The Voice of Insurance

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

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

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

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

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

Today’s guests are a pair of broking executives clearly relishing an opportunity to lead a business through a period of accelerated growth in a market that is extremely favourable. James Baird (pictured left) and Paul Richards (right) are co-CEOs and Managing Partners of Consilium, the wholesale and specialist insurance and reinsurance broker that is part of the expansive Aventum group. Aventum Group CEO David Bearman laid down a marker back in Episode 82 almost two years ago and it’s worth re-listening to that podcast to put this one into context: https://www.thevoiceofinsurance.com/podcast/episode/33b1d9c1/ep-82-david-bearman-ceo-aventum-dont-walk-into-a-crowded-room This encounter is a tour de force. Whilst both James and Paul have worked together for most of their long careers they are relatively new arrivals to the Aventum fold. But you wouldn’t know from listening in here – the two are brimming with enthusiasm for their new home. Consilium already places $500mn of Gross Written Premium and has incredibly ambitious growth targets, but what is refreshing is that we aren’t talking about a familiar tale of private Equity backing, debt leverage, M&A and exit multiples. Here we are only using those terms to define what Consilium isn’t. And that’s what’s so fascinating. Consilium is a young broker with an average age way below that of these two interviewees and this interviewer. It has a progressive mindset on the application of tech in broking, much of which it develops in-house, yet in other ways it is incredibly traditional, balking at debt leverage, external equity investment and M&A for volume. The calculation here is that by growing organically whatever it loses in leverage the broker wins culturally, because it only hires people it feels will fit in and buy into the intermediary’s more stable culture. It also banks on that solid environment being a plus for customers who benefit from continuity of service. It’s definitely different. And with 30% organic growth on the cards, it certainly seems to be doing something right! Listen on for a really interesting and refreshing encounter. James speaks first. NOTES: Some Abbreviations. GL is General Liability and the ULR and ILR are respectively the Ultimate and Incurred Loss Ratios. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/

Today's podcast is slightly shorter than many. At first I was wondering why. but listening back just now it’s actually quite clear. Long conversations come about because there are complicated structures, products and new ventures to explain. Or sometimes it’s because the people I talk to say things that I am not expecting them to say and then we have to spend time clarifying exactly what they mean. With Trevor Carvey CEO of Conduit Re, it isn’t like that. First of all Conduit was founded on the simple premise of being an uncomplicated pure reinsurer and that plan hasn’t changed just because the market has. There are no new platforms or initiatives to dissect here. Conduit is staying true to its original business plan, although better-than-expected market conditions may allow the firm to execute that plan a little quicker than expected. And the relative brevity is also down to Trevor himself. He’s concise and gets to the point and always answers questions head-on and in the most transparent and open way. It’s refreshing and this means that in a short time you can learn an awful lot about the exact state of the reinsurance market and where the best opportunities currently lie within it. There’s a lot of highly valuable detail and strategic insight in here coming from someone whose experience is very difficult to match in the industry today. I highly recommend a listen. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/

Today’s guest is someone you might not know but I think he is someone you should definitely listen to. That’s because Killian McDermott, Co-Founder & Executive Partner of POP Holdings is someone who is quietly innovating and applying technology and the analysis of data to the business of underwriting. Killian is an insurance professional with a long pedigree and so doesn’t come from the school of insurance disruptors. Indeed he believes that successful insurers have been married to the smart analysis of data since time immemorial and that the term insurtech will eventually have to be retired. He is an insurance person whose career would be typical of many in his peer group and recognisable to all of us, but who has learned to focus on the technology side of the business, not the other way around. What is also fascinating is that, in a world where so much tech innovation is going on in personal lines where numbers are large and premiums very low, his focus is on applying data ingestion and analysis, artificial intelligence and machine learning, digitisation and automation to highly specialist classes of business such as M&A insurance and financial lines. The firm’s ambition is also substantial. Fusion Specialty Insurance and io.insure are the group’s main operating business with licences in many major insurance jurisdictions globally and Killian is targeting a billion dollars of Gross written premiums within five years. So if you want to hear from someone who instead of talking about innovation and insurtech is quietly getting on with making it all a reality, I highly recommend you listen on. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/ And our advertiser Bolton Associates: https://www.bolton-associates.co.uk/

In many ways today’s guest is an archetype of a traditional Lloyd’s Managing Agency business and the lifeblood of the London Market. It’s specialist, not generalist, it’s not too big but not too small. It’s nimble and agile, but also rarely strays from its chosen areas of expertise. And it’s also fiercely independent and supported - but not controlled by - its capital backers. Duncan Dale is CEO of Dale Underwriting Partners, a business in its tenth year of operation that is set to write around $400 million dollars in gross premium in 2023 following a one third pre-emption in its capacity from 2022. We discuss the recalibration in the market following the 1.1 reinsurance renewals, the opportunities this is throwing up and how long these opportunities might last for. We look at the firm’s expansion plans and the continued merits or otherwise of the London Market as a base, the effects of increased inflation on underwriting and we dissect Duncan’s own personal ambitions for the business he founded. But most importantly we get under the skin of a very singular London-headquartered underwriting business with a very clear vision of what it wants to do and where it wants to be. Duncan is on excellent form and I think this podcast proves that these days there is absolutely no such thing as a Lloyd’s archetype. Every market participant has a different approach and a very different philosophy and set of appetites – and I think that bodes very well for the health of the London Market as a whole. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/ And our advertiser Bolton Associates: https://www.bolton-associates.co.uk/

Join James Hands, the dynamic new CEO of Miller, as he dives into the intricacies of the insurance market. He shares insights on fostering a client-centric culture while navigating a tough reinsurance landscape. Discover how Miller plans to grow through both organic means and acquisitions, all while adapting to technological changes and maintaining a focus on specialized services. James's pragmatic leadership and clear vision for the future showcase how innovation can coexist with personalized client care in a rapidly evolving industry.