Insurance Carriers & Brokers: Parasitic Or Symbiotic Relationship?

Absent investment income and capital gains, has the global insurance industry made a profit over the past 15 years? What is the true extent of under reserving? Turnover amongst Insurer's shareholders is greater than ever. The advent of computer driven trading, options and ETF's results in companies and shareholders not knowing each other. insurers cannot know who their shareholders are from day to day. Investors may not know the identity of their investments. Almost daily insurers exit classes of business overnight. Buyers have to make investment decisions over time scales of years not knowing the cost of their insurance coverage, or whether coverage will be available at all. Industry consolidation amongst carriers continues at a furious pace, disturbing relationships even further. The industry's claims performance is still not as good as it needs to be. Carriers complain at brokers’ commissions and fees, but it is the client, the buyer who decides what their broker earns. The reality?........insurers are legally obligated to place their shareholders’ interests above the interests of the policy holders. The brokers role is as valuable to insurers as it is to buyers. The existence of the brokers permits the insurers to react to volatility without creating a political backlash. Speaker: Dennis Mahoney is a 50 year veteran of the insurance industry. He started his career in 1968 at Lloyds insurance broker Price Forbes. That firm then merged with Sedgwick Collins and then Bland Payne to create the Sedgwick Group, now part of Marsh& McLennan. During his career Dennis was fortunate to work in most classes of both insurance and reinsurance. After graduating from the Harvard Business School PMD program, he was appointed deputy chairman of Sedgwick North America. In 1984 he was recruited to lead Alexander Howden the Lloyds broker acquired by US broking giant A & A ( Alexander & Alexander). Following the acquisition of A&A by Aon in 1997, Dennis was appointed as Chairman and CEO of Aon's Wholesale and reinsurance operations. Dennis relocated to Bermuda in 2007 as Chairman of Aon Global. He retired in 2010. Appointed as an independent director of Ironshore in 2012, he chaired the underwriting and risk committee. Following the sale of Ironshore to Fosun, he remained with the company until its sale to Liberty Mutual in 2016. In 2015 Calera Capital acquired RFIB (Robert Fleming Insurance brokers ) and Dennis joined as co-investor and Executive Chairman. RFIB was acquired by Odyssey capital (Integro/Tysers ) in 2019 and Dennis stepped down. He remains with the group until his contract expires in 2021. Interested in watching our webinars live, or taking part in the production of our research? Join our community at: https://bit.ly/3sXPpb5