Sydney-based Lloyd’s coverholder FTA Insurance now has an office in Brisbane, and managing director Christian Garling (pictured) couldn’t be more pumped to introduce a local senior underwriter to service the company’s broker partners in Queensland.
“We’re very excited about it,” Garling told Insurance Business. “Our philosophy, generally, is that brokers and underwriters work better in partnership. And that’s best done with people that you know, people with whom you have a relationship – and having people locally means that you do know them, you do have a relationship with them, you do work in partnership with them.
“I think it’s important that underwriters and brokers are accountable to each other. And you’re accountable to each other when you see each other locally. When you’re at events, you see each other. When you’re at professional days, you see each other. It helps you build that relationship. And, let’s face it, brokers and underwriters, whether in a hard or soft market, are dependent on each other for success.”
Tasked to build and nurture those relationships in Queensland is key arrival Rachel Macionis, who previously spent more than a decade at Berkley Insurance Australia.
Referring to the latest addition to the FTA roster, Garling said: “She’s very well known in the market, very well respected as a knowledgeable underwriter and someone who turns things around quickly, understands how to prioritise work, and makes sure that her brokers are well looked after in terms of turnaround time, competitive premiums, and coverage.”
“I’m a believer in positioning yourself and in waiting for the opportunity to come along,” added the FTA boss. “We’ve positioned ourselves with some great relationships with brokers in Brisbane, and then it was a matter of waiting for the right person to come along at the right time.
“Culture is very important to us, and Rachel fits our culture extremely well. She fits the culture of our brokers very well. So, it’s a matter of the right person coming along, and then being in a position to capitalise on that. So, that’s what happened with Brisbane.”
While Garling himself knows a significant number of brokers in the state who have dealt with him over a long period of time, the managing director puts a premium on having someone locally to foster and focus on those relationships – a local underwriter who can take ownership of the portfolio.
In Garling’s view, underwriters who don’t feel as though they have ownership of their portfolio might not be in a position to service clients in the best way possible.
“They don’t feel accountable to their brokers, especially if they aren’t invested for the longer term in those brokers,” he stated. “All our underwriters are invested for the longer term in their relationships with their brokers. Our underwriters do take on additional responsibilities and change their responsibilities from time to time, but they still stay connected with the same brokers.
“It’s that connection and that relationship with the broker, that is the reason why they do answer the phone call and they do turn the quote around. And this comes back to why we’re in Queensland, because we want a person locally who is invested in those relationships with their brokers, and who feels in control and has ownership of their portfolio.”
Garling highlighted: “We have a fantastic workflow system that allows people to understand how much work they have to do, and the urgency of that work, and allows them to prioritise that work. It’s a better system than I’ve seen in any other insurer. That’s not to say other insurers don’t have very good systems, but our system is particularly good.
“[Our team] has a dashboard – it tells them upcoming renewals, what renewals they haven’t seen, what quotes they’ve yet to do, what quotes they have done, when those are due, who they’re due with. To work efficiently and productively, you have to be organised. And to enable people to feel that they own their portfolio, you need to educate them about it.”
“And that’s what we’re doing,” stressed the industry veteran, “so that any underwriter always feels in control of their workload because they can see what’s in front of them. That’s not to say that we’re always perfect, don’t get me wrong, but we do try our best to make sure that we are as organised as possible to give our brokers the best service possible.”
As for further expansion plans, Garling said they’re always on the lookout for opportunities, and that where opportunities arise, FTA will be in a position to capitalise on them.
