Words and platitudes about great service come easily to some, but when clients come under pressure and look to their Professional Indemnity policy for support, actions speak louder than words. Kevin White, Head of Professional Indemnity at AFL, spells out what going above and beyond looks like.
In April, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK made it clear that the coronavirus crisis should not be used as an excuse for financial advisers and other professionals not to renew their professional indemnity (PI) insurance, confirming the market was still operating.
Quite right of course – but it’s also not a reason for brokers not to deliver a brilliant service to their clients either!
There has been a lot of talk and speculation in the wake of Covid-19 about how insurance policies will respond to the event, and there’s no denying the impact and disruption to business the devastating global pandemic has created.
Good service doesn’t happen overnight
The mark of good service is how it holds up in a crisis. We’ve been working closely with our retail and wholesale clients for many years, putting protocols in place to aid and prepare them for a hardening market, and being proactive to deliver the best possible solutions.
Now, in the midst of this tragic pandemic crisis, we can at least show our clients that we can go way beyond what is usually expected from insurance brokers to support them.
A market on the move
The PI market unfortunately found itself mentioned in last year’s Lloyd’s “Decile 10” review, as one of the worst performing lines of business across all territories and sectors.
So there has been a lot of pressure to revise business plans and for brokers to manage their client’s expectations when it comes to rate increases on renewals.
It’s fair to say that despite these increases, many clients have continued to support Lloyd’s, but it’s been a challenging time. It is vital now more than ever, for Lloyd’s to rally round and really support their clients in terms of the coverage available under this new pricing regime.
Renewals – not just a rubber stamp
The FCA will naturally continue to monitor the effect that coronavirus is having on all firms’ operational resilience, including insurers. But, while the renewal process is intrinsically the same if slightly slower to complete in some cases, we are well prepared and in a better place to deal with this unexpected challenge.
Having an expert broker on hand to help navigate these choppy waters is essential to getting the best deal for clients. We work on the basis that a client has the right to be as reasonable or unreasonable as they choose – in fact we love a challenge, when it takes more than simply accessing the market to negotiate the right terms.
We owe a lot of our success in recent times to other brokers unable to provide the best solutions to their clients because they simply haven’t tried hard enough. Our team has way too much experience to want to limit ourselves to straightforward placements and having relationships and access to global markets only adds to the level of service our clients have come to expect from us.
Communication uninterrupted
As far as we are concerned, disruption and upheaval gives us an open door for us to prove ourselves, and it has helped enormously that the company had already been set up for remote working for many years, so engaging with our clients and the markets has been seamless.
So don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any difficulties renewing your PI policy – we’re here to help and support, and we will go above and beyond to get the right terms for you.
