The Voice of Insurance

What an absolute blast this episode was to record! I often interview irrepressible, energetic and ultra-enthusiastic executives on the podcast – it goes with the territory after all. Indeed I have had both of today’s guests on the show before, but there is something about bringing them together that caused sparks to fly and brought a different dynamic into play. David Howden of Howden Group and Rod Fox of TigerRisk Partners are both founders of their respective businesses and are two of the most successful broking entrepreneurs of their generation. The two are combining their firms in an M&A deal that is creating a highly credible challenger reinsurance broker to the big three. This podcast is almost like a metaphor for what they are trying to achieve together. One and one seem to add up to quite more than two and both were already larger than life before we started! No questions were off the table. It’s all here. There’s nothing left out. LINKS Howden Re has an excellent Reinsurance Market report out. It's called Reinsurance - A Tipping Point  We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank this Episode’s advertising supporter Oxbow Partners https://oxbowpartners.com

Today’s guest is someone who, despite being the CEO of a very prominent publicly-quoted global speciality insurer and reinsurer, has been keeping himself out of the media spotlight for the last couple of years. This is because like many other leaders in our world, Albert Benchimol CEO of AXIS Capital has been busy overseeing underwriting remediation and a wholesale re-set of his business’s strategic positioning as the market has transitioned. Now I’m delighted to announce that he has come out the other side and has agreed to be on the show. The Albert I encountered in this episode was someone looking forward to the future with a lot of energy, optimism and enthusiasm. No subjects were off the menu, so after swiftly polishing off the elephant in the room topic of Axis’s widely publicised decision to pull out of property reinsurance, we expanded out into a really broad discussion that encompasses, rate adequacy, the rise of the MGA, inflation, ESG and industry diversity to name but a few. Albert’s now been CEO of AXIS for over a decade and it’s that experience and sense of authority that I think shines through every minute of this lively encounter. We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank this Episode’s advertising supporter Oxbow Partners https://oxbowpartners.com/

Today’s guests are InsTech CEO Matthew Grant (pictured top right) and Research Analyst Henry Gale (bottom right). Regular listeners will know that the InsTech team are my go-to experts from the world of Insurtech. I rely on them to keep me informed and connected with the most important developments in that burgeoning field. Matthew Grant has spent over 30 years at the intersection of technology and insurance. Since he co-founded the InsTech events and intelligence platform five years ago, it has grown into an extremely active global community of around 25,000 industry professionals which has worked with over 200 companies. As this unique community has grown, so has its manpower and the sophistication of its output. Instech’s regular research reports are essential reading for incumbent insurance folk, tech investors and entrepreneurs. And it is the latest InsTech report that we are focusing on today. No-one will have managed to ignore the Parametric Insurance phenomenon as it has exploded into our consciousness, particularly over the past couple of years as eye-catching launches and multi-million-dollar fundraisings have made the headlines. With such an explosion of new ideas and potential partners, the subject is a potential minefield. Who to partner with? Which avenues to pursue and which to avoid? Thankfully Instech has produced a comprehensive and highly practical report on the subject. Matthew has been personally involved with parametrics for over 25 years and Instech has been closely engaged with all of the most interesting players in the space since it was founded. One of the aims of InsTech is to connect incumbents, investors and entrepreneurs around workable ideas that have the best chance of succeeding in the real world and this makes for a very focused podcast. And important for me, Matthew and report author Henry may be supremely well connected and clued up, but they have their feet on the ground and explain their ideas with great enthusiasm but expressed in plain English in an easy-going manner. This means you don’t need to have any specialist knowledge or interest to learn an awful lot from this conversation Enjoy the podcast NOTES As Matthew alludes to at the start, he has been hosting the InsTech podcast since 2018. He has notched up over 200 episodes with a cross-section of the insurtech community. Check them out on your favourite podcast app or here: https://www.instech.co/podcasts LINKS The report is called Parametric Insurance in 2022: the 150+ Companies to Watch Here's the link: https://www.instech.co/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=21  If you want to follow up on the offer Matthew makes towards the end of the podcast, please email hello@instech.co Check out all of InsTech’s latest reports, podcasts and online and in-person events at https://www.instech.co/

Today’s guest is a former Microsoft, CIA and Goldman Sachs employee who, perhaps unsurprisingly, has found his way to somewhere very close to the top of the Cyber Insurance tree in the past few years. With a billion dollars in run-rate GWP after just five years, major VC funding, aggressive international expansion plans and now a newly-acquired US admitted carrier, Coalition and its CEO Joshua Motta have quite a story to tell. With his deep cyber security background it was likely that Coalition was going to build something very different from incumbent insurers and indeed the firm’s offering is much more of a joined-up full service than many of its competitors. As Joshua puts it, Coalition “owns the repair shop” and that helps an awful lot with risk engineering and loss mitigation. And so far the results have been excellent. The grand tour of the Coalition modus operandi is really interesting but it is when the conversation spreads to more weighty industry topics that I think this podcast really takes off. Joshua has some really strong views about how fears around systemic risk in cyber have been overblown and how to unlock the capacity that cyber will need if it is to continue its fast growth without hitting capacity constraints. Now you may say that he would say that, but now that Coalition is funding more of its own underwriting, Joshua is clearly happy to put his money where his mouth is. Coalition is also putting some of its own modelling work out on open source to help others get comfortable with its view of risk. I definitely recommend a listen for anyone nervous about committing capital to cyber reinsurance for fear of earth-shattering systemic risk – the counter-arguments made here are pretty convincing. LINKS Here is the announcement about Coalition buying Admitted lines carrier Digital Affect Insurance Company This coincided with our podcast recording and as you will hear, it was definitely news to me. With hindsight I should have probed a lot more. Next time! We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank this Episode’s advertising supporter Oxbow Partners https://oxbowpartners.com/

Today we are going to be doing something completely different. We’re not going to talk about insurance. Regular listeners will know that AdvantageGo has been a great supporter of the Voice of Insurance since the early days of the podcast. But you might not have known that this excellent technology company is also an important backer of UK military charity, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity. AdvantageGo is an associate Sponsor of The Soldiers’ Charity’s Annual fundraiser, the Lord Mayor’s Big Curry lunch at the Guildhall in London, which is a fixture attended and supported by many in the London Insurance market. It’s the Soldiers’ Charity’s work we want to showcase here, particularly a highly successful programme the charity funds in the field of pain management. So I’m going to introduce two services veterans, Russ Kirby (pictured bottom right) and Bernie O’Toole (top right) who have both been through the programme. Russ is a Navy veteran and Bernie was in the Army. You may find parts of their accounts distressing, but I would encourage you to continue because you will be rewarded with a great story of empowerment and optimism. The pain management programme has given them their lives back and you will feel their positive energy as they recount drastically reducing the painkillers, or dispensing with them entirely and regaining the confidence and optimism to look forward to productive and satisfying future lives. As Bernie says – the programme works and it’s worth its weight in gold. NOTES For worldwide listeners, B&Q is a major UK DIY store. LINKS If you want to get more closely involved with ABF The Soldiers' Charity, please contact Katy Wildman on kwildman@soldierscharity.org or email lmbc@soldierscharity.org Please donate if you can here: The Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch website: https://events.soldierscharity.org/event/lmpjbc-2022?lightbox=/event/lmpjbc-2022/donate Or here: ABF The Soldiers’ Charity website: https://soldierscharity.org/donate/make-donation/ SSAFA is the Armed Forces charity. Russ also mentions other UK Armed Services charities The Poppy Factory  and Help for Heroes Russ’s private business is called Russ Mounts Stuff We thank AdvantageGo for organising this very special podcast: https://www.advantagego.com/

Today’s guest is someone I’m delighted to be welcoming back to the podcast after just under two years. Back then he was the relatively new CEO at Hannover Re and some of my questioning probed what sort of things he might do differently from his predecessors. Now into his fourth year in charge and Jean-Jacques Henchoz is the seasoned boss of a reinsurer that has not skipped a beat since its leadership transition. Very strong growth has continued and results have been excellent. In the first question in this podcast I dared ask if Hannover Re’s growth streak could continue now that the already 3rd largest reinsurance group in the world is far closer to the number two spot than the number four is to it. The answer was a very frank “yes for now” and that set the tone for everything that was to follow. I learned a lot about a huge range of topics, including views on the Ukraine war, Florida, resurgent inflation and the prospects for Cyber ILS. I also discovered how the strong growth environment has created the conditions that have made Covid reinsurance disputes far fewer in number than we thought they might have been two years ago. Jean-Jacques is clearly at the top of his game and I couldn’t recommend this episode more highly as not only a crystal-clear view into the reinsurance industry’s standout performer of the past fifteen years, but a really useful primer for the autumn conference season and the testing end of year renewals to come. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank this Episode’s advertising supporter Oxbow Partners https://oxbowpartners.com/

Today’s guest is Sean McGovern CEO, UK & Lloyd’s at AXA XL. Sean was first on the show a year and a half ago when he was less than a year into his first industry CEO role. When we last spoke he was in the middle of a root-and-branch remediation of AXA XL’s book, the severity of which had taken many by surprise. As a senior Lloyd’s executive and spokesperson Sean had been in the public eye for many years, so everyone knew he would be able to handle that side of the job. But if anyone had any doubts about his ability to lead a tough underwriting turnaround, they were dispelled as AXA XL’s Syndicate 2003 posted a vintage 75% combined ratio in 2021 – that’s a 59-point improvement on the previous year. I think the difference between the two podcasts is palpable. Here is a confident and forward-looking executive with growth on his mind in all areas of his business. As a result this is a really positive discussion with one of Lloyd’s largest players about today’s opportunities as well as the major issues affecting the London Market as a whole. I can highly recommend a listen. NOTES A couple of abbreviations: AIRMIC stands for the Association of Insurance and Risk Managers in Industry and Commerce and is the UK’s Risk Manager trade body. NZIA stands for the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, a global industry body which has been convened by the UN. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank this Episode’s advertising supporter Oxbow Partners https://oxbowpartners.com/

Simon Hedley, CEO of Acrisure Re Group, is a savvy reinsurance broker known for his straightforward and strategic approach. He shares insights on the current reinsurance landscape, emphasizing Acrisure's role in bridging capital and analytics with technological prowess. The discussion dives into the rise of hybrid carriers and MGAs, the importance of adapting to market changes, and innovative ESG initiatives that foster growth while promoting social responsibility. Hedley's down-to-earth demeanor belies his sharp strategic thinking, making for an engaging conversation.

Today’s guest is Clive Buesnel CEO of Tysers. Tysers is one of the oldest broking brands at Lloyd’s, with a history going back 200 years.  But the Tysers of today is the product of a lot of recent M&A activity involving the UK arm of Integro and London Wholesaler RFIB, all of which has agreed to be acquired by Australasian broking group AUB. Clive’s background is not as a broker, but as a financial services professional who has spent a career serving the insurance market. He is disarmingly open about this and immediately describes his role as one of an enabler who allows his brokers to be brilliant. And in a market where investment in technology and multi-skilled teams finding new ways of doing business are key to unlocking value, everything that Clive says makes enormous sense. As management and broking are recognised as two separate skills and as brokers become much larger and far more complex entities, far fewer of the brokers of the future are likely to be run by career brokers. But business acumen and technical ability aside, it is Clive’s energy that comes across in this podcast. Tysers is a firm that has been through a lot, but with integration complete and an ambitious new owner behind the group, the overriding impression is of an energised business excited to get to grips with new insurance problems. Clive is concise and direct and that means we cover a large number of topics and detail in a relatively short time. After a listen you should get a really clear idea of how Tysers will develop as a broker in the coming years. See if you find his enthusiasm as infectious as I did. NOTES The AUB takeover of Tysers is pending regulatory approval. iMRC does indeed stand for the Intelligent Market Reform Contract, that is to say the latest digital iteration of the London Market placing Slip. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank this Episode’s advertising supporter Oxbow Partners https://oxbowpartners.com/

Today’s guest is Waleed Jabsheh President at International General Insurance (IGI) Waleed and IGI have a really interesting story to tell. IGI is the twenty-year growth story of a very small regional insurance business founded in Jordan that over time has fully internationalised, re-domiciled to Bermuda and is now present in the major international insurance hubs. It is A-rated by AM Best and S&P and now employs around three hundred staff writing 25 lines. It produces underwriting profits that would be the envy of all but the very best players in our business. Finally, the business listed on the Nasdaq two years ago. Were this a company with different origins I think we would be quicker to celebrate its achievements. But at the moment the market is sceptical. But as I’m guessing Waleed would probably put it – we are who we are and it is what it is. This interview gives a strong idea of what makes this close-knit business tick. Waleed is meticulous and thoughtful in his responses and is excellent company. Here is a firm with a patient strategy that is happy to stay out of the limelight and quietly get on with its business with the confidence that at some point it will eventually get more attention and win greater recognition. It makes for a very interesting thirty minutes. NOTES When Waleed refers to ‘here’ he means London, which is where we did the interview. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank this Episode’s advertising supporter Oxbow Partners https://oxbowpartners.com/