Don McLardy (pictured above) has worked as an insurance broker for more than four decades and spent the last two building up a respected AR network with his good friend Mike McShane. But he told Insurance Business he still has very important unfinished business: changing the industry’s long standing negative image that’s so hard to budge from the minds of the general public and the media.
“That's one of my little plans as I wind down a bit, to try and change that,” he told IB. The “winding down” happened earlier this month when McLardy moved from leading the daily operation of his business – McLardy McShane Group - to a board role.
But the job he’s set himself could be a monumental task. How to improve the industry’s image, suggested IB to McLardy, is a million-dollar question. Afterall, just the word: insurance, has such negative connotations for many people. Does McLardy have any ideas about how to change that?
“I'm not sure what the answer is,” he said. However, he suggested the answer. “We need to hear the good stories on the media, the real stories.”
McLardy told a couple during this interview. One happened a few weeks ago and involved a friend of his who was preparing to sell the house he’d spent the last two years building. The house burnt down “basically on the day [of] settlement.”
“They're horrific experiences for people and of course, the first person he wants to talk to is me,” McLardy said. That insurance claim is processing but the industry veteran suggested that it should resolve positively for his friend.
This story – and many others like it, he said – underscore how critical brokers are when things go wrong and disaster strikes.
“Yet we totally undervalue that role that we play, and we let the media and everyone make a mockery of our industry,” he said. “We need to change that narrative.”
He drew another example from the flooding tragedy that struck northern NSW and Queensland in 2022 that, he said, “sticks in my brain.”
“After the floods in Lismore, I spoke to an Allianz claims manager who was there and she basically had a check book and was writing out checks of tens of thousands for people who were in critical need,” said McLardy.
He said the claims manager was upset by how traumatic this nat cat experience was for so many people.
“I agreed but told her how fantastic that you're able to change those people's lives in that instance where their lives are falling apart,” said McLardy. “So important, but we don't hear those stories.”
He also said focusing more on the very large number of claims that are paid, rather than the handful that are knocked back, should help improve the industry’s image.
“I would say 99.9% of the claims that I felt should be paid were paid by insurers and of the ones that were fifty-fifty, I reckon 80% of those were paid ex-gratia by the insurer,” said McLardy.
He said the industry is “very poor” at making sure a more balanced story reaches the public.
“What we do is really important, we’ve got to start working on how we get that across,” said McLardy.
However, the industry veteran suggested another step is needed before industry colleagues step up and start proactively telling more positive industry stories. Many brokers may need to begin by changing their own attitude – like he did.
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McLardy said when he was starting his career back in the early 1980s if people asked what he did, he’d change the topic. He suggested he was somewhat ashamed of being in the industry and knew it wouldn’t go down well in conversation at a bar or restaurant. He’d change the topic to football. He doesn’t do that anymore.
“One of the major things that, as I'm getting older, I'm very conscious of – and I try and tell all our younger people – is that the business we're in is seriously important and we in our industry under rate it terribly and we underrate ourselves terribly,” he said.
McLardy is hoping to find ways to encourage his industry colleagues to be as proud of what their industry can do as he is. Once they get their minds right, McLardy said every insurance broker will be able to tell great stories about their clients.
“So somehow, that's the exposure and the narrative we need to get across,” he said.
IB is always looking for industry stories. Any brokers with positive anecdotes involving customers and their insurance and risk management work, please get in touch. Of course, for the sake of balance, we will consider some negative stories about insurers too.
