The late Robert Cooper was a very capable and community-minded insurance broker. His wife and co-director of CPR Insurance Services, Mandy Cooper, has described him as a “broker extraordinaire.” Robert died from leukaemia in January 2023.
Following the success of last year’s fundraising lunch for the Leukaemia Foundation, his family are holding their second annual event in his honour on July 9 at Brisbane’s Prince Consort Hotel.
Since his passing, the insurance issues facing brokers, including rising insurance premiums and unaffordable coverages, have become even tougher challenges. Insurance Business asked Mandy how Robert would have approached these obstacles.
“Robert always believed in acting in the client’s best interests,” she said. “He would be looking at alternatives for clients to try and reduce premiums as well as discussing higher deductibles to provide some premium relief.”
Mandy said her firm has so far been fortunate because relatively few clients have reached the unaffordable situation.
“But we know it is out there,” she said. “All we can do apart from provide alternatives is to listen and support our clients.”
Empathy and understanding, she said, are important tools that Robert would have used to the full. However, he would also take action wherever he possibly could.
“He would do everything in his power to assist clients in catching up on premium funding repayments or asking for extended credit terms with insurers to ensure their assets and potential liabilities were still insured,” said Mandy. “Robert and I would find it heartbreaking to see a client cancel their cover due to costs and then have a major uninsured loss.”
One broker issue that has come to fore in recent months – both in surveys and anecdotally – is rising customer demands. Mandy said Robert would take the initiative and embrace this challenge to head it off.
“Brokers don’t survive without clients,” she said. “We are in the business of providing a service and so of course clients will want our service from time to time.”
Mandy suggested that Robert would have seen this issue differently. Rather than being more demanding, she said, he would have seen a customer in need.
“We never find our clients to be demanding, just asking for help,” said Mandy. “There has been the occasional client who has been unreasonable but Robert was always great at providing updates on timeframes and helping clients to understand what was a realistic expectation for something to be delivered.”
IB asked Mandy about that existential issue of our time: the increasing severity and frequency of natural cattastrophes. How would Robert advise property owners who are repeatedly finding themselves in the path of floods and fires?
Mandy said that only last week she was sorting through old papers and found a climate change article he saved from the late 1990s.
“Yes, nat cats are more frequent now but Robert was talking about climate change since the late 1980s and 90s,” she said. “Increased frequency of natural disasters are all a result of climate change.”
Mandy said he would often explain to clients that the premiums of the many help pay the claims of the few. However, he would also be transparent about premiums needing to rise to cover costs as nat cats become more frequent.
Like last year, the family have timed their memorial-fundraiser to make it easier for many to attend. The Underwriting Agencies Council (UAC) Brisbane Market Exchange is the next day, July 10.
Mandy hopes this year’s event will top 2023’s fundraising total.
“Last year we raised $27,000 and this year I would like to raise more,” she said. “So far from our donation pages we have raised over $2,000 with donations from those who can’t attend.”
Mandy said this “giving back” is something she and Robert have always done.
“We can’t change our journey but hopefully we can help to change the journey of others,” she said. “This year our daughter Jaslyn is also donating her long curls to be made into wigs for cancer patients.”
Robert’s younger brother, Richard, is also coming over from Western Australia. He will be shaving his head – together with Gavin the Prince Consort’s barman – as part of the fundraising efforts.
If you would like to attend the Leukaemia Foundation fundraising lunch on July 9 celebrating Robert Cooper, please click here to buy your ticket.
