Nic Brown, divisional director – broker, at Markel UK, joins Insurance Business TV to examine the challenges insurance brokers face in a hard market and where the value lies in the PII market. He explores the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis and offers tips to brokers looking to thrive.
Nic: [00:00:25] The biggest challenge for brokers is managing the loss of capacity and the pricing increases that we've seen as a result of the softening of the market, which is ultimately almost commoditization of many of the insurance lines in the UK. So I think finding value in the space is all about what we do next. So brokers have spent the last two years incredibly hard fought kind of managing clients and managing the price increases. But let's keep it at a sustainable level now. And I think brokers need to do two things. One is have a long memory in terms of the insurers and the capacity that wasn't there for them in the last two years and have been putting ridiculous prices increases through, which is, you know, issues with their own sustainability. And thirdly, if the only thing a broker has to talk about is price, then we're all doing something wrong.
Nic: [00:01:29] Absolutely. I think there's huge reason to be optimistic. There's going to be economic challenges in the future. But if we work together as an industry, making sure we protect the position that we've got today in terms of pricing levels, the long term capacity that is committed to this market, then we together can ensure that customers come first. And we have to do that by using the bedrock of the kind of commercial environment that's been created over the last two years, and that will help us navigate any of the challenging times that we see economically in the foreseeable future.
Nic: [00:02:07] I think that my big call out to brokers to help navigate the market at the moment is please go to insurers that have got a long term, sustainable commitment to the market or sector that they're in, both in terms of those that have steadied the ship in the last few years and been there to support customers, either from a claims perspective or continuing to provide capacity and commit to the markets that they're in. That has to be rewarded because that's really, really good behavior. And together if we work on that basis we'll be able to get a lot more plain sailing for years to come.
