happens’. The challenge in the early years was to become
established. I sometimes think we survived initially off the
crumbs of the big brokers, but fortunately for me, they are
messy eaters. As they get bigger they become exclusive in
the type of captive they want and that gives an opportunity
for an independent manager to find niches and be able to
exploit them.
YOU NEED A LOT MORE
C A P I TA L T H A N A S M A L L
P R I VAT E L Y O W N E D G R O U P
C A N P R O B A B LY M U S T E R .
But I’m happy to say 20 years on, the ball is still in the
air and some of those powerhouses from back then are no
longer in business. I’m not sure there is one career defining
moment, I take a great deal of satisfaction knowing we are
still here after 20 years and I am pleased to see us moving
on to the next phase. That in itself will be a very nice way
to walk away.
Do you see a future for small independent
insurance managers or is the market better
served by broker-owned managers?
I think it is becoming more and more difficult for small
independent managers to function in the increasingly
complicated world that we live in - complicated by
regulation, and the cost and resources involved in the
monitoring of regulatory and compliance obligations. In
today’s dramatic and fluid business environment, it is much
more of a challenge for an independent manager to have
all the information at hand regarding the many diverse
needs of today’s business coverage than a larger brokerage
with specialised departments and many more resources
available to them. Gone are the days of a captive being
set up simply for worker’s compensation – there is now so
much that people are
insuring – supply chain
interruption and these
sort of things. I think
however, that the role of
independent managers is
important, although they
might be doing more
plain vanilla policies,
they will remain an
attractive option for
small businesses that are building their insurance needs
into their overall business