Эпизоды
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Today’s guest is a longstanding executive with an incredibly strong resumé who is running one of the legacy sector’s most respected outfits.
Bill O’Farrell is CEO of Premia Holdings and as such has an excellent overview of this rapidly maturing segment of the market.
In the podcast Bill and I look at the state of the legacy market and how it is likely to be interacting with the live market going forward.
At a time when the live market is undergoing one of its periodic crises of confidence in US casualty, it is particularly valuable to talk to someone who has spent much of his career making a living out of taking on and managing long-tail liabilities of all complexions.
We also examine how the structure of the legacy market is evolving towards a partnership model in which repeat transactions with live market counterparties are much more likely than in the past.
We also look at innovation and the best applications for AI within legacy as well as the prospects for an important role for the sector to play in the nascent casualty ILS market.
Bill’s not only incredibly experienced and knowledgeable, but he’s also very easy-going and really enjoyable company and the next half an hour will pass by very quickly.LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.comWe 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.Get 20% off using the code ‘voice’ when you sign up Here
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Todays’ guest is a senior treaty underwriting executive with such a strong technical and systems background that he ended up joining a firm dedicated to solving his sector’s problems.
Bevis Tetlow is CEO of Imaginera, a business that produces specialist IT systems specifically designed for the big-ticket end of the market.
Imaginera is also a highly specialist IT consultant to the industry.
Bevis is one of us and speaks our language and that’s what makes this exchange so accessible and valuable.
Here we dissect the world of workbenches and how state-of-the-art systems designed for reinsurers and other high-level specialist underwriters should look like in 2024.
We also get Bevis’s views on where the next developments in technology are likely to take the high-end underwriting and broking businesses of the future.
Bevis is great company and this podcast packs an awful lot of accumulated wisdom into the next half an hour or so.
I learnt a lot and so I think will you
NOTES:
Bevis mentions a Toby and a Michelle. These are Toby and Michelle Crawford, the original founders of Imaginera back in 2013.
An abbreviation slipped through. A PAS (sometimes spelt out P.A.S. and sometimes pronounced ‘pazz’) is a Policy Administration System.
LINKS:
https://www.imaginera.co.uk/
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TRANSCRIPT HERE
With a career spanning more than 30 years, today’s guest is a senior executive who has the London insurance market well and truly in his blood.
John Fowle has changed employer since his last appearance on this podcast just under three years ago and with a year under his belt as CEO of Atrium Underwriters, now seemed the perfect time to get him back on the show.
Atrium is a Lloyd’s blue-chip performer, respected in the market for its agility and underwriting skill across the cycle, and ability to punch well above its weight.
As Lloyd’s and Atrium are experiencing some of the best market conditions and underwriting results in their histories, this was a meeting with an executive at a business with great prospects in a market that is openly supportive to growth and innovation.
With the world effectively Atrium’s oyster, there are many doors and options currently open to this carrier.
With so many potential choices available, the conversation that follows reveals a lot about John and Atrium’s singular view of the insurance world – a view that has stood them both in good stead over the last 30 years.
We talk about the prospects for pricing and continued business flow into the London Market, a new-found maturity over collaboration, smart distribution and innovation and get specific updates on some of the classes in which Atrium is recognised as a leader.
John is a straight-talking guest who doesn’t duck any of my more sensitive questions, but for me it’s his deep understanding of how the market fits together and what it does best, coupled with a senior manager’s knowledge of how to get the best out of high-performing underwriters that really shines through this Episode.
Listen on and I think you’ll see what I mean.
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.Get 20% off using the code ‘voice’ when you sign up Here
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As CEO of Ryan Specialty Tim Turner has arguably some of the best visibility of the global insurance market and its stress points of anyone in the industry.
The business that Tim has helped to build with founder Pat Ryan is a broad, deep, complex and highly efficient insurance distribution machine, that picks up and serves wherever local markets are unable or unwilling to provide the insurance solutions that its retail brokers’ clients around the world need.
The firm works with over 20,000 brokers of all sizes and handles more than $25 billion dollars in annual premiums.
Ryan Specialty has also been a major consolidator in its segment, executing many large and complex deals on both sides of the Atlantic.
In this podcast I was able to quiz Tim on all the trends in the market and he was really open and forthcoming in all his answers.
So if you’d like to know where the major friction points and opportunities are, whether the boom in E&S submissions will continue and wonder where ongoing retail broking consolidation and the continuing wave of MGA formations are likely to be leading then listen on.
You won’t be disappointed.
But more importantly you’ll be spending time with one of the sector’s most successful, experienced and dynamic executives and learning how he thinks about the insurance world and how he intends to make the most of all the many commercial opportunities it is currently affording a business like Ryan Specialty.
Tim’s also great company and his drive and enthusiasm for our sector is undiminished and I’ll wager a listen will put a renewed spring in your step.
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.Get 20% off using the code ‘voice’ when you sign up Here
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This is a great episode with someone whose job encompasses education, engagement and innovation and who has found real purpose and great satisfaction in her current role.
Rosie Denée is best known for running the highly successful Lloyd’s Lab innovation hub, but her full job title is in fact Head of Innovation, Commercial Education and Engagement at Lloyd’s.
In this podcast we get to the heart of how to foment innovation in the global specialist insurance and reinsurance market and learn about the characteristics of the top insurtech companies that give them the best chance of success and perhaps more importantly, what traits are most closely associated with failure.
We also get a sneak peek at what the next wave of new Insurtech companies are likely to be offering the incumbent market in the coming years.
Rosie is the sort of personal who lights up when she starts talking about her job and so I can guarantee that this will be an educational, innovative and highly engaging listen.
NOTES:
IoT means the Internet of Things – the sea of interconnected devices that make up our world today.
LINKS
Rosie mentioned Lloyd’s Lab alumnae:
Gaia https://gaiafamily.com/en-gb and
ClearConnect Solutions https://clearconnectsolutions.com/
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.Get 20% off using the code ‘voice’ when you sign up Here
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Today’s a really enjoyable episode because I am talking to someone of vast insurance market experience who is getting a shot at putting that deep knowledge and acquired wisdom into really useful practice
Greg Massey has had an insurance career spanning four decades that culminated as Head of Programs at Zurich North America.
On his retirement in 2022 he became an adviser to VIPR to help the company with its US expansion plans.
This is a great match because in this role Greg is able bring his experience to bear to introduce US Delegated authority and programme management industry peers to the products and solutions that VIPR has been providing to that same community in the London Market for almost 15 years.
Greg is a great professional and this podcast is a masterclass on best practice in the application of technology for solving core operational problems and generating a genuine data-driven edge in this burgeoning market segment.
Greg is also excellent company and is incredibly open and generous with his insights.
Half an hour with him will fly by and give you a large number of practical ideas you can apply to your own business.
LINKShttps://www.viprsolutions.com/
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Welcome to the third instalment of the podcast where I use the annual Monte Carlo RendezVous to gauge the outlook ahead of the key 1.1 Reinsurance renewals.
This year, a lot had changed in the preceding 12 months. 2023 results had been almost universally excellent for all reinsurers and capital had returned to very healthy levels.
Colour and confidence were visibly returning to the market.
Smiles and receptive ears were in far greater supply than a year previously and the grim mood of two years ago had been almost completely forgotten.
The only flies in the ointment were continued emergence of poor back year performance in some US casualty classes and a hesitancy among investors who still seemed more ready to punish any bad news, than reward the good.
Whatever had been black and white two years ago was becoming progressively greyer and choice and options over what - and how and in what shape or size reinsurance could be bought - were beginning to open up for cedants.
In short this is a market of nuances and one where experienced traders are going to be given an opportunity to shine.
So join me as I root them out from either side of the underwriting desk and find out what’s going on.
My promise to you is that if you weren’t lucky enough to be down on the Cote D’Azur in early September, listening to this podcast will be the next best thing to having been there in person, in the rooms, suites, cafés, restaurants and lobbies with me as I interrogate a large number of key industry personnel.Give me the next hour and I’ll give you the State of (Re)insurance.
NOTES:
GL = General Liability
LINKS:
We thank our sponsor Stephens Rickard:www.stephensrickard.com
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Today’s guest is someone who combines well-above-average intelligence with an approachability and a willingness to study and cover risks that many of his peers can’t or won’t consider.
Ryan Mather is CEO of Ariel Re, a business that has positioned itself at the cutting edge of exciting emerging classes such as Green energy and Cyber reinsurance, while the same time maintaining an edge in more traditional lines such as property cat – all within the Lloyd’s platform.
All this makes him something a breath of fresh air.
He is also frank, open and direct but disarmingly charming.
These are ingredients that make for an excellent podcast.
In this Episode we get to grips with the state of the market from Ariel’s point of view.
Nothing’s off the menu and here we discuss topics as diverse as solar energy, Artificial intelligence, the new Lloyd’s and how investors currently view balance-sheet businesses.
Ryan’s one of those people who make you feel a little bit cleverer every time you meet them.
Listen on and see what rubs off onto you.
NOTES:
An abbreviation slipped through. HMRC (His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) is the UK tax authority.
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com
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Some podcast interviews are really fulfilling to be involved with. Sometimes it’s the rapport I have with the guest and sometimes it’s the subject matter and the insights that I find the most satisfying.
Today’s podcast is a rare combination because it’s both of the above. Jeff Radke Co-Founder and CEO at Accelerant Holdings, is clearly on top of the world in this interview.
His business is absolutely flying; it’s now employing around 375 people and is connecting an amazing 190 MGAs with 12 insurers and 66 reinsurers on both sides of the Atlantic.
The organisation wrote just over $1.7billion of premium in 2023. This is about four times the size the business was when we last spoke just over three years ago.
Jeff is great fun to be around, but it’s the vision and understanding of how the whole structure of large parts of the specialty insurance sector is changing that is what makes this such a good listen.
Back in the old days growth at this speed might have been frowned upon, or at least viewed with a certain amount of scepticism.
Not now – these days technological change means that the ultimate capital providers can drill right down into as much detail of the risks their capital is supporting as they want and they can asses the quality of their book in almost real time.
Jeff has had a career that has given him an incredibly detailed view of the insurance value chain and his vision for how the new ways the constituent parts of that chain are sharing out the value that they create in much more meritocratic ways is fascinating.
So If you have been spending time wondering why the MGA boom seems to have continued unabated even with a hard insurance market and a major reset in reinsurance, this is easily the most eloquent and enjoyable explanation you’ll hear on the subject.
You’ll also learn of Accelerant’s plans around captives, his thoughts on Lloyd’s as well as underwriting classes as diverse as fish drying and credit
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com
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Today’s guest runs a business that this year is set to quadruple in size since the first time he was on the show just over two years ago.
What’s more it is looking to more than double again in the medium term.
Tanguy Touffut CEO and co-founder of Descartes Underwriting is one of the indispensable leaders in the burgeoning parametric insurance sector.
Descartes is probably the best-funded and certainly most ambitious of a cohort of peers to emerge in the last 5 years on the back of the insurtech boom.
It has made a large strategic bet on the sector, building a global network of offices and now employing over 200, with more offices and hires still likely to come.
Now that the sector is beginning to mature and the field of start-ups begins to thin out and parametric products are joining the day-to-day toolkit of major brokers and commercial risk managers, it was great to catch up.
Much has changed since we last spoke, not least a huge shift in the state of the reinsurance market and the emergence of artificial intelligence into the global psyche, so we had an awful lot to talk about.
In an industry where conservatism and scepticism are not only endemic but often valued character traits, Tanguy has a clear vision of how the right parametric solutions applied in the right places are going to transform insurance for the better, in consistency and transparency of pricing and coverage as well as in speed of claims handling and payment.
My job for large parts of this podcast was to play devil’s advocate and challenge Tanguy on this new modus operandi of insurance and whether it is a genuine disruptive challenge to the commercial insurance sector as a whole or something of a passing fashion.
Tanguy came though extremely convincingly.
He may be a visionary, but Tanguy is also a realist who knows that if this relatively new method of risk transfer is to succeed long-term, it must have a genuine technical edge over traditional indemnity insurance in terms of its understanding and pricing of risk – hence Descartes’ huge investment in scientific and technological talent.
This is someone who has thought deeply about the whole insurance value chain and knows where it might be improved and that’s what makes this a fascinating conversation.
Listen on for a grand tour of an exciting and fast-moving new insurance sector with one of its principal architects.
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com
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I have the best job in the world.
That is, it’s the best job for someone like me, who really likes talking to people and finding out what they are doing and thinking – but also as a bi-product finding out what they are really like.
The reason I am saying this is because today’s episode was so much fun to make that it didn’t feel like a standard day at the office.
I have had Warren Downey (left) and Lee Anderson (right) of London-headquartered intermediary Specialist Risk Group (SRG) on the show before and really enjoyed their company, good humour and the openness and ease with which could discuss their strategy and business philosophy, but the interview you are about to hear is exceptional.
This is because rarely do I interview two senior executives who finish each other’s sentences so regularly and enjoy each other’s company so much.
The trigger for our podcast was a change of investors that has brought Blue Chip players Warburg Pincus and Temasek into the fold at a reported valuation of over £1 billion pounds, so perhaps that is why the conversation was so animated.
Whatever the reason, what follows is a very enjoyable romp outlining the strategy and culture of an incredibly successful broking duo.
What is SRG going to do with its new investment? The answers are all in here.
And that’s because of the two people in the room with me.
A minute ago I said I have the best job in the world for me – and it seems obvious to me that these two would say exactly the same about their jobs.
NOTES:
Warren is the first to speak.
The football team owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney is Wrexham.
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com
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Today’s guest is a leader in one of the most innovative and interesting businesses in the market.
He was last on the show as part of a duo but is now here in his own right.
This should all make much more sense when I tell you that I am talking about Dan Burrows, the Group CEO of Fidelis Insurance Group.
Since we last met Fidelis has successfully split into the balance sheet insurer that Dan runs and the MGA the Fidelis Partnership led by Richard Brindle, in a move to a hybrid structure that is the first of its kind.
Fidelis Insurance Group has also floated as a public company, completed a secondary capital raise and is to back the launch of a Fidelis Partnership syndicate at Lloyd’s.
Many of the above events are once-in-a-lifetime occurrences for most executives, but Dan moves quickly and the person I spoke to for this interview gave the impression of already being settled into his new roles and doubtless exploring his business’s next moves.
A listen back to this podcast has confirmed that time spent with Dan is enormously productive.
We cover a huge amount of ground, from the state of the market all the way through to the best application of Artificial Intelligence in the insurance value chain.
But I think one of the most valuable aspects of this encounter is that we get to hear Dan speaking clearly for himself and the interests of his shareholders.
He does so incredibly frankly and candidly. His views are never ambiguous.
So if you would like to spend some very productive time with a key player in one of the most successful underwriting organisations of its generation, please listen on.
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com
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