Insurance Covered

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. Our guest this week is Ben Bolton, Managing Director of Gracechurch Consulting and we will be discussing what makes a great underwriter. We start by discussing what the key trends in the insurance market currently are according to studies and research carried out by Gracechurch. Ben explains that there are 5 key trends which are; Consolidation: "What we're seeing in the data is a big shift towards consolidation and this has huge implications, it ratchets up the competition amongst the largest insurers with more and more of the premiums going to the top 15 firms and less so to the smaller operators in the market., who as a result find themselves needing to find ways of surviving, many going the way of mergers or outright acquisitions".  Talent:  The need to continue to develop talent internally but also the need to bring in talent from other industry backgrounds to broaden the skill pool, particularly as the industry continues to become more customer focused.  Reputation & service: "We are seeing a move to a more customer focused offering, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The outcome of the BI COVID-19 cases has reinforced the need to build trust with clients. What is quite a negative will ultimately, I think bring change as it brings the conversation of building trust into the boardroom"Technology: The introduction of technology to a very traditional market will help transform the industry. The Lloyd's Blueprint's show the direction the market is going. Ben identifies trading systems as a key area that will see technology development. Segmentation and specialisation: Due to competition and size of the insurance market, it's not feasible to be a generic all encompassing firm, you need to have areas where you can demonstrate specialism and competitive advantage in comparison to your competitors. We then discuss specifically what makes a good underwriter, drawing on the results of a recent survey carried out by Gracechurch. Ben explains the survey collects information on underwriters on a variety of different criteria, from hard metrics such as profitability to softer intangibles like reputation in the market amongst clients and peers. Ben explains the answer to 'what makes a good underwriter' has two sides. One is the pure financial side, the underwriters that bring in the big money. The more proactive underwriters, those who refreshed their portfolios, changed things up, were the more successful. Then there is the other side which the report by Gracechurch explores, personal characteristics, such as whether they had a fixed or growth mindset, or how outgoing they are.Finally, we discuss if these attributes are likely to change in 5-10 years or whether the characteristics coupled with the profitability is going to continue to be the formula for a top underwriter.  We hope you enjoy the podcast! If you did, please subscribe to be notified of future  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. Our guest this week is blockchain expert and entrepreneur, Walid Al Saqqaf, and we will be discussing blockchain and its uses in the insurance industry.We start by discussing what blockchain actually is. Walid explains that blockchain in its simplest form is used to emphasise the value of data. Blockchain enables you to engage into the exchange of value around data and that opens a world of opportunities for the public. Blockchain enables us to facilitate the sharing of data from the value standpoint, your data has value to you and therefore should be protected and not given for free. Walid uses the example of cryptocurrency to explain further what blockchain is and can be. "If I send you a Bitcoin, that piece of information, that data has value. You could go to an exchange it for traditional currency, but you want to make sure that if I send it to you, I haven't sent it to anybody else or that it hasn't been misappropriated, you want to know that once you have received it, you are the owner of that Bitcoin, right? With blockchain you can see a trail history of me having been the previous owner of it and somebody else having been the owner of it. Now you can give real value to data whether it is currency format, such as bitcoin, whether it is an insurance policy, that has value, or whether it is the deeds to my property for example. All of this data now has value and you can see the history of who has ownership of it".To simplify it further Walid uses the analogy of a bank ledger, every time a transaction occurs the ledger records it. Blockchain is like this for online data, it allows you to see the history and movement of data every time a new transaction occurs a new block on the chain is added. He goes on to explain that Blockchain is fundamentally about trust and transparency, particularly with online and digital assets. When you are about transfer your money into Bitcoin, you want to make sure that that Bitcoin is legit, if you want, and that you are now the rightful owner of it.We then go on to look at Blockchain and its uses in the insurance industry. The insurance industry has traditionally looked at pricing risk by looking at historical data. In a world that is increasingly digital, where decisions have to be made on the spot, you need to access the real time data and you need to be able to make real time decisions, Blockchain can provide this. And an example of that is Insurwave. Insurwave is a marine insurance blockchain solution that was initially built by Maersk, by a number of insurance companies, EY and Guardtime. The initial proposition was to equip ship captains and insurers to be able to make informed decisions in real time considering a number of criteria and real time risks. For example, a ship captain, can sail through a war zone and save time and also money on fuel, or they can choose to avoid the risk and sail around it. With real time data insurers can see the risks and see the captains decision to either avoid or take the risk, and as a result can alter the premium accordingly. So now you have a facility as an insurer to gain external data, you have a network data strategy that helps you understand risk better, that helps you price yourself better and more importantly to come full circle back to the beginning of the podcast, for you to build better customer-centric propositions. Walid finishes by summarizing how Blockchain has changed things and how it will continue to do so in the future "what blockchain has facilitated, is a creation of a new asset class of trusted data. And this is the critical piece. Because that new asset class will enable you to build new business models, new revenue opportunities, new customer-centric propositions that you could not have done without blockchain because the key as I said is trusted data". We hope you enjoy the podcast! If you did, please subscribe to be notified of future episodes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. Our guest this week is Andrew Pedler, Head of Claims Client Relationships and Innovation at Liberty Specialty Markets, and we will be discussing the role of claims in client service.We start by discussing Andrew's role at Liberty, what it involves and what he is trying to achieve. He explains his role has two main parts; the client relationship side and the innovation. On the client relationship side, it is looking at the firm's relationships with policy holders and brokers, engaging in conversations and ensuring that the firm as a whole are delivering on promises and meeting the needs of clients. It also looks at how the claims team can have a crucial role of winning and keeping business. On the innovation side, it is mainly looking at implementing new strategies that will complement the client relationship building "it's looking at something that you can implement into an organisation. So, it might be the implementation of a customer management strategy or a strategy to improve our client service and then implementing that change throughout the business".We then go on to discuss specifically how a claims team can be a key part of winning and keeping business and how the role of a claims team is changing. Andrew puts it simply; "If you have a good claim experience you are much more likely to renew business. It's just a fact. Likewise, if you've had a poor experience then you're likely to go elsewhere". He goes on to explain traditionally a claims team would be reactive, they would wait for a policy to trigger, investigate and then decide if the claim was valid. Now the team is more proactive " now we spend a lot of time with our customers and our brokers either before their policy is incepted so making sure that people understand the policy and then after the inception make sure that we have the right contacts and procedures in place so that client knows what to expect in the event of a claim". Its far more client centric, a claims team deal with people and companies in trying and difficult times, being a friendly face can help them through the process.  Andrew then explains other ways in which they build relationships with clients. He explains they run a number of workshops, where they go through a claims scenario, how the claim came into play explaining what is happening behind the scenes and the process from policy being triggered to a policy being paid out. They go through risk mitigation, ensuring they understand the risk, the warning signs and ultimately how to avoid the risk entirely.  We then discuss how this has changed over the last year, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how Andrew and his team operate. He explains that it is the same idea's and strategies but has moved from face to face meetings to more virtual interactions. He emphasised that its important to maintain personal interactions even if it has to be socially distanced and online.  Andrew goes on to explain that the move to online meetings can be a negative it also brings positives; "there is a great opportunity to meet more of our customers and our clients. I can now meet with whole teams within a client's organisation with multiple clients at once".   We hope you enjoyed this episode of Insurance Covered, if you did please consider subscribing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. Our guest this week is Marc McKenna-Coles, Global Diversity & Inclusion Manager at Lloyd's, and we will be discussing diversity and inclusion in the insurance industry.We start by discussing Marc's pathway into insurance, which is one of the more circuitous routes. Marc started as a store manager at Disney, before moving to the Disney Cruise side of the business as 'Merchitainment Manager'. In 2019 Marc made the switch to Lloyd's to work on their global I&D initiatives. Marc explains the jump isn't as different as it may seem, his roles have always been customer focused and that is very much the same with the work he does at Lloyd's.   We then go on to discuss what we mean by Diversity & Inclusion, Marc explains it's making the workplace (for employers and customers) a welcoming environment regardless of features, characteristics and beliefs. "It's ensuring we have a nice spread of people from all different backgrounds… by having a fully inclusive workforce brings out the best in people, creating an environment where everyone can flourish which is obviously to the advantage of the company as well". Marc goes on to discuss his role at Lloyd's: "So my role is split between both the corporation and the market so I'm very much trying to bring that diverse and inclusive mindset and lens into the corporation how we can be attractive to a more diverse range of people". Marc goes on to showcase some of the tools he has been developing, that are readily available to anyone even outside of the insurance industry. He has developed reports around ethnic minorities and ethnic diversity in the workplace, last year he helped produce a report on trans and non-binary inclusion as well as a report on family care policies, so the work they do is far reaching and all available here. We go on to discuss one of the biggest I&D initiatives set up by Lloyd's, the Dive In festival. Dive In is a global movement in the insurance sector to support the development of inclusive workplace cultures. Its mission is to enable people to achieve their potential by raising awareness of the business case and promoting positive action for diversity in all its forms. This means looking beyond traditional definitions of diversity to level the playing field for talent comprehensively including gender, gender identity, age, cultural background, sexual orientation, social mobility, faith, caring responsibilities, mental health and physical impairments. 2020's Dive involved 35 countries, we ran 144 events across the globe, and had over 30,000 individuals participate across those 144 events.We hope you enjoyed this episode of Insurance Covered, if you did please consider subscribing.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. This episode we are joined by Dania Rifaat, Speciality Claims Manager at Hiscox, and we will be looking at cyber insurance.Dania starts by explaining what cyber insurance is intended to cover. She explains it is used to cover businesses and individuals from their exposure to cyber incidents and data incidents, like data or ransomware attacks. Dania goes on to give the following example: "you come into work and find that all of your systems have been encrypted by cybercriminals and you can't access any of your data and, and you've received a ransom demand saying that unless you pay X you're going to lose all that data permanently". This is the kind of attack businesses ae seeing more frequently so are therefore keen to have an insurance policy covering the loss of crucial data.Other things that cyber policies are there to cover are sophisticated scams like phishing attempts, were hackers will send an email purporting to be from kind of a trusted organisation and they are basically phishing for credentials because they want you to give them your username and password that they will use to steal valuable data.Dania goes on to explain speed is essential when you have suffered a cyber breach. "Cyber insurance comes into its own because, you have regulatory obligations that kick in, you've got 72 hours to notify the ICO when you become aware of the breach, so if you picture the scenario where you realise something has gone wrong, you know, where do you start if you don't have access to experts." A key part of cyber policies is having access to experts to help quickly regain control and limit the damage of cyber breaches. Dania explains that with Hiscox we have a 24/7 hotline that you can call in the event of an incident, that will take you through to our cyber forensics experts and we will very quickly pull a team together which will be there to help guide the insured.We finish off by looking at the impact lockdown and the pandemic has had on cyber claims. Dania explains that they saw claims volumes in cyber go up by about 40% during the first six months of lockdown and more claims with a Covid focus. Criminals have been fast to think about ways that they can exploit things like HMRC emails about furlough, trying to get information from people phishing in that way. Criminals are finding ways to exploit vulnerabilities that arise from the majority of people working from home.We hope you enjoy the podcast! If you did, please subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. Our guest this week is Paul Miller, Senior Consultant at HFG Insurance Recruitment, and our topic for discussion will be recruitment in the insurance industry.We start by discussing Paul's career and how he became involved with HFG, a specialist recruitment agency for the insurance industry. Paul explains that the appeal of the insurance industry was the people and culture. "The openness of the insurance industry was a perfect fit". Paul goes on to explain what HFG do. He explains that they specialise solely within the insurance industry, covering general insurance, life insurance, Lloyd's market, and also up and coming technology companies and consultancy firms as well.Paul goes on to say that the insurance industry has something for everyone, it's so broad and far reaching, it plays a part in almost every industry across the world. "If you are interested in animals then you can do livestock or equine, if you're interested in art then obviously you can go down that route, if you're interested in technology then there's lots of options in cyber". We then discuss how new graduates can find opportunities in the insurance industry. Paul mentions the traditional route of graduate schemes, that often recruit a year in advance. He offers the alternative option of looking at individual trainee intakes and how you can go about identifying the right opportunities for you. We end our recruitment segment of the podcast discussing how COVID-19 has impacted the recruitment industry. Paul was optimistic that despite the difficult environment there are still opportunities coming up, however he is seeing much bigger competition for jobs.We finish with a discussion on insurance history.  Paul's dedicates his LinkedIn feed to highlighting fun and interesting facts about the insurance market, giving a whole new insight to people outside the industry. He gives the example of how a group of Lloyd's underwriters created the stunt double industry by offering insurance that allowed for risky action sequences to be filmed that may otherwise have been removed from films. We hope you enjoy the podcast! If you did, please subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. For this episode we are doing something a bit different. We are joined by novelist and film director William Boyd and we will be discussing insurance in popular culture, more specifically through Armadillo, a novel William published in 1998 where the main protagonist is none other than an insurance loss adjustor. We start by looking at William's career as a writer and how he got into novel writing. What started out as a hobby turned into more with William finding early success with his writing. At the age of 28 he had his first novel published 'A Good Man in Africa'. It was in 1998 that Armadillo was published, a book where the main character Lorimer Black was an insurance adjustor. William goes on to explain the plot (without spoilers)."It's the story of a young man who because of events in his past has changed his name who kind of disguises himself and he is a brilliant loss adjuster. Whatever job he is doing he changes his accent, his identity, his clothing, in order to make himself more amenable to the person he is adjusting and he is incredibly successful and he works for this small firm with a tyrannical boss and they are very successful but Lorimer's life is in a way a kind of lie, he's created this carapace around himself and slowly but surely in the course of the novel it begins to fall apart and reveal the man beneath."William explains prior to writing the novel he spent time talking to people at Lloyd's and meeting people from the insurance world, listening to their stories and experiences. He also drew inspiration from the experiences of his friends and family who had interactions with the insurance world.  It was these experiences that allowed his imagination to run and create Armadillo. He goes on to say that to his knowledge this is the only novel that takes insurance as its core theme, which is interesting because insurance has so many stories to tell, every claim is a mini story. William explains the meaning behind the title of the book. The Spanish word armadillo means 'little armed man' they saw these strange creatures running around and they look like they are wearing armour, so the name stuck. On the cover of the book there is a picture of a man with a cardboard box over his head as if he is somehow wearing a helmet and is protected but that way it’s a visual analogue of what the book is trying to say and the idea that insurance is a form of armour. We hope you enjoyed this special edition of insurance Covered. Massive thanks to William for taking the time to talk to us. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. This episode we are joined by Julian Enoizi, CEO of Pool Re, and we will be looking at terrorism insurance.Julian starts by explaining how and why Pool Re was set up. In 1993 following a number of terrorist attacks the insurance industry was no longer in a position to offer reinsurance due to the increased frequency of attacks and lack of capital to pay out claims, as a result terrorism insurance policies were largely withdrawn from the market, which then caused knock on effects with regards to bank loans and construction projects. Without the added layer of protection insurance provided, large projects were put off and the economy suffered. As a result, the government intervened in a joint public and private sector scheme to provide loan facilities to cover terrorist attacks, known as 'Pool Re'. The idea is that following a terrorist attack if there was not enough money made from the premiums taken to pay out all the claims, the government would provide a loan to cover the additional costs, ensuring claims were paid and the insurance market was protected. He goes on to explain how Pool Re works commercially. Pool Re is a mutual insurer, a commercial business will buy terrorism insurance from its property insurer. They will then reinsure the terrorism part of the policy into Pool Re and pay a premium for that terrorism reinsurance, which is collected by Pool Re.  Annually they collect £320 million in premiums from 150 different insurers across the United Kingdom. That pot builds up so that when an attack occurs the funds are there to pay out on the policy. In the 27 years they have been operating they have c. £6.5 billion, after paying out on 17 different events. If that pot was exhausted the government would step in and loan the money to pay out on claims. Julian goes on to discuss some of the incidents that have occurred and how terrorism threats are changing, noting cyber attacks as a new form of terrorism.  We then go on to discuss Pool Re solutions, a way for Pool Re to engage with academics and the market to develop a consensus of what is or isn't a terrorist act and therefore what can and cannot be covered. He goes on to explain that Pool Re solutions is like a consulting arm of the company that on a global scale helps model and manage these risks. We finish by looking at the current COVID-19 pandemic and whether a similar government backed insurance model could work to protect against losses that have arisen from the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. We hope you enjoy the podcast! If you did, please subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. This episode we are joined by Antton Peña, Founder of Flock, and we will be looking at the insurance of drones.Antton starts by explaining what Flock do and how they became involved with the insurance of drones. When Amazon first started exploring the idea of drone deliveries Antton identified that potential risks involved with this would require a very bespoke type of insurance cover, something which at that time was not readily available. By tapping into third party data such as Google Maps and real time weather data the level of risk could be adapted, along with the premium. Antton goes on to explain the uses of drones are far bigger than most people realise. They insure anything from small personal drones to 300 pound 4 metre long drones that are flying objects to oil rigs and construction projects or are rescuing people in the sea. Currently there are over 5,500 companies with licenses to fly drones commercially. He then explains why drones can't just be insured as part of a business or home insurance policy, the short answer is the risk is vastly different and more volatile so the insurance solution needs to be flexible and tailored depending on the particular circumstances, for example location of travel, length and distance travelled, time of travel and weather conditions. Flock have 30-40 data points that get collected in real time and all these data points give an understanding of what's going on in relation to the factors mentioned above. Antton goes on to explain that Flock have multiple packages insureds can choose, from pay as you fly hourly coverage, to more regular monthly and annual packages for the more commercially used drones. Finally, Antton looks ahead to the future of the drone industry and what he expects to be the next big changes and developments.We hope you enjoy the podcast! If you did, please  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Insurance Covered! The podcast that looks at the inner workings of the insurance industry with the help of expert guests. This episode we are joined by Brendan McGurk, who is a barrister at Monckton Chambers, and we will be looking at the big data and data profiling in relation to the insurance industry.Brendan has recently released an award winning book 'Data profiling and insurance law' and we begin by discussing an overview of what the book covers. One aspect of this is looking at the way in which insurers will use big data and predictive analytics for the purpose of underwriting. Brendan explains that as insurers get more access and involvement in big data, they will be able to more accurately access and price risk. He goes on to explain that competitive advantage will be with the insurers that develop the best algorithms for assessing risks. When looking at where insurers might get this kind of data Brendan explains the 'Internet of Things' (IoT) which is the vast web of devices connected to the internet. Brendan identifies three devices that contribute useful data for insurers; black boxes in cars, wearable technology (smart watches) and smart devices in your home like Google Nest, Amazon Alexa and the devices they can connect to (fire alarms, leak detectors, cctv cameras). The information provided by these devices enable insurers to more accurately assess a situation and determine the risk levels and price accordingly.Away from underwriting Brendan explains how big data can enable big changes in the way claims are handled. If claims handlers have access to the data and can use it in a meaningful way, they are able to paint a much clearer picture and investigate more accurately. Drawing back on the example of the black box in cars, insurers can see when the accident occurred, where, what speed the insured was moving therefore giving them a much clearer indication on the validity of the claim.Finally, we look at the transparency and privacy concerns of big data and using people's data potentially without them knowing or consenting. We look at the duty of good faith, GDPR issues, potential use of protected characteristics and the risk of data breaches from holding this data.We hope you enjoy the podcast! If you did, please subscribe to be notified of future episodes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.