The Voice of Insurance

Ep241 Ben Hubbard Parsyl: In the business of rewarding the best clients

I’d like you to cast your mind back to 2016 when the insurtech phenomenon really started to emerge.
It was a very exciting time as tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists had finally spotted the huge opportunities that would become available if they started to use their skill and financial wherewithal to help transform the way the global insurance industry goes about its business.The task was daunting, but the possibilities seemed endless.
That year Ben Hubbard co-founded Parsyl, the business he still heads today.
The firm made it into the first cohort of the Lloyd’s Lab and hasn’t looked back.
Now in 2025 Parsyl has come through its adolescence and has a made an impact in a niche segment of the cargo market where it has first been able to use its tech savvy to give itself a sustainable competitive edge.
Now eight years into the project, I’d argue the excitement is now greater because Parsyl is only just getting going and is poised to move into new lines of business.
Parsyl’s insurtech peers that didn’t make it usually failed because they were tech companies that didn’t know if they wanted to completely disrupt or collaborate with the incumbent insurance market – and it also turned out that many of them fundamentally underestimated how hard insurance can be to execute well and at the right scale. 
Parsyl is still here and thriving because it embedded itself in an entrepreneurial corner of the Lloyd’s market and has taken the best it has to offer, while adding its own extraordinary, almost alien layer of technological understanding on top.
It’s a best of both worlds philosophy.
So often we hear or read about the future of underwriting, as if it is something that hasn’t quite arrived yet, but will come eventually, if only we can be a little more patient.
Well, the wait is over – what Parsyl has built has fulfilled the promise of 2016 and then some
Ben and I met face to face on a stormy London afternoon in winter and the conversation fairly crackled along.
I defy you not to be enthused by Ben’s affable and easy-to-digest philosophy on how to make insurance better, more relevant to clients and more profitable for its capital backers.
Just to give you a taste, this is a business that already runs 100% of its submissions through Ai, constantly revamps its products over rolling two-week cycles and updates its models from experience and new third-party data every four months.
For incumbents this is jaw-dropping stuff. Luckily for us Ben is a friendly face who can help make this revolution palatable and easy to understand.
The future’s already here, so listen on to get yourself up to date.LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com

Sp Ep: The Fast-Evolving World of Employment Practices Liability

Today’s episode is going to dive deep into the fascinating world of Employment Practices Liability, or EPL.
This $4-5bn premium class of business is one that has grown into a standalone specialist line over the last 25 years and is one whose growth is almost guaranteed to continue into the future.
I say that growth is almost guaranteed because its progress is almost wholly aligned with the parallel progress of society at large.
As society develops and standards and expectations are raised in the workplace, so the consequences of failing to keep up with best practice will become steadily more severe for employers who fall behind.
Legislation changes and over time tends to create new forms of liability for employers.
At the same time unwritten societal norms evolve, almost always faster than the legislation can keep up.
Behaviour that might have been acceptable or even encouraged 30 years ago may today be the cause of new grievances and complaints in the workplace.
Similarly, as technological change accelerates and the way we work and where we work evolves, so new avenues for potential claims are being created at pace.
Also as workforces age and become more diverse, once again the potential for conflicting views on what is and what is not acceptable conduct by colleagues, employees and bosses of differing ages and cultural backgrounds is increased.
To sum up some liabilities are statutory and laid out in black and white, but others are becoming far more subjective; one person’s idea of absolute impartiality may be another’s idea of unjustifiable discrimination. Something many see as harmless teambuilding fun might be harassment when viewed from another perspective.
And because many employers and industry sectors follow very similar HR systems, Employment practices claims are also potentially systemic in nature. This merely adds potential fuel to the fire.
There’s an awful lot going on here and this is clearly not a line of business that the unprepared should be dabbling in.
That’s why I have assembled a trio of experts from underwriting, claims and the legal profession to shed light from all angles on the core questions and key trends affecting this dynamic class.
Bethany Greenwood (pictured top) is Beazley’s Group Head of Specialty Risks and Kamal Chhibber (pictured middle) is its Claims Focus Group Lead for International Financial Lines.
(By the way, Kamal Chhibber is known as Chhibbs by everyone, so this is how he is addressed throughout the podcast)
These two senior insurance practitioners have been professionally assisted by Louise Bloomfield (pictured bottom), a partner at UK law firm DAC Beachcroft.
The intention is that this podcast will be of value to anyone with an interest in this burgeoning casualty line and the fast-evolving cultural and legal territory that it inhabits.
I’ve spoken to the experts, so you absolutely don’t have to be one yourself.
NOTES AND ABBREVIATIONS
ADA = The Americans with Disabilities Act (US)
EEOC = The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (US)
ACAS = The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (UK)
 
RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING
Beazley has just launched a report entitled Spotlight On Boardroom Risk 2024
It deals with the evolving boardroom risk landscape, from business interruption and supply chain risks to regulations, reputation, and employer risks.

Ep240 Mike van der Straaten CEO Antares: Keeping insurance personal

Today’s guest is someone with the essence of insurance running right through his veins.That’s because he has been working in our industry since the age of sixteen and has accumulated over forty years of experience. Now as CEO of the Lloyd’s and Bermuda insurer and reinsurer Antares Mike Van der Straaten has a unique viewpoint of the global insurance market from which to apply his accumulated knowledge and understanding.Like many of its peers Antares has undergone a rebuilding and restructuring in the past few years and after steadying and right-sizing its business is now stepping out to seek measured profitable growth once more.I found this a really enjoyable and enriching discussion.In a world seemingly dominated by PhDs, Mike’s remarkable career is a reminder that, when it is performing as it should, the insurance industry is an education and vocation rolled into one and rewards intelligence, creativity, common sense and hard work in the most meritocratic of ways.Mike is a great guest and blends the best of the old and the new. For example in this podcast we examine many of the factors that don’t change, such as the shifts in the market cycle and distribution trends, but at the same time we also dissect some of the most progressive issues affecting the sector, such as the best applications of Ai and the streamlining of the underwriting and placement process. Mike always says what he thinks and this candour is extremely refreshing.
NOTES:We mention a Rolf Tolle. Rolf was Lloyd’s first Performance Management Director.LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com

Ep239 Chris Williams Tokio Marine International: Nurturing Global Insurance DNA

Today’s Episode is exceptional because in terms of his seniority and the sheer size and global nature of his role, my guest is in a very small peer group. Chris Williams is Chairman of International Business at the Tokio Marine Group and that means he helps oversee a business with a $75bn dollar balance sheet and 44,000 employees, operating in over 40 countries. Only a handful of my guests on this show in the last five years have a role of such global depth and breadth. An Australian who has worked in London and spent most of his career in the US, Chris is very much a model citizen of the global specialist insurance and reinsurance world that this podcast looks to serve.In the past twenty years Tokio Marine Group has embarked on a highly successful internationalisation strategy that has entailed multiple blue-chip acquisitions in countries all over the world. This has turned it from a dominant Japanese insurer with only around 3% of earnings coming from overseas into a global force that already makes around 75% of its earnings outside of Japan, with that proportion almost certain to continue growing over time.Chris joined the group through its 2015 acquisition of HCC so in many ways is the personal embodiment of this strategy.This podcast is a great distillation of that Tokio global plan and where it may be heading next, but it’s also a chance to pick the brains of an industry veteran who can combine a fifty-year career with a genuinely global overview. Chris’s views on the rise of MGAs, the prospects for renewed M&A in 2025, the best application of AI, the debates over rate and reserve adequacy in the casualty space and the overall state of the global market are all unequivocally and candidly expressed here. Chris is exceptionally good company and I caught him on great form in this podcast. He may be one of the most senior executives in our world but at heart he still comes across as a genuine, down-to-earth Australian who tells things the way he sees them. The fact that he has seen so much in such a wide and varied career just makes this Episode all the more valuable.Listen on and you’ll see what I mean. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it and learn a huge amount.
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.comWe also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Ep238 James Vickers: 1.1.25 - Not a Blind Soft Market

Today’s Episode is half of a duo of special podcasts released simultaneously that are looking to summarise the 1.1 reinsurance renewals. In previous years I have compiled these interviews into a documentary-style episode to work as a précis, but this year I enjoyed my interactions so much that I really didn’t want to be chopping them up into clips, so I have produced two separate episodes instead. Both my guests will be familiar to regular listeners and they both bring very different, very complimentary qualities. For a full picture of the renewal and the current state of the reinsurance market I highly recommend you listen to both This Episode is with James Vickers, Chairman of Gallagher Re International, who has been at the forefront of the reinsurance broking world for over forty years. The other, Episode 237, is with David Flandro, Head of Industry Analysis and Strategic Advisory at Howden Re. With David we examine all the broad macro factors washing across the reinsurance market and get a great feeling for the big picture.But in this podcast with James we get into much more micro detail.This satisfying discussion examines the annual close encounter between clients’ wants and needs and reinsurers’ appetites as well as their red lines. A listen will tell you that this market is not as black and white as a quick read of some of the simple headlines about declining prices might have you believe. There are many shades of grey and an enormous amount of differentiation is happening between reinsurers and their customersJames is on exceptional form and in this episode he doesn’t duck any of my questions and we don’t leave any stones unturned. If you want to be really well informed you need to talk to someone as personable and in the know as James – come and join us!Gallagher Re has published its comprehensive 1.1 First View report entitled Differentiation Rewarded.Make sure you Read it along with this EpisodeLINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.comWe also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Ep237 David Flandro Howden Re: 1.1.25 - The water is still warm

Today’s Episode is half of a duo of special podcasts released simultaneously that are looking to summarise the 1.1 reinsurance renewals. In previous years I have compiled these interviews into a documentary-style episode to work as a précis, but this year I enjoyed my interactions so much that I really didn’t want to be chopping them up into clips, so there are two instead of one.Both my guests will be familiar to regular listeners and they both bring very different, very complimentary qualities. For a full picture of the renewal and the current state of the reinsurance market I highly recommend you listen to both This Episode is with David Flandro, Head of Industry Analysis and Strategic Advisory at Howden Re. David has a deep analytical background, but in his long career has not, as far as I am aware, had to broker and place a risk in anger. The other, Episode 238, is with James Vickers, Chairman of Gallagher Re International, who has been at the forefront of the reinsurance broking world for over forty years. With James I will be getting more into the detail of the cut and thrust of the annual duel between clients’ wants and reinsurers’ red lines and ascertaining this highly experienced broker’s feel for today’s marketplace. But let’s get back to this podcast.In this lively discussion we examine all the macro factors washing across the reinsurance market in great detail. A listen will be a great education on how the best analysts gain their understanding of the market and will give you a good idea of where we are now and where we might be heading in 2025, provided external events don’t blow us off course. David may be one of the smartest people in our business, but he’s also great fun to spend time with. He is so good at explaining complicated ideas about the fundamental capital building blocks of insurance and reinsurance and the factors that affect them, that he always makes me feel a lot smarter for having spent time with him. NOTESHowden Re has published an extremely detailed and comprehensive report full of insights entitled Past the Pricing Peak Read it along with this Episode. LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.comWe also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Ep236 Andrew Matson Augment Risk: Ten times the value, not ten points off

Today’s guest is a rare breed of broker looking to build a sophisticated new intermediary operating at the higher end of the market.
In the past two years the business he leads has gone from a standing start to handling around $1.6bn in premiums.
Andrew Matson and Augment Risk have done this by being very targeted and very progressive, breaking insurance and reinsurance down to its core element – capital.
At a fundamental level insurance is a tool for capital protection and capital management. If designed and executed well this is a tool that produces better outcomes for clients and these benefits are ultimately measurable in improved return on equity.
Of course, what I have just described is about as far removed from the traditional broker model as it is possible to be.
This model might not be for everyone, but that is beside the point. Augment is already demonstrating that there is an eager community of sophisticated global buyers keen to discover what a holistic client- and capital-focused broker might be able to do for them.
And that’s what makes this encounter so interesting. Andrew has a singular vision for what he wants to achieve and after this podcast you’ll be in on the act too.
But we don’t just talk about Augment’s plans: legacy, parametric insurance, the future of insurance securitisation and the long-term effects of the digitisation of the insurance value chain are all examined in depth.
Andrew is ultra-smart and highly passionate and his ambition sears through this episode.
For anyone disillusioned with siloed, product-focused and constrained broking, here is someone with a genuinely attractive and genuinely original proposition to put to you.LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.comWe also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Sp Ep Graham Elliott CEO Crux Underwriting: Seeking Alpha

Today’s episode is an absolute blast. That’s because the person I am talking to is unique. And I think that’s because he spent quite a large proportion of his career a long way outside insurance and discovered our sector relatively late. But the crucial point is that it wasn’t that late. Graham Elliot CEO of Crux Underwriting had enough experience outside the sector not to be too dyed in the wool and full of industry preconceptions, but he has been with us long enough to have had time to have already made a serious entrepreneurial impact on our sector at Oxygen Insurance Brokers, Aqua Underwriting and Azur Group.I first met him about eight years ago at the beginning of the insurtech boom and found him incredibly valuable as someone who was very eloquent and adept at explaining the benefits of technology to a traditional insurance audience in words it could understand. Graham’s latest venture is Crux Underwriting, a new Lloyd’s MGA he has set up with experienced Political Risk and Political Violence underwriter, Mike O’Connor. But this podcast is way broader than Crux’s opening line of business. Our talk is an incredibly wide-ranging tour of the most advanced thinking around how global wholesale and specialty insurance and reinsurance is set to develop in the digital age that is currently dawning.AI, algorithmic trading, genuinely realtime digitised underwriting systems and the reasons behind the boom in MGAs are all discussed in great detail.If you still haven’t quite got your head around where the market is likely to be heading after our digital big bang is finally reached, I recommend this talk as a wonderful place to start. Graham is charismatic and charming and I guarantee it won’t be long before your imagination is sparked and you are swept up in the positive appreciation of some of the enormous opportunities that are available to smart entrepreneurs in today’s market.This is a great way to start the year.LINKSWe thank our Special Episode sponsor Stephens Rickard:https://www.stephensrickard.com/

Ep235 Dieter Winkel, President, Liberty Mutual Re: A consistent view of the market

Today’s guest can boast a 40-year career in the reinsurance business and now leads a global reinsurer with around $3bn in gross written premium and approximately 250 employees. Dieter Winkel is President of Liberty Mutual Re and this podcast is very timely, given its positioning just ahead of the key 1.1 reinsurance renewal season. Dieter is everything you want in a reinsurer: experienced, probably unshockable and very measured and consistent, as well as being easy to talk to.In this Episode we cover all the major issues affecting the global reinsurance market, from the general state of the market cycle, and trends in global specialty, property and casualty and retro all the way through cyber to the burgeoning world of parametrics and the best applications of AI in reinsurance. This a very enjoyable interview with a consummate reinsurance professional, who has lived through multiple market cycles and is an excellent communicator and great company to boot.LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.comWe also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.

Ep234 Distribution & Expertise: Walking the City with David Howden

Today’s podcast is a first for The Voice of Insurance. It’s the first time I’ve done an outside broadcast.
And the reason is a special one. David Howden started what was then Howden Pangbourne just over thirty years ago with two others and, famously, a dog, in a tiny office on St Dunstan’s Hill in London.
Now that business is around six thousand three hundred times bigger in terms of staff numbers and infinitely larger in terms of revenue and has become a major global insurance and reinsurance operator working all over the world.
I had been trying to get David back on the show for a while as it had already been 2 years since his last appearance alongside Rod Fox after the acquisition of reinsurance broker TigerRisk.
The message came back that he might be tempted to do it as long as we could do something different.
So this is indeed completely different.
David and I met up at St Dunstan’s one morning two weeks ago and went for a walk around the Insurance district of London we both know so well, taking in the sights, but also all of Howden’s five London head offices past and present along the way.
Inevitably we get a bit of a history lesson and hear lots of insightful stories and some fun anecdotes from along the amazing Howden entrepreneurial journey of the last three decades amid a fast-changing London and international insurance market.
But far more importantly we also discuss the core issues affecting the present and the future of that market and how Howden is positioning itself within it.
Howden Re, Dual and the MGA boom, the big question over whether Howden might enter US retail broking, ongoing broking consolidation, big capital questions around what structures make the most sense as Howden continues to scale, the firm’s latest 30/30 strategic plan and other key decisions facing the Howden Group now and over the decades to come all get comprehensively dealt with.
There’s nothing like a good walk for opening up a better quality of conversation.
David’s passion and enthusiasm are fizzling through every second of this fun and all-encompassing discussion.
If you want to know how David got this far do listen on, you’ll learn an awful lot.
But I think a better reason to carry on listening will be to hear where he is heading in the next few years and how he plans to get there.
By the time we close our conversation in Dave’s Wine Bar at the foot of Howden’s current HQ, you’ll be much wiser, but probably needing a sit down and a cup of coffee as much as I was.
NOTES:
If this has piqued your interest, there are some handy highlights of the Howden story here:
https://www.howdengroupholdings.com/about-us/our-story
The other broking firms that get the most mentions in this Episode are Spear Gulland, acquired by Howden in 1997 and major Spanish intermediary Gil y Carvajal, bought by Aon in 1998.
I worked at Gil y Carvajal’s London office from 1992-95 and again 1997-98, hence my extra inside knowledge of St Dunstan's.
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com
We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. This week they are advertising their successful TINtech London Market event, which will be happening on 4th February 2025.