The Voice of Insurance

The podcast dives into the rebounding reinsurance market, highlighting great results from 2023 and a return to confidence among reinsurers. It discusses the cautious optimism for growth amidst rising costs and changing demands. The dialogue reveals the importance of strong partnerships and adaptability in a competitive landscape. Liability reinsurance challenges, like social inflation and litigation finance, are examined. Innovations and shifting dynamics are explored as the market seeks balance and collaboration, ensuring resilience in a complex environment.

Todays’ Episode is a fast-moving, high-intensity blast from start to finish. That’s mostly because of the people I’m talking to, but also due to the circumstances under which we are doing the talking. First the people. Richard Brindle is well known to anyone in our business as one of the most dynamic underwriters in the market. And anyone following the Fidelis story will know that now the business has split into the Fidelis Partnership and the Fidelis Insurance Group, Richard has freed up time to be even more dynamic. It’s perhaps understandable that Richard Coulson, The Fidelis Partnership’s CEO of Insurance & Deputy Group Chief Underwriting Officer, doesn’t yet have the same public profile as his namesake, but on this performance it won’t take long for that to start building. Secondly the venue was Monaco at the Monte Carlo RendezVous. The RendezVous always heightens the intensity of any interaction. People come there ready to communicate against the clock and that cut-to-the-chase feel very much comes through in this encounter. As a result this podcast covers everything it should – the state of global markets and where Fidelis is positioning itself to make the most of the opportunities those markets are throwing up, the Fidelis Partnership’s entrance to Lloyd’s and the two Richard’s views on all the major issues of the day. Listening back this is a really enjoyable Episode, packed with singular, original and sometimes surprising insights. NOTES The Fidelis Partnership wanted to add the following points to our discussion about Intellectual Property (IP) insurance: Like others Fidelis exited the IP market earlier this year; Arguably IP is a great example of the bravery of innovation with measured downside and then pulling back quickly as soon as the warning alarms sounded; As a relatively small and well-managed book, there was very little impact on their overall exceptional long-term bespoke underwriting performance.  LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It’s on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I’m going to be there. Find out more and Sign up Here

Beazley is a carrier that is synonymous with expertise in the Cyber insurance line and today we are going to get a masterclass in the Cyber threat and how to deal with it from all angles. We’re going to look at how that cyber threat is evolving, and how Cyber criminals are modifying their methods of attack in the face of an increasingly sophisticated line of defence from companies and Government agencies around the world. We’ll look at the new threats coming in the age of Artificial Intelligence and - in a world where the CrowdStrike event has reminded us that not all threats necessarily need to be malicious to have a global impact – more mundane problems A decade ago cyber insurers may have partnered with third party service providers, such as threat monitors and security consultants. These days the best cyber insurers are bringing those services in-house and offering a holistic offering to their customers, one where everyone’s interests are fully aligned to the best outcomes for all concerned. In this podcast we will see how this is fundamentally changing the traditional relationship between insurers and their customers. You don’t have to be a Cyber expert to benefit from a listen to this podcast – indeed, as the Cyber world encroaches more and more on every aspect of our daily lives and companies become aware that Cyber threats directly affect the core of their businesses in all respects, being an avowed techie is less and less important. These days the best CEOs and CFOs are increasingly aware that a Cyber attack could be an existential threat to their company and that this is clearly not a matter to be left to the IT department to handle alone. To help us cover this subject from all possible angles, I have been lucky enough to interview four diverse experts from within the wider Beazley business: They are: Fran Donoso, Chief Technology Officer of Beazley Security, Sydonie Williams, Beazley’s Cyber & Tech Focus Group Leader for the rest of the world, Raf Sanchez – Head of Cyber Services at Beazley Security and Cyber Security Consultant, Alex Creswell.    NOTES: I highly recommend you download Beazley’s latest Cyber Tech Risk Report. It’s called Spotlight On Cyber & Technology Risk 2024 - Resilience in a Game-changing environment  and it makes a perfect accompaniment to this podcast.

Today’s guest is in an enviable position – this is because he works for one of the most mature and trusted brands in the global insurance food chain, but is leading the underwriting at a segment of that business that is only just five years old and is still building out and growing fast. Greg Hohman is the Chief Underwriting Officer of Munich Re Specialty Insurance and has a very special vantage point from which to survey the US market. This conversation is full of valuable pointers on where the US P&C market is heading. In it we dissect the Excess and surplus lines (E&S) boom, whether parts of the market are peaking and how much of the shift into this segment is cyclical and how much is permanent. We also delve deep into the shift in distribution with the continued rise of MGAs and hybrid carriers and examine the question of how Artificial Intelligence might best be harnessed in the insurance value chain. But this is also a very well-rounded conversation in which Greg explains how he got into insurance and shares his best career advice. Greg is smart, straightforward and really enjoyable company and time spent with him flies by quickly. So over the next thirty-five minutes you’ll learn an awful lot, but I think you’ll also make a very knowledgeable new friend in the industry. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It’s on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I’m going to be there. Find out more and Sign up Here

Today’s guest is a master of the aviation class of business, but is also a well-known and respected market figure across classes, holding key positions in market committees and international insurance trade bodies and non-insurance organisations alike. Bruce Carman has been a leading aviation and war underwriter since the late 1980s and after over 30 years at the heart of the Lloyd’s market, started his own specialist MGA, Hive Underwriters in 2017. That business has grown rapidly and has begun to mature and scale and so now seems an excellent time to get Bruce on the show. The aviation market is in a fascinating position post the Russian invasion of Ukraine and part of our talk will be an incredibly useful listen for any generalist who might feel that aviation is sometimes a specialism too far for them. But that wouldn’t be doing justice to Bruce and this discussion. Listening back, what this podcast is really about is examining the art of becoming a good and highly focused underwriter and insurance entrepreneur. Bruce is incredibly good company and is very generous with his time and insights. My overriding impression is of someone having the time of their life. Bruce is someone who has been given the opportunity to start from scratch and be fast-paced and nimble in applying the best practices and technology available today to a lifetime of frontline high-performing underwriting experience.   NOTES Abbreviations: EASA = the European Union Aviation Safety Agency WAIG and BAIG = Respectively the Westminster and British Aviation Insurance Groups – early UK aviation pools. BAIG is a forerunner of today’s Global Aerospace. Appointed Rep = Appointed Representative. A UK term where a younger firm gains regulatory (usually FCA) authorisation via an arrangement with a fully-regulated firm. LINKS: Bruce mentioned an Allianz aviation report, which is a highly complementary read to accompany this podcast: Aviation risk, claims and insurance outlook 2024 | Allianz Commercial We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com We also thank new audio advertiser, The Insurance Network (TIN), organiser of the highly-successful TINtech events series. They are advertising their new London-based event, Data Jam, which is focused on exploring the implications and opportunities of data, analytics, AI and automation in the insurance sector. It’s on 28th November at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, London EC3. I’m going to be there. Find out more and Sign up Here

I would have to spend some time checking the numbers, but today’s guest is the Chief Underwriting Officer who oversees arguably the largest amount of Gross written premium in the world. That’s because Rachel Turk is really a Chief, Chief Underwriting Officer who oversees forty to fifty of her peers in the $70 billion dollar Lloyd’s market. Whatever the final numbers, her job gives her one of the best vantage points anywhere in global insurance, so learning what she thinks is incredibly useful. Also given the authority she wields, it’s incredibly important to know, why she’s thinking what she’s thinking and how those thoughts might be turned into actions in the Lloyd’s market. Given the pivotal importance of the job and the huge diversity within the Lloyd’s market, being a strong communicator and being relatively easy to read must be highly desirable qualities in a candidate for a role such as this. Happily Rachel is a brilliantly clear communicator – what you see is what you get. Sometimes interviewing people in very senior, very sensitive jobs like this I have to grapple with cryptic answers or political-style evasion techniques where the difficult questions seem to be there to be avoided. There’s absolutely none of that in the interview that follows. Rachel is a blast of new energy with a refreshingly down-to-earth and approachable personality. In this podcast we rattle through a tour of where Rachel sees the Lloyd’s portfolio and global insurance and reinsurance markets today and more importantly in what directions she is looking to nudge and steer the market in the future. A listen will give you a really clear idea on where Rachel stands on overall performance, casualty rate adequacy, reinsurance at Lloyd’s, captives, innovation, the opportunities for profitable growth and even AI. You’ll also come away with a pretty clear idea of what she would be like to deal with. It became clear to me that she’s an underwriter’s underwriter. Having sat on the other side of the table she really understands the commercial pressures that underwriters face in the real world. But because she has sat in those shoes she can recognise all the ways that even the smartest underwriters might start to repeat the mistakes of the past. I really enjoyed this. I think this is one of the best Episodes of the year so far and can highly recommend a listen. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com  

Today’s interviewee is making his fourth appearance on the podcast, which I think makes him my most interviewed guest. But as he is the CEO of Hannover Re, one of the world’s largest and most consistently outperforming reinsurers, I’d love to be able to have Jean-Jacques Henchoz on the show even more regularly. That's because very few underwriters have such a global view of the market and the timing is impeccable. A week before the festival of reinsurance that is the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous is the perfect time to catch up with someone like Jean-Jacques. This time we have an encyclopaedic conversation that somehow manages to encompass the state of the treaty and facultative reinsurance market, Life reinsurance, AI, carbon capture and climate change as well as lessons learned from the recent Baltimore Bridge and CrowdStrike loss events Jean-Jacques is always unassuming but disarming in his directness. In many ways he is the epitome of the adage that in life one should speak softly, but carry a big stick. Happily, with the market in such a strong position, it looks like the stick won’t be needed and I find Jean-Jacques in excellent spirits and looking to continue growth and further deepen his partnership with clients. With the reinsurance market at a far more nuanced stage than it has been for the last couple of years, there is a lot of insight packed into the next forty minutes and I can highly recommend a listen. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

It's the ultimate job of a Broker to make insurance and reinsurance deals happen. You can’t make things happen if you’re too shy to talk to anyone, or not good at listening.  Once you have listened you then need to be empathetic and understand the nuances and intentions of the parties to a transaction. You also need to be able to make a point eloquently and sometimes forcefully. All the above explains why brokers tend to make such good podcast guests! And today, as our thoughts start to turn towards reinsurance, the autumn conference season and the 1.1 renewals that eventually follow, it’s fitting that we have a prominent reinsurance broker on the show. Tim Ronda the CEO of Howden Re is the consummate reinsurance broker and Howden Re is the largest and probably most aggressive challenger reinsurance broker of the pack. However with annual revenues approaching $600mn I wonder if the word Challenger really makes much sense any more and we might soon be simply describing Howden Re as an additional global reinsurance broker, to the three that now exist? This conversation is a great primer for the state of the reinsurance market with a broker who now has the critical mass to get good visibility on large swathes of it. It’s also a chance to have an update on the most ambitious reinsurance broking build-out of recent times and check in with where this now maturing project is heading. Tim’s a font of knowledge and really good fun to spend time with. I really enjoyed this podcast and I’m sure you will too. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

I’m really pleased today because after almost four years of trying I have finally managed to get someone from the Arch Capital group of companies onto the show. Arch’s appetite to make the most of market opportunity and react quickly to a lack of the same has led to long-term outperformance that speaks for itself. That is perhaps just as well in a business that is really quite media-shy for such a substantial and well-regarded public company. Numbers only tell a small part of the story and that’s why I’m delighted to welcome Hugh Sturgess, President and CEO of Arch Insurance International to the show. Hugh’s division is a global operation that encompasses everything that Arch does in insurance outside of North America. It stretches from the London market to Bermuda and from the UK regions to Continental Europe and Australia. The business has grown many multiples in the harder market of the last four years and now writes over two billion dollars in premium and employs a thousand people. Hugh has been with Arch for 19 years, so is steeped in the Arch culture and way of doing things. As such this podcast isn’t just a guide to the opportunities Arch is seeing in the Specialty insurance markets in London and beyond. It definitely is that – but I think if you listen carefully you can learn a few of the little things that add up to make a business like this outperform over long periods in many different market situations. And Arch may be a little media-shy, but Hugh certainly isn’t – this is as fun and lively a conversation as I have had with anyone in a long time. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com

Ryan Mather, CEO of Ariel Re, excels in emerging markets like green energy and cyber reinsurance, while navigating traditional lines. In the discussion, he shares bullish insights into the insurance market and the evolving landscape of Lloyd’s. Ryan dives into the innovative strategies of Ariel Green and highlights the integration of AI in underwriting. He also tackles the importance of regulatory improvements in states like Florida and examines future investor dynamics, revealing an optimistic outlook for reinsurance in an ever-changing environment.