TV

[00:00:04] Daniel Wood: 
Hello and welcome to Insurance Business TV. We're taking a closer look at a brokerage in our 2025 ranking of Top Insurance Brokerages and Fastest Growing Insurance brokerages in Australia and New Zealand. Top Brokerages are ranked on per broker results across clients, policies, revenue and growth. Fast Brokerages are firms with more than 20% growth in gross written premium and revenue. Fundagroup Insurance Brokers, a family run brokerage in Auckland, is one of the leaders. We're joined by the firm's Chair and Senior Broker, B.K Sharma, and also the CEO and Lead Underwriter, Payal Sharma. Welcome to you both. 
B.K, let's start with you. Nice to be chatting with you on Insurance Business TV. Your brokerage pitches itself as fundamentally different from a lot of other brokerages and you describe your firm as a movement to redefine insurance. How does that redefinition help your clients? 

[00:01:01] B.K Sharma: 
Hi Danny. Yes, basically we are not just selling insurance, we are sort of redefining how it's delivered to the customer. So in New Zealand, tight market where when any softness or hardness of the market goes there's a lag because the market is too small and then we have to really be very closely interacting with the customer face to face so that we understand the risk and accordingly we take it to the underwriter and the market to get the best results so face to face contact is very important. That's why we show up not just as brokers, but as trusted advisors. We meet face-to-face, guide clients through renewals, offer in-house premium funding, which we have, and in time of need, we really give them a help. In addition, our parametric risk solution, which we have an in-house product, sometimes comes to the rescue of the customer, especially in hard-to-place risks like dairies, pubs and EPS systems where the insurers excesses are too high or with claims getting repeated year by year so that's how this isn't just a brokerage it's a movement towards smart and more human insurance. 

[00:02:31] Daniel Wood: 
Payal, welcome to Insurance Business TV. 

[00:02:33] Payal Sharma: 
Hi, welcome Dan. 

[00:02:36] Daniel Wood: 
Yeah nice to have you here. Tell us about your in-house risk engineering. What exactly does that involve? 

[00:02:43] Payal Sharma: 
Yeah, at Fundagroup, risk engineering is not just a service, it's our foundation. It's woven into how we think, how we operate, and how we serve. Our team from their earlier experience brings a rare depth of hardly seen and broken firms today. The hands-on experience such as risk engineers, claim adjusters, and underwriters, combined with the legacy of training over a thousand insurance professionals. We just don't assess risk. We decode it, we anticipate it, and manage it from every angle, from initial inspections to underwriting and claims. We are trusted technical partner is not just advice, it's a strategic end-to-end support that builds confidence and deliver results. 

[00:03:34] Daniel Wood: 
Payal, what have you done on the technical side to reduce friction and increase transparency? 

[00:03:41] Payal Sharma: 
Yeah, technology is a very important part in any business in these days. And at Fundagroup, we have also adopted technology on the way how our clients experience insurance. Our partnership with Steadfast has cut 20% of time during renewals, 10% during claims, and another 10% when we are presenting competitive quotes. But it's not just about the speed then. The SCTP portal brings structure, security, and clarity to every step. It ensures compliance, protects confidentiality, and gives clients full visibility into their options. We have moved from manual friction to seamless flow, from uncertainty to empowered decision making. When clients see their risks managed with protection and transparency, trust deepens. That's the kind of transformation we stand for. Difference not just in our technical depth, but in the personalized service we bring. That's why 85% of new clients come through referrals, out of which 15% are now represented by Gen Z. That's not legacy, it's trust passed down. 

[00:04:59] Daniel Wood: 
B.K, on the one hand you have technology, but you seem to be quite a traditional brokerage for prioritizing face-to-face engagement with clients. 

[00:05:08] B.K Sharma: 
Yes, we embrace smart technology, but we are probably traditional when it comes to client engagement. Many small or big broking firms today are shifting online and mirroring direct insurance style of insurance, whereas our personal face to face contact makes us all the way different, which we use technology as well, time and again, wherever we find to really have a human vital connection as well. So at Fundagroup, we have tracked a different path from the market when they try to save few pennies by doing direct insurance. 

[00:05:57] Daniel Wood: 
And B.K, how do you reward your licensed brokers and how in your view does that also help clients get a better insurance and risk management offering? 

[00:05:58] B.K Sharma: 
Yeah, at Fundagroup we have built one of the rarest model in the broking industry. 100% of our licensed brokers are shareholders, investors or family members. So each one has undergone a lot of rigorous training in insurance fundamentals and in behavioral science over the past decade. They can really interact with the customer more like a family member or a trusted advisor because they own the book of the clients and they also own the outcomes. So whatever the results are, at some times, they have to pay some of the payments from their salary if they are not doing the right thing. So that's what we make it a different. They feel as if you're part of their family. So this mindset creates excellence. They are rewarded not just with incentives, but with equity and one time growth as well. Overall growth for clients. It means working with someone business to business rather than business owner with an employee. So that keep the confidentiality of their entire portfolio privacy and make them feel very comfortable because face-to-face interaction makes them feel as if you're part of their own business as invisible directors yes and our ai back parametric risk product claim access offers a rent relief real relief from excess especially for high risk high risk insurances for dairies, pubs, EPS panels, etc. which I covered earlier. 

[00:07:43] Daniel Wood: 
B.K and Payal, thanks very much for joining us on Insurance Business TV. 

[00:07:49] Payal Sharma: 
Thank you very much. Thank you. Cheers.