David Coe, the owner and manager of Northwest Insurance, talks about being valuable in the community, dining with Clive Palmer and a mischievous client's questionable policy request.
How would you sum up insurance brokers in three words?
Driven, professional and focused.
How would you change the industry?
That’s a big question. [I'd] probably try to have insurers rely more on broker supported business rather than direct and reshape the thinking of customers through advertising campaigns stemming from insurers and supporting bodies.
Best advice you’ve ever been given?
In business, look up and not at down. People who look down run into walls, people who look up climb them!
What’s the most important thing a broker can do to develop their business?
Market themselves better and not underestimate their value in the community.
What’s the biggest challenge facing the industry today? 
The ever-changing face of social media and keeping in contact and advising our clients on matters that affect them, not just nationally but globally.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever arranged cover for?
I was asked to insure ice under a marine transit policy to come from Alaska to Australia being sent in a wooden crate for water damage losses only, until I realized the client was pulling my leg!
What has been the highlight of your career?
Actually, I have seen many smaller highlights, but I was quite stoked to be involved in and be one of the winners in the
Top Elite 30 Brokers for 2013 with
Insurance Business.
NRL, AFL, soccer or other?
Soccer and basketball, I grew up with those sports and played it through primary and secondary school.
If you could invite three people to dinner, dead or alive, and excluding family and friends, who would they be and why?
Richard Branson – to spend time with successful people and learn from them; Bill Gates – again, extremely successful and generous individual to get to know and learn from and Clive Palmer, to find out what plans he has for Australia if he keeps moving up the political ladder and to claim my dinner as a tax deduction!
Complete this sentence: If I wasn’t in insurance, I would be…Running my own fishing and tackle shop.
