Has the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted insurance take-up among tradespeople? If you ask Trade Risk managing director Shane Moore (pictured), his answer is a resounding ‘no’.
In fact, the Trade Risk boss told Insurance Business that the decade-old specialist brokerage had its “best year” in 2020. The same is true every year, according to Moore, highlighting sustained growth for the Albion-based firm.
“It wasn’t so much an issue with people just cancelling their insurance or us getting less new clients,” noted the managing director. “It was just existing clients, particularly some of our Melbourne clients during their extended lockdown, saying, ‘If I can’t do any work for the next three months, am I going to get a reduction in premium?’”
Many insureds with decreased earnings have inquired about rate adjustments.
Moore stated: “We have lots of people calling us about ‘my revenue is lower this year’, things like that. So it’s more about the cost of their insurance really, asking if their reduced revenue is going to reduce their premium and save some money while there’s a little bit less work.”
When asked whether there’s a particular trade that has required greater attention, insurance-wise, during this challenging period, the MD said the above observation applies across the board.
Moving forward, Moore’s camp is focused on continuing to improve capabilities and spending more time with Trade Risk’s bigger clients – which have grown with the broker – and helping educate them in terms of coverage.
“A lot of our larger clients started off as little clients,” shared Moore, “and they’re relying a lot on us for education around what insurance they need.
“We don’t necessarily attract a lot of new larger clients. It’s more so making sure we’re looking after our smaller ones so that they can become larger clients and stick with us.”
The goal, he said, is ensuring that Trade Risk’s small and mid-sized clients know that the company does have the capabilities and expertise and that they won’t have to “go off and find someone new” as far as insurance broking is concerned.
As for the biggest challenge this year, Moore believes it’s the lingering uncertainty. In his view, businesses would want to have the confidence that, for instance, they could put on more staff without worrying that they’re going to suddenly go into another lockdown and might have to let people go or struggle to keep them.
