The Voice of Insurance

After an extended build-out Pina Albo’s Hamilton Group now has significant Lloyd’s, Bermuda and Dublin platforms covering specialty insurance, reinsurance and third-party asset management and is building further capabilities on the ground in the US E&S market via an MGA structure. It’s also fully committed to a tech-enabled US brokered small commercial joint venture operation in Attune. Listen to Pina as the group moves to the execution phase of its strategy and looks to be rewarded for the patience it has shown throughout the prolonged soft market into which it was born. Pina is a focused leader with strong convictions about where the market is headed. Her conclusions are concise, unambiguous and easy to follow. I highly recommend a listen. NOTES: Pina refers to Ada Re in relation to Hamilton’s party capital management operation. Ada Re is specifically Hamilton’s retro sidecar vehicle. She of course meant to say Ada Capital. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today: https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/

Today’s guest is a broking CEO on an ambitious mission to grow global revenues many times with the backing of a strategic owner. That may sound familiar to regular listeners, but Steve Hearn of Corant Global is going about things quite differently. At a time when most broker holding companies are at pains to hive up all their underlying brands into an overarching global brand identity, Steve is allowing multiple broking houses to flourish under the newly-minted Corant banner. A veteran of senior executive positions at large and small brokers alike, Steve now runs a holding company and not an operational broking business.   This means he isn’t bogged down or distracted by the day to day and has the job of thinking strategically about where broking in our market is going in the short, medium and long term and positioning Corant accordingly.  Corant also has a different sort of owner – the capital markets focused BGC and ultimately the Cantor Fitzgerald group. And the influence of this different variant of financial services culture is highly noticeable. And that’s what makes this podcast special. Rarely have I had such a focused conversation on what is happening in the broking landscape and where things are headed. LINKS. We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today: https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/

This week’s guest is a longstanding and integral member of one of the most successful underwriting teams in the specialty insurance and reinsurance world. Charles Mathias was an original member of staff at Lancashire and is now a core member of the team at Fidelis. As Chief Risk officer and board member he has total visibility of Fidelis’s strategy and here he doesn’t duck any questions. I was surprised by how open he was with me about which segments of the market the now capital-loaded Fidelis is finding most attractive as well as its approach to developing proprietary technology. Again he is completely transparent about the special culture and work ethic that has made Richard-Brindle led carriers so distinctive, and so successful in the past 15 years. This longstanding market practitioner is also incredibly polite and good humoured company. All this makes this episode one not to miss for anyone who wants to learn the secrets of underwriting success in the hardening market of 2021. NOTES Charles refers to a charitable foundation, he is of course referring to the Fidelis Foundation. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today: https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/  

In my job I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and particularly insurtech entrepreneurs. Very often I find that they know their tech but really haven’t yet got to understand the insurance world. And that often means that they are solving problems that perhaps don’t exist in the minds of insurance people and their business are unlikely to succeed. Well today I’m talking to a start-up founder who has insurance running through his veins. James York knows the insurance value chain inside and out. Because of that he knows that anyone who can cut into the savage acquisition costs insurers load onto themselves year after year is onto a winner. In an industry that spends billions on marketing anyone who can make that spend more effective is going to be in high demand. James is the founder of Worry + Peace, which is aiming to do just this via the medium of insurance reviews. It’s a bold and extremely ambitious global vision that goes way beyond reviews and into a whole insurance ecosystem that will aim to bring buyers and sellers together in a trusted world but which isn’t actively trying to sell insurance to anyone. Are you intrigued? I certainly was and the more I talk to James the more I think he is onto something. I think you should hear him out. LINKS and Contacts: https://worryandpeace.com/ James’s Twitter handle is: @JamesJWYork

Nick Cook of BMS Group is a man in a hurry to make the most of global opportunities to grow the 41-year old firm he runs. Nick is refreshingly straightforward and to the point and here we get detail on BMS’s ambitious global buildout away from its more traditional markets in London and North America and into Latin America, Asia and Europe. We also get a strong view on the opportunities being thrown up by big broker M&A as well as the capital factors driving substantial investment and consolidation at independents. Nick also dissects the current fight to build challenger reinsurance brokers and how he thinks this particular game might not end well for everyone. Finally we hear of bullish prospects for the London market and Nick’s thoughts and misgivings about the current vision for London’s future. We pack in a lot here but listening back it is Nick’s boundless energy and no-nonsense passion for the task in hand that really shines through our exchange. Enjoy the podcast. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today: https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/

Today we're talking to Matthew Moore President & Managing Director at Liberty Specialty Markets – LSM. Matthew is one of the rising stars of the London Market and is currently serving as the chair of industry trade body the London Market Group. Yet his role is global in nature. He oversees a specialty, wholesale and reinsurance operation with gross written premiums of around $7bn of which London business is a minority. In this wide-ranging podcast we get the benefit of this global perspective on opportunities in the hardening market as well as going into the detail on the drivers behind the essential reform process that the London Market is currently undergoing. We also got to hear about Matthew’s thoughts on the future of insurance, industry price adequacy and reserve strength, Covid 19 estimates and how he is trying to make LSM differentiate itself in a competitive and capital-abundant marketplace. Matthew is very enjoyable company and an insightful insurance thinker and communicator. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today: https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/

Today’s podcast is a meeting with a senior market figure most of us have known for many years. Sean McGovern served in different board level capacities at Lloyd’s for just over 2 decades, before leaving to join the then XL Catlin in 2016 ahead of its 2018 acquisition by AXA. Last summer he was made CEO of AXA XL’s UK and Lloyd’s business – the first time he has held a CEO post. This interview is all about his plans for the role now that the difficult remedial actions aimed at turning around the large London Market insurer’s underwriting performance have been taken and market conditions have taken a decisive turn for the better. As a veteran Lloyd’s spokesperson Sean has been in the public eye for many years and in this encounter I found him easy-going, relaxed and excited to be running a major London operation with the backing of the world’s largest P&C group behind him Listen on for an insider’s view of the opportunities currently presenting themselves in the London market. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) and Insurtech Gateway for their support today: https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/ https://insurtechgateway.com/

Clyde Bernstein, Head of Broking at Willis Towers Watson GB, brings over 30 years of experience in the London Market. He discusses the evolving landscape of insurance broking, highlighting the shift from transaction-based roles to value-added advisory services. Bernstein emphasizes the urgency of digitization and how brokers must leverage data analytics to enhance risk management. He explores the future of digital claims processing and the impact of automation, underscoring the importance of adapting to technological advancements to stay competitive.

Today’s guest is one of the industry’s smartest analysts and it is great to welcome him back to the show. David Flandro is the Managing Director of Analytics at HX, the tech and research-focused part of the Howden Group and today we are dissecting the state of the market after the 1.1.21 renewals. David has had a long career in the financial markets and at major broking houses and is one of the best people I know at expressing often very complicated ideas and theories in the plainest of English. He also has a great sense of humour and is always ebullient company which means while the English may be plain, the discussion and the mood is always lively. In this podcast we discuss a lot of the topics raised in Howden's Hard Times 1.1 renewal report. I highly recommend you read this in conjunction with your listen today.  NOTES Howden's Hard Times market report: https://www.howdengroup.com/sites/g/files/mwfley566/files/inline-files/Howden%20Market%20Report%20-%20HARD%20TIMES%2004-01-21_0.pdf David mentions a Julian. He is referring to Julian Alovisi, HX’s Head of Research. We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today: https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/

Today’s guest is one of the industry’s most experienced and most respected reinsurance brokers with an incredibly broad and deep perspective to share on the industry. His broking house Willis Re is always first out of the blocks after the major renewal dates with its first view reports into the state of the reinsurance market Given the exceptional nature of this particular renewal I was delighted to have some time with James Vickers Chair, Willis Re International. We spoke at length about the hardening market, the impact of the class of 2020 and of course the potential costs and all the coverage issues surrounding Covid 19. James is an exceptionally clear-thinking and eloquent commentator so I highly recommend the half hour conversation that follows. And do make sure you accompany this podcast with a read of Willis Re’s 1.1.21 First View Report which they have entitled Firming Landscape. LINKS Willis Re Firming Landscape  Report: https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-GB/Insights/2021/01/firming-landscape We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo - enabling an enterprise view of exposure: https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank Claims Direct Access (CDA) for their support today: https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/