there are some elements of genuine human social interaction that it can never replace.
Tasked with turning the market’s performance around and driving through a revolutionary programme of reform, John Neal has needed all his charm and skills of communication to convince the market to change the way it does almost everything.
Here you can see his skills to great effect.
He is incredibly personable, approachable and down to earth and certainly doesn’t get angered by any of my more provocative questions. Or at least if he does he doesn’t show it.
Instead the main weapon he deploys is a stark honesty and candidness that is refreshing and endearing.
In our time together we discuss the Lloyd’s 2021 business planning process and whether Lloyd’s is striking the right balance between performance and growth, the coming revolution from the imminent Blueprint 2 reform plans, what makes a good underwriter, personal conduct and the impact of the culture survey, climate change and the insurance of fossil fuels, the potential impact of the Aon-Willis merger on the market and John’s personal feelings about his role.
I didn’t cut anything out because it’s all too good to miss.
I also didn’t over edit it, because I wanted you to be able feel that you too are inside number 1 Lime street on the 11th floor, sitting in with John and I as the recorders are switched on and the discussion gets going.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
LINKS
We thank our supporters today.
Our naming sponsor AdvantageGo
https://www.advantagego.com/
Claims Direct Access
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Bolton Associates
https://www.bolton-associates.co.uk/
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
The seeds for today’s episode were sown at a meeting in Chicago in the early Spring of 2019.
I had been chairing a conference there and was making the most of the trip by visiting as many of the insurance people with their offices in the Windy City.
So it was that I met today’s guest for the first time over breakfast in the centre of town.
It was a great meeting – my host was full of energy and incredibly excited over the prospects for the Excess and Surplus lines (E&S) market.
He was a real broker’s broker and someone who leads from the front. I remember he had to break off our breakfast chat briefly to take a call relating to a placement that he was personally involved in.
We had been waiting for the market to harden for over fifteen years and this was the first time a well-placed senior executive was sitting in front of me telling me it was finally starting.
He explained that his organisation was gearing up for what he described as "the dump" that was on its way.
The dump is when admitted lines carriers have had enough of losses and non-renew or dump their most unprofitable business en masse. This flow then finds its way into the only other available channel open to it - the E&S market.
Tim Turner is the T in RT Specialty - one of the largest and probably soon to be the largest wholesale broker in the biggest wholesale insurance market in the world.
Given the size and scale of RT Specialty and the wider RSG Group his view of the market can’t be bettered.
18 months after that meeting and all of Tim’s predictions have come to pass and that is why I was really happy to be able to get a follow-up with him for the Voice of insurance.
With billions of dollars of deals running through his organisation he is one of a very select band of people with a feel for how long the hardening market might last and how deep it will hit.
As a major producer his view also matters a huge amount to the major overflow wholesale markets of Bermuda and London.
He’s also great company and buzzing with energy. I highly recommend a listen to what he has to say.
LINK:
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Wednesday Oct 14, 2020
Wednesday Oct 14, 2020
We all know about the protection gap and financial sustainability and resilience goals for the developing world set by global bodies such as the World Bank and the United Nations.
We also know about the massive growth potential of many emerging economies and the role the insurance industry can play in enabling and accelerating its development.
This episode goes into the detail of how to approach this major opportunity and answers some common questions and upends many common misconceptions.
How much is insurance understood in developing nations? Is it seen simply as aid? Also how well are its strengths understood by donor nations? Should this kind of insurance be aiming for profit from day one, or should it be more patient?
How do we overcome modelling gaps and potentially crippling distribution costs in some of these nations?
Will the realities of harder international markets and Covid 19 put development goals on the back burner?
To answer these questions it was a great privilege to be joined by Dame Inga Beale and Lesley NdLovu of the African Risk Capacity Group (ARC).
Both have pioneered work in this field and give a strong and practical flavour to this podcast. I highly recommend a listen.
It might convince you that far from being just corporate social responsibility and the right thing to do, this is actually one of the brightest long-term opportunities in the global insurance market.
Today’s special episode has been organised by the Commonwealth Insurance Forum – the CIF and kindly sponsored by the ARC.
Set up in September 2019 the Forum was co-founded and is chaired by London market veteran Francis de Zulueta of Alpine Risk
Alpine Risk currently manages the CIF.
Co founded with Robert Lyle, co-founder of specialist London broker BPL, this not-for-profit organisation is seeking to ignite and accelerate insurance collaboration at all levels between the members of the 54-nation Commonwealth with the added support of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council.
The Commonwealth Insurance Forum has been formed as the UK is deepening and rapidly accelerating global trade links within the Commonwealth after leaving the European Union and will seek to build insurance co-operation, education and networking based on the common legal and cultural ties that bind the global Commonwealth of Nations together for the mutual benefit of all members.
LINKS
African Risk Capacity:
https://www.africanriskcapacity.org
The Forum can be contacted on Cif@alpineriskservices.com or directly via Francis de Zulueta on LinkedIn:
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
Most Voice of Insurance episodes tend to be with industry CEOs.
This way you can get to know the real people behind the public persona and learn about how the industry really works by finding out what makes its leaders tick.
But of course it doesn’t give you a huge amount of class-specific detail.
Industry titans at public companies know a ton of detail about high finance and deal economics, but if I went too deep into detail on any given class of insurance or reinsurance, they would rightly refer me to an inhouse expert for a full briefing.
And that’s why I recorded this episode.
In this hard and Covid-affected market, the hardest segment seems to be the International Directors’ and Officers’ liability market or (D&O) as we all know it.
I wanted to get into hard detail about what is going on in this market.
To do this I began to set up interviews with D&O practitioners. My aim was to put together the views of multiple experts into an in-depth report.
But the first of these meetings turned out to be so strong that I have decided to put it out as an episode in its own right.
David Ritchie is Managing Director of Management Liability at Gallagher UK and is a very senior broker with his finger directly on the pulse of the sector.
In great detail David describes a market in a state of crisis and dislocation where cover is severely rationed and definitely not guaranteed at any price.
This is a world where the prices and terms that are being dictated by the few markets that remain open are almost secondary in importance. Customers have to take it or leave it and may be forced to hit the nuclear button of invoking sunset clauses on expiring cover and renewing on extremely restrictive retroactive date inception terms just to get by.
In short this is the hardest market of all time by a very, very long margin.
With only trickles of new capacity on the way and more market withdrawals possible I don’t envy David’s day job one bit, but I do commend this episode to anyone who wants to know where and how many of the underwriting fortunes and reputations of 2021 and beyond are going to be forged.
LINKS
Once again we thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
PS. Don't forget to ask Mark about advertising opportunities on the podcast. mark@thevoiceofinsurance.com
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
What is the greatest quality of the best business builders in our industry?
After putting together today’s episode, I’m now certain it must be the ability to get the best out of people.
Pat Ryan is a broking legend.
He’s the visionary who saw that globalisation was going to create the need for global brokers to serve the global companies that it would create.
But it’s one thing having a vision – it is completely another to be able to execute on it.
Today you get to find out how he did it. You meet Pat Ryan in a different context. Here he’s not standing at a lectern giving a keynote speech or being quoted in a press release, he’s in direct conversation with me.
We start by dissecting his latest major broking deal to merge RSG with All Risks and move through the art of buying and building broking businesses to consolidation and Marsh-JLT and Aon-Willis.
Spitzer makes an appearance and we go into business ethics and culture, his advice for anyone joining the insurance industry and finally what he would like his legacy to be.
Listening back what struck me was how much we laughed during our conversation.
Pat has bought and grown hundreds of businesses and this encounter proves beyond any doubt that he does this by putting people at ease and in a place of complete trust.
In short he knew how to get the best out of me and he did just that, in the same way he has been doing throughout his career.
The result is easily the best interview of the Voice of Insurance series so far and one that I think will stand the test of time for many years to come.
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) and Bolton Associates for their support today.
Don't forget to ask Mark about advertising opportunities on the podcast. mark@thevoiceofinsurance.com
Tuesday Sep 29, 2020
Tuesday Sep 29, 2020
When I book an interview guest in for the show it is usually at least few weeks and often a few months in advance.
When I open up my diary I can see them lined up ahead.
I build up expectations in my mind about what the interview is going to be like.
It never turns out the way I think.
Today is a case in point. I have got to know David Croom-Johnson of Aegis London over many years while covering the global insurance market.
I knew he was great company and was often outspoken in private.
But I didn’t know what he would be like with the microphone turned on. I had a fear that he might be a little more tame than he is when the recorder is not switched.
Well, I needn’t have worried.
I am happy to report that the David who showed up for the interview was the exact same David that I know from all my meetings and encounters with him in and around the London market over the past decade.
He is someone who has to be true to himself in all situations.
And because he runs a consistently top-performing Lloyd’s business which is in a very select group of managing agents that Lloyd’s has allowed to be regulated on a light touch basis this makes for a fascinating and valuable interview.
The market and David’s view of what to do about Lloyd’s mediocre and major underperformers may surprise and shock you as being extraordinarily tough.
But his long experience, wisdom and foresight are what shine through in this encounter.
From how to behave in a hard market to lean underwriting models.
From the short termism of private equity to the casualty crisis and the eventual Uberisation of the specialty market, chances are David has thought about it deeply and has a strong and unequivocal view.
Once again we thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Don't forget to ask Mark about advertising opportunities on the podcast. mark@thevoiceofinsurance.com
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Here at the Voice of Insurance we look at an extremely broad cross-section of the global insurance and reinsurance markets, form fascinating niches right to the top, to the giants of the sector.
Today’s guest is right at the top.
He has the biggest underwriting job in the world, with the size and scale to be able to move global markets.
That means knowing how he is thinking is required knowledge for anyone who wants to get a feel for what is happening in the marketplace.
In this interview I encountered someone cautiously optimistic of continued rate rises and new growth opportunities.
But perhaps more importantly I met someone confident that his organisation has the financial strength and risk appetite to make the most of those new opportunities as they present themselves.
In this podcast we examine the reinsurance market from end to end.
As 1.1 begins to loom in the diary, I can highly recommend this episode to you.
Once again we thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Don't forget to ask Mark about advertising opportunities on the podcast. mark@thevoiceofinsurance.com
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
Today’s guest is a bit of a coup for the Voice of Insurance. He is the CEO of a $13bn top 10 reinsurance and specialty insurance group that spans the full length of the insurance value chain.
Yet despite being a public company of great scale, until now it hasn’t had much of a public profile.
It’s previous CEOs were notoriously publicity-shy but that’s about to change.
Juan Andrade has been in post since January and is starting to give Everest Re a public profile that befits its size and relevance to our market.
Here we have a full discussion of the state of the industry, changes in what investor appetite and how this is driving what Juan describes as an underwriter’s market.
We talk about the class of 2020 and its prospects and of course the immediate and potential effects of Covid-19 and how Everest is positioning itself within all of this to take full advantage of market conditions.
Juan is a concise and precise communicator and the next 20 or so minutes are packed with valuable information and insight. I highly recommend a listen.
LINK:
https://www.everestre.com
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
Tuesday Sep 08, 2020
Tuesday Sep 08, 2020
Today’s episode is a real cracker and part of a series of great episodes we’ve got lined up for you in the month of September.
Laurent Rousseau is the Deputy CEO of Scor Global P&C and is a rising star in this top-tier global reinsurer.
In this podcast we talk about the dilemma facing Lloyd’s of London, Covid effects, the Insurtech phenomenon in the era of the now publicly quoted Lemonade, the intimate details of what is driving the hardening global insurance and reinsurance markets, the class of 2020 and the boom conditions for specialty insurance.
If you want to know what is going on in the world you need to have access to smart and well-informed people like Laurent.
And that’s what the Voice of Insurance is all about – I’ve known Laurent for a few years now and I very much want you to meet him.
LINK:
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Friday Sep 04, 2020
Friday Sep 04, 2020
Today’s episode is all about another syndicate in a box.
Back in episode 16 I interviewed Stuart Newcombe, the active underwriter of the Munich Re innovation Syndicate 1840 and the discussion was all about technology and the implementation of pioneering concepts such as parametric products.
This episode is also about the application of technology but this time it is being applied to one of the most traditional elements of underwriting at Lloyd’s - delegated authority.
This route accounts for 40% of Lloyd’s premiums and so any plan to revolutionise this method of distribution will have repercussions that reverberate across the London market and beyond.
Stephen Card is the Founding partner and CEO of Carbon Underwriting which has founded syndicate 4747.
A London market broking veteran, I first met Stephen 13 years ago when he was running PWS, the London broker that was acquired by THB in 2008.
Stephen knows the Lloyd’s market inside and out and this show and tell on what Carbon Underwriting is doing is a very useful primer of what the future might look like for anyone involved in the $18bn plus global Lloyd’s coverholder supply chain.
Abbreviations:
DA= Delegated Authority
LINK:
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
Today’s guest is an executive with a big job to do.
The broad market turn, driving improved performance, tidying up back years and dealing Covid-19 are enough for most executives, but on top of all that this new leader’s company has had the fallout from an acrimonious public dispute with an activist investor to deal with.
As part of Argo Group’s new management team, Chief Underwriting Officer Tim Carter has a lot on his plate.
Yet he is unfazed. In this encounter I found someone really calm, easygoing, and infectiously optimistic.
He’s also a rare combination – an actuary who is an excellent communicator and someone who comes across as a strong people person.
The next 20 minutes should leave you in little doubt that Argo is going to re-focus on its core niches in specialty where it can produce the best growth and underwriting results.
LINK:
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
Tuesday Aug 25, 2020
Tuesday Aug 25, 2020
This episode’s guest is a journalist’s dream. He has deep, long and broad industry experience, he is very intelligent, he has very strong and clear opinions about how insurance works and why he is doing what he is doing.
More importantly he is never afraid of expressing those opinions and he does so with great enthusiasm and charisma.
Even better for us is that he has a new role heading a company that plays in one of the most interesting hard markets anywhere in the world.
He is Andrew Robinson, the company is Houston International Insurance Group (HIIG) and the market is US specialty lines.
HIIG is the business founded by maverick industry entrepreneur Stephen Way in 2006 after leaving HCC, so Andrew has some big shoes to fill.
I don’t need to pre-empt what we talk about here – the market and how Andrew wants to position HIIG within it are plenty to be getting on with and he won’t leave you with any doubt about what he thinks about all the issues of the day.
LINK:
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
Today’s episode is all about legacy. Legacy used to be called run-off and run-off conjured up slightly negative connotations of difficult old greyhairs in dusty out of the way offices eking out a dwindling pot of claims until retirement.
I used to think that its keenness to rename itself was a sign that it wanted to rehabilitate itself in some way and that the change was merely cosmetic or aesthetic.
But over the years it has become obvious that the words run-off had themselves to be put into run-off.
This is because legacy has developed into a sophisticated capital management tool and is far more about adding value and operational efficiency than the handling of intractable old claims.
Today’s guest is the embodiment of that leap in sophistication over the past two decades.
Tom Booth is the CEO of Darag, a legacy player with access to capital and global growth ambitions.
His background is high finance and I think it really shows through in this encounter.
Legacy is becoming a very useful long-term partner of the industry and people like Tom are only going to make it more relevant in the future.
We slay a lot of myths in this episode, so stay tuned.
LINK:
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
I always think one of the main missions of the Voice of Insurance is to give you access to industry leaders so you can find out how they think and what they think about the big issues of the day.
These are people that you’ve almost certainly heard of but not necessarily heard from.
But there is a second mission which is to introduce you to people who you almost certainly don’t know but who I think have got some very interesting things to say.
In my line of work I get to meet lots of fascinating and very talented people and it’s nice to be able to introduce some of the less well known ones to you.
Todays’ guest is one of these.
We have heard an awful lot about the Insurtech phenomenon over the last 4 years. A whole industry has grown up around it. Frankly some of it has been very poorly explained and executed.
Stephen Brittain’s job is to provide a link between the insurance folk and the tech people who often seem to inhabit completely different planets.
I always enjoy talking to Stephen because he is incredibly smart and is buzzing with big and challenging ideas. The conversation always takes an unexpected turn or two.
But unlike so many bright sparks he is really good at explaining himself to people less intelligent than he is.
So if you’re not a techy here is someone I can highly recommend you listen to – I’m pretty sure it will make you think differently about insurance.
And if it does that that is another one of my missions complete.
LINK:
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
Today’s guest is a broker right at the top of her profession.
She is someone industry leaders turn to for advice and assistance around the most fundamental commodity in our industry – capital.
Her contacts are superb and if you need support her insight and connections could be the difference between getting what you need and coming up short.
Vicky Carter is Guy Carpenter’s Chairman of Global Capital Solutions, International and is also a member of the Council of Lloyd’s.
In our discussion we examine every facet of capital and the industry’s financial health, investor appetite for the insurance sector and the prospects for the emerging class of 2020. It’s why I’ve called this episode a capital masterclass.
We also look at the work she is doing on Lloyd’s ReStart SME pandemic solution and examine diversity and inclusion from the perspective of one of the most senior women in the industry.
NOTES:
Abbreviations.
LPT = Loss portfolio transfer
FAL (pronounced as a word rhyming with 'pal') = Funds at Lloyd's
LINK:
We thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
I have been watching the development of the intermediary whose executives you’ll meet in this episode since before it was founded back in 1994.
Now over a quarter of a century later, a lot of organic growth and a lot of M&A, this business is many thousands of times larger than it was then.
It spans much of the globe and is one of the best poised to make the most of the opportunities thrown up by the latest round of mega-consolidation in the broking space.
It is just about to merge its Howden retail and RKH wholesale and reinsurance arms together under the Howden name.
This will be under the leadership of Chairman Barnaby Rugge-Price and CEO José Manuel González.
This is a very frank interview and one that I think reveals a lot about the passion, culture and enduring ambition at the broking business that bears the name of its founder and parent Group Hyperion’s CEO David Howden.
NOTES:
Abbreviation glossary: I’m sure you knew this already but in case you don’t, EB stands for Employee Benefits. (José Manuel mentions this in the context of a recent acquisition in Spain).
LINK:
We thank our supporter, Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
The Aspen story is one that in many ways mirrors the global wholesale specialty insurance and reinsurance markets that we know and love so much.
After a few years of relative underperformance – nothing catastrophic or life-threatening but underperformance nonetheless – Aspen now finds itself in the hands of private equity in the form of serial industry investor Apollo.
Mark Cloutier is in post to turn Aspen around for its new owner just at the time that much of the market is taking similar remedial action to improve performance.
Mark and Apollo have done this successfully before and that’s why this is such a good episode to get wrapped up in.
After all If you are openly turning something around for a sale you have to be building the sort of long-term value that a new owner is going to be looking to acquire.
Finding out how Mark plans to do this gives a lot of insight into how one of the smartest investors in our sector thinks.
LINK:
We thank our supporter, Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today.
Here is a link to their website:
Tuesday Jul 14, 2020
Tuesday Jul 14, 2020
In the insurance media we talk about classes of new carriers being formed in mass flowerings of capitalism after the bursting of prolonged soft markets, but we never apply this term to the birth of intermediaries.
This is because the distribution side of our industry tends to renew itself more organically and less in dramatic waves.
Except that right now the conditions are perfect for a mass expansion in this space.
The consolidation of Marsh & McLennan and JLT and the prospect of Aon and Willis coming together are providing a once in a lifetime strategic backdrop for independents that can attract the right talent.
A sustained hard market has taken hold in core lines of business, giving a second boost and market reforms in hubs such as London are giving a chance for operational efficiencies and competitive advantages to be built into new businesses from day one.
Add to this record low borrowing costs, high valuations and a growing view from the investor community that broking houses have more in common with annuities than venture capital investments and you have a heady cocktail.
Into this mix I welcome Mike Reynolds the new CEO of Oneglobal Broking, a London wholesaler born of the merger between SSL and Endeavour and fueled by an investment from JC Flowers.
Mike has had a very long career in the insurance business and most recently ran reinsurance broker JLT Re.
In this interview we learn about Oneglobal’s major worldwide plans and Mike’s vision of how to build a global challenger in the wholesale specialty and reinsurance space.
Mike is good company so I think you will enjoy spending the next half hour or so with him.
NOTE:
Mike mentions a Jonathan. He is of course referring to Jonathan Palmer-Brown, the Chairman of Oneglobal Broking
LINK:
We thank our supporter, Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today. Here is a link to their website:
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
In the wholesale specialty and reinsurance end of the global P&C market we can easily make the mistake of focusing too exclusively on the North American and European markets that make up the lion's share of worldwide premiums.
We can easily fall into the error of thinking that hard markets are universal and that whenever the US sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold.
That’s why It’s great to get a different perspective with a CEO who has been building a business in the world’s fastest growing markets in Asia for the last seven and a half years.
I learnt a lot from my chat with Franz Hahn of Peak Re.
For instance, the Covid-19 crisis means that credit markets are a great opportunity as are product liability covers for exporters, particularly high added value ones such as pharmaceuticals
Asia’s prior experience of Sars, bird and swine flu and Mers mean that insurance wordings here are crystal clear and the Covid-19 disputes that are littering Western courtrooms are simply not an issue.
I also learned that the market conditions are stratified between its developed and emerging markets
There’s a lot of really useful information packed into this interview – I think you will enjoy it.
LINK:
We thank our supporter Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today. Here is a link to their website:
Friday Jul 03, 2020
Friday Jul 03, 2020
Reinsurance is in a particularly interesting state at the moment.
Industry capital has recovered as capital markets have bounced back after decisive actions from central banks around the world and incumbents and a few start-ups have raised or plan to raise new capital.
But at the same time the industry has shown stronger underwriting discipline as it seeks to correct a poor run of results and tries to get ahead of likely unsatisfactory back year development in casualty classes.
Retro is expensive as the ILS market retrenches and traditional buyers are looking to alternative capital solutions.
Differentiation is everywhere as sellers identify their best clients for support and reduce involvement with lesser performers.
At the same time uncertainty is at an all-time high and this means demand for reinsurance from cedants is very healthy.
Throw Covid-19 into this and you have an outlook full of very big, very difficult to answer and highly correlated questions.
Here to answer them armed with Willis Re’s 1st View mid-year renewals report is James Vickers Chair of Willis Re International.
Links to Willis Re’s latest report and Covid-19 assessment are below – I heartily recommend that you read them.
LINKS
Willis Re's latest 1st View reinsurance market report:
https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-GB/Insights/2020/07/prudence-during-unforeseen-times
Willis Re's latest view on Covid-19:
https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-GB/Insights/2020/07/covid-19-and-re-insurers-financial-health
And our supporter Claims Direct Access (CDA)'s website:
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
This episode's guest is the CEO of one of Lloyd’s standout performers of the past two decades.
Beazley is a blue-chip Lloyd’s business that has consistently maintained top quartile performance while growing fast and continuing to innovate.
Because of this any time in the presence of Andrew Horton is time well spent.
In this episode we talk about the hardening market, the world that awaits the Class of 2020, Lloyd’s reforms, including syndicate in a box, lead-follow and the use of automation to remove costs from the syndicated market.
We also discuss, the prospect of the big three brokers becoming the big two, Andrew’s total aversion to bold transformational M&A – except when it doesn’t involve Beazley and of course, Covid-19 and how long a tail it is likely to be.
It’s a great way of getting a feel for what is front of mind at one of the specialty insurance and reinsurance world’s top outfits.
Today’s episode is very kindly supported by Claims Direct Access (CDA)
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/
and Bolton Associates
https://www.bolton-associates.co.uk/