Why did you get into insurance?
After discovering that a career in HR was more policy preparation than party planning, I rejoined the insurance industry looking for a career that would enable me to work in a field whereby relationship building and customer service was valued, kick-starting my career in Vero’s BRM unit before moving to broking in 2007.
How would you sum up insurance brokers in three words?
Under-valued, passionate and resilient
How would you change the industry?
I would invest into educating the general public of the important role insurance brokers play and the difference between the direct and intermediated markets, especially in the SME sector.
In addition, I would implement stronger requirements on the clear disclosure of policy inclusions and exclusions for direct insurers and online quote engines that compete on price alone. These markets are putting the onus onto the business owner to read and understand complex policy contracts, with the end result being that at time of claim, more clients are left un-insured and the reputation of the wider industry is tarnished.
Best advice you’ve ever been given?
Make yourself essential to your client.
If you were Prime Minister for one day, what would you do?
Aside from worrying about who in my own party will usurp me – create tax incentives to move businesses into regional hubs (Newcastle, Gosford, Penrith, Wollongong, Campbelltown) to ease the cost of living and congestion in the Sydney basin. I would also adopt Oscar’s Law (www.oscarslaw.org) banning factory puppy mills.
If you could invite three people to dinner, dead or alive, and excluding family and friends, who would they be and why?
Shane Warne – A cricketing genius and amazing story teller
Steve Jobs – To understand what it took transform Apple into the world’s ‘coolest’ brand
J.Edgar Hoover – The first Director of the FBI and keeper of the USA’s most intriguing secrets of the 20th centaury
Complete this sentence: If I wasn’t in insurance, I would be…
Waking up refreshed and clear-headed on 1 July.
Andrew Faber is an account manager at MGA Insurance Brokers
