Theory turning into practice?
Posted by Carl Phillips | Market Development on Wednesday 20 April 2011, 4:30PM Share
I had a conversation with a placing broker at a conference recently who mentioned he had a challenging day coming up.
He was musing that if he didn’t need to secure the five straightforward lines that day he could maximise his chances of securing lines on the more complex risks that attracted higher premiums.
It seemed to me that this was a clear and tangible example of what electronic placing support in the market was designed to do – release time so brokers and underwriters could focus their precious resource on the complex and challenging risks.
There is evidence that brokers and underwriters are using the electronic endorsement initiative to test this theory in practice, indeed some firms have redesigned their business process to take advantage of this.
By using a triage process to allocate the simple risks to more junior staff, the highly skilled underwriters and placing brokers can focus on the more complex risks. And the potential for all firms to take up this opportunity is significant, with the endorsement pilot showing month on month that about 90% of Marine endorsements do not involve a visit by the broker!
The benefits of this approach are that less complex endorsements are being handled outside of underwriting hours meaning that brokers are able to give same day service to clients (see my previous blog on this subject).
I have heard of many instances where the broker has sent the endorsement out at 08:30 and gained agreement by 09:30 meaning same day service is achievable, such service is appreciated by brokers and clients alike which only enhances the market’s reputation alongside its strength of underwriting expertise.
The use of electronic placing support is never going to replace face to face negotiation for complex risks. This is a fundamental part of the market’s proposition; but it begs the question when it comes down to say, a simple name change are highly skilled underwriters and brokers really adding value to the process or whether their time is better spent focusing on underwriting, value add services to the client and business development?
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