It began life as Tasman Insurance Brokers 35 years ago and has received some prestigious accolades in recent times. CEO Dale Hansen talks to Insurance Business about what makes the Queensland business different
In 2011, Dale Hansen became CEO of Austbrokers Coast to Coast (AC2C), one of the largest insurance brokers on the Gold Coast and winner of ANZIIF’s Small Broking Company of the Year award for both 2016 and 2017.
He talks about the types of business that AC2C writes.
“We’re large in transport; we do a lot in the hazardous goods space – manufacturing, carriage, [and] distribution,” he says. ‘“We have a lot of experience and proficiency in the not-for-profit space … We’re quite large in construction, and … we tend to specialise quite a lot in the financial lines space as well.”
On the state of today’s marketplace, Hansen says: “Everybody’s wanting to commoditise and get into the commoditised market. They’re asking for IT products to fundamentally do a lot of their underwriting for them.”
He says many brokers are going down that path themselves.
“Once we start commoditising our clients, we’re not really any different to a direct insurer. I don’t think that’s what clients are looking for; it’s not what our clients are looking for,” Hansen says.
“There is still very much a role and a place for good old-fashioned customer service and relationships, and it’s very hard to have a relationship with somebody when you’re only dealing in the IT space.
“That’s actually why I believe a lot of underwriting agencies are finding their niche – they’re offering, in many cases, a different type of solution. I often would have more one-on-one interaction with them than I would have with some of the major insurers.”
Hansen describes AC2C as both customercentric and risk management focused.
“We’re totally focused on the client and their needs, not on our commission,” he says.
“We spend a lot of time getting to know [a client’s] business and finding out what their appetite for risk is, because everyone’s appetite for risk is different … We’re trying to offer tailored solutions to a client’s individual risk appetite.”
Asked what he attributes the business’s recent external recognition to, Hansen cites AC2C’s value-added services.
“We have a professional company director within the business who’s an expert in compliance and corporate governance,” he says. “Our claims manager is a solicitor, so we’ve got legally qualifi ed staff on hand.
“We also have a heavy emphasis on asset management … so making sure that our clients have regular asset management programs, as far as maintenance and upgrades, and factoring that into their businesses so that they’re able to identify when all those things need to regularly take place.”
And it sounds as though clients are making good use of those services.
“Having legally qualified staff has signifi cant benefits in the claim and risk management space, and a number of our clients have utilised our professional company director in the auditing accounting space but also to re-engineer their companies and to help them set up and manage boards and senior management groups,” he says.
“Having profi cient
, skilled sta in that space … has been a signifi cant benefi t to us, and it means that we’re able to provide a lot of the skills and services that traditionally [have been offered by] a brokerage several times our size.”
Hansen emphasises the business’s hard work when it comes to client relationships.
“We’re not seeking to commoditise our business and do things more cost-e ectively, necessarily. We understand that this way of doing business comes at a cost, but our clients are happy to go on a journey with us because we’re providing what they’re looking for.”
Looking ahead, Hansen says AC2C would like to acquire another brokerage and will continue focusing on training and upskilling its employees.
“We’re very proud to be the ANZIIF Small Brokerage of the Year, and we would like to three-peat,” he adds.
“We’re shooting for the top, with a longterm goal of not [just] being able to win Small Brokerage of the Year [but] to be in the medium brokerage category.”
