The Voice of Insurance

Today's Episode is fun and insightful from start to finish and that is entirely down to my guests. One of the great Eureka moments in insurance comes when you meet an actuary who is a great communicator. Five minutes chatting to them usually unlocks understanding that would take you years to glean yourself, or which indeed you may never have worked out without their help. Luckily today I am talking not to one, but two such people. Simon Pollack (pictured top) is the Founder and Director and Owen Whelan is the Managing Director of Calibrant, a really interesting, relatively young business concentrating on portfolio management, particularly in the burgeoning field of Delegated Underwriting Authority. With MGAs continually gaining market share and also garnering extra scrutiny from senior managers and market regulators, Calibrant is in a fast-growing segment of the market. The core of what Calibrant and its Sybil software platform does is to wring improvements to the loss ratio of underwriting portfolios through joined-up, granular analysis. It sounds simple in theory, but in practice bridging all the gaps between the underwriting, reserving, pricing and senior management functions is the culmination of Simon and Owen’s multi-decade experience in the industry. This is a duo right on the top of their game and this podcast is absolutely packed with valuable insights garnered from long and successful careers in our business. Simon and Owen met as London Market drinking buddies and you should think of this podcast as a very enjoyable chat in a bar with two great friends and a glass of your favourite tipple in your hand. You’ll learn a lot and after listening to this I expect you’ll want to spend a lot more time with this fun and down-to-earth duo. LINKS: https://www.calibrantinsurance.com/

Anthony Siggers, the Digital Leader for Marsh Specialty UK, shares his insights on the future of insurance broking after three decades of tech innovations. He reveals how Marsh has already digitized 70% of its London slips, heralding a revolution in data-driven processes. Discussions include the evolving roles of brokers amidst AI advancements, the impact on costs and commissions, and the shift towards automated trading. Siggers' engaging narrative highlights that if Marsh can lead the charge, the rest of the market is certainly poised to follow.

Today, we’re going to go deeper into the world of cyber attacks than we have ever done before. We’ll be looking at the insurance claims that they produce as well as the longer-term consequences for their victims Often as journalists covering cyber insurance we focus on the big hacks, the headline numbers, and gloss over the detail of the personal stories and the real hard yards that have to be run to recover from an attack and the potential long-term consequences for a business, its directors, its customers and all other stakeholders. As the immediate damage and business interruption triggers potential regulatory, statutory and other serious third-party consequences, these hard yards often have to be run down multiple different paths simultaneously. The in-depth interviews that follow will deepen your understanding of the more complex and long-tail nature of this peril. I’d like to put you right in the room in the shoes of the Directors of a company as an attack unfolds. We’re going behind the scenes to uncover what it’s really like when a business becomes the target of a digital assault, from the immediate shock to the long-term repercussions that are often ignored by boards. We’re also going to go into detail on how the nature of the cyber threat and the tactics of cyber criminals are evolving. To help me in this task my guests are: Magnus Jelen, (pictured top) Director of Incident Response EMEA for Coveware, a firm that helps victims of cyber extortion recover their data; and three senior executives at Beazley: Raf Sanchez (pictured 2nd from top), Beazley’s Head of Cyber Services, Cyber Risks. Melissa Collins, (pictured 2nd from bottom) Head of Third Party Cyber & Tech Claims, and Wayne Imrie, (pictured bottom) Head of London Market Wholesale Executive Risks. Magnus and Raf are right on the front line, dealing with the immediate consequences of a hack. Magnus even deals with the hackers themselves. Melissa deals with the external insurance claims that result and Wayne is a Directors and Officers (D&O) specialist who has a deep understanding of how the D&O and Cyber insurance products interact. LINKS:  As promised, here is the link to Beazley's latest Risk and Resilience Survey Spotlight on Tech Transformation & Cyber Risk 2025: https://www.beazley.com/en-001/news-and-events/spotlight-on-tech-transformation-cyber-risk-2025/

Jason Howard, President of Acrisure International, shares his insights on global insurance strategies and the company's ambitious growth outside the US. He discusses the crucial role of strategic M&A, enhancing the reinsurance distribution chain, and fostering corporate culture amidst rapid changes. With infectious energy, he dives into the transformative impact of automation and AI on the industry while advocating for the balance between technology and human interaction. Jason's wealth of experience makes for a dynamic conversation that explores the future of insurance.

Today’s Episode is a really enjoyable two-hander. After over twenty years running the IUA (or the International Underwriting Association, to spell it out in full) Dave Matcham has just passed his CEO role over to Chris Jones. So this episode serves a double mission. The first is to mark the extraordinary career of Dave Matcham, the London Market’s longest-serving CEO and someone who has helped guide the market through more than 20 years of change. With Dave we look back on some of the most significant milestones and sometimes tumultuous events shaping a lifetime of service to the market. Then we will bring everything up to date as Chris and Dave outline the London Company market trade body’s agenda on all the most pressing issues of the day. Running a trade body is often a thankless and unglamorous task, with a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes to make sure the market functions as it should. Dave has been a tireless servant for his membership and the broader London Market and Chris has big shoes to fill. Dave has always been one of the most knowledgeable and approachable senior figures in the market, with a straightforward, no-nonsense approach to business. From this meeting Chris is continuing in that mould. So, if you want a sense of how international insurers’ relationship with the UK regulators is developing, where market process reform is heading and how the market is dealing with issues such as the application of AI and the policing of non-financial misconduct, please listen on. Dave and Chris are well-rounded, level-headed and very often light-hearted company and the time will fly by. We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Today’s Episode is all about collaboration. To anyone in the London Market, VIPR has become a very well-known technology company, particularly in the area of Delegated Authority, where its Bordereaux management systems have achieved a critical mass of adoption. But as the business looks to expand globally, particularly the huge and strategically-crucial US market, it needs to partner with existing major players to achieve its goal. Just because we all know that weaning the insurance sector off spreadsheets and other documents is a universal problem, it doesn’t follow that a business like VIPR will automatically gain business just because it has a solution that has been tried and tested over time. This is where Sikich comes in, as a trusted adviser implementing technological transformation, it’s picked VIPR to go to market to help prepare itself for the coming fully-digital and AI-enabled age. In this podcast Rahul Bhatia, Principal at Sikich and Tony Russell Chief Revenue Officer at VIPR outline this alliance and the huge prize on offer to clients that are able to automate how data, not documents, flow through their businesses, from their customers and onto their own suppliers and wider stakeholders. MGAs, particularly US-domiciled ones, have ridden a spectacular wave of growth in the past decade. If that is to continue and they are to cement their tech advantage, they need to listen to what Rahul and Tony have to say. We live in exciting, revolutionary times and today VIPR and Sikich are at the frontier of delivering a lot of the technological change that much of the industry has been dreaming about for decades. So if you want to know how underwriters can grow without adding to cost while at the same time becoming more skilful at underwriting and more responsive to client needs and new demand, this podcast is for you. Rahul and Tony are hugely experienced in this field and are relatable, down to earth and easy to talk to. I can highly recommend a listen. LINKS & CONTACTS: https://www.viprsolutions.com/ www.sikich.com Rahul Bhatia’s contacts are: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-bhatia-profile/ Email rahul.bhatia@sikich.com

Louise Rose, the President of International at TransRe, has nearly 30 years of reinsurance expertise. In this insightful dialogue, she explores the changing dynamics of the global reinsurance market, focusing on strategies for Continental Europe and Asia-Pacific. Louise discusses the transformative influence of AI in underwriting, the critical role of local representation, and the challenges of compliance in casualty insurance. She also highlights the growth of MGAs and the complexities of cyber insurance, making for a compelling snapshot of the industry’s future.

As the global subscription market digitises, the roles of market leaders and followers are becoming much more clearly demarcated. There are businesses designed to be leaders with large investments in class-specific expertise and specialist distribution relationships who are looking to align followers and consortium partners behind them. There is also a parallel class of follow-only underwriters looking to support and amplify those same leaders. It’s a modern twist on the oldest symbiotic relationship in the subscription market. Ki is an example of a wholly digital business that is looking to become the ultimate following market and this expansive conversation with its CEO Mark Allan sketches out much of what the future of London underwriting is going to look like. Ki has been a first-mover in the world of algorithmic underwriting and has built a billion-dollar business that has matured, become independent and is now offering to share its expertise as a tech partner for underwriters and brokers alike. Mark knows more than any of his peers about what is achievable and what is likely to change in the London Market of the future. On the basis of this conversation, the future of the market should be very bright, as it  becomes much faster, more agile and responsive to brokers and clients, while at the same time becoming much more efficient and productive and a genuine alternative home for the sort of business that has traditionally only been accessible to local market underwriters around the world. It’s fascinating and invigorating stuff. Mark answers all the big questions and many more besides. You’ll learn a lot and the time will rush past. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

I really enjoyed recording this podcast. That’s probably because since I last spoke to Mark Wheeler, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Mosaic Insurance, a full three-and-a-half years ago, he has been able to execute and begin to reap the rewards of all the plans he laid out in Episode 99. There’s nothing like a sub-80 combined ratio to put a spring in your step and validate the vision you had when you founded the business, particularly when it comes relatively early in a start-up’s life. Mosaic has now built out its global platform and wrote over 660 million dollars in gross premiums in 2024, with that number set to grow as the group continues to scale. This interview distils the group’s highly-specialist added-value underwriter-led philosophy in excellent detail. But at its core, this podcast is really all about a real Lloyd’s expert making the most of all the advantages of the market’s unique syndicated underwriting and capital platform. It’s about the deep understanding of risk and the many shades of diversified capital that that risk can be connected to to create a sustainable ultra-specialist insurance business. Mosaic has its own capital, third-party capital, specialist reinsurance relationships and a large group of syndicated insurance partners underwriting alongside it. It is highly diversified and is set to diversify more. It’s capital-efficient, but certainly not capital-lite. Today this is an almost unique model but at the same time it will be a very familiar one to anyone who knows Lloyd’s longer-term history. As the market splits into leaders, followers and data-heavy portfolio managers, here’s as good a summary of the 21st century lead underwriter model that you are likely to hear anywhere. Mark is a charming guest and this is one of those interviews that just crackled along of its own accord, without prompts. I can highly recommend a listen. NOTES: Mark Mentions a Toby. This is Toby Smith, Mosaic’s CEO of the Americas He also mentions Burkhard, which is Burkhard Keese, former CFO of Lloyd’s. FAL (Pronounced as a word) = Funds at Lloyd’s CISO = Chief Information Security Officer LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

When I meet someone to record an interview they often ask me how long the podcast is going to be. My stock answer is that it entirely depends upon them. Some people talk more than others and some people pack an awful lot into a lot less time, while others take longer to fully express themselves. You also never quite know where the conversation is going to go and that is a huge variable. Today’s podcast is lively, fun and gets straight to the point. That’s because it entirely reflects our interviewee. Kevin Gill is the Chairman of IRLA, the Insurance and Reinsurance Legacy Association. IRLA is the UK trade body that represents insurance and reinsurance legacy management professionals and this interview will bring you right up to date with everything that is happening in this increasingly mature and sophisticated segment of the marketplace. As legacy becomes ever more embedded as an essential, trusted service provider and capital partner for the live market we discuss how that relationship is evolving and where it might end up in the long term. The legacy market also has its own cycles independent of the live market and so we look at the relative state of the two markets and how this affects dealmaking. We also take the temperature of how the legacy sector feels about some of the more problematic recent live underwriting years, as well as looking at emerging loss trends and prospects for the application of emerging technology such as Ai to the sector. The portrait that emerges is of a confident, professionalised and vibrant segment  that is ready to trade and is looking at interesting growth opportunities as some of the soft-market underwriting years begin to mature.   Kevin is a breath of fresh air and there are no subjects left off the table. My bet is that you’ll finish this episode wanting more. NOTES: ADC = Adverse Development Cover LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com