A recent Insurance Business Australia TV (IBTV) episode featured Bell Partners Insurance (Bell Partners) managing director Matthew Bates, who share which businesses are particularly difficult to find coverage for in Australia.
The two policy classes taking a significant chunk of Bell Partners' time are professional indemnity (PI) and property, Bates told IBTV.
The brokerage boss explained that PI - as a financial lines class, specifically in the design, architect, engineering, and construction spaces – has been “moving northwards in relation to premium, but downward regarding insurers that are offering coverage in that particular market”. Bated added: “We've got to be quite selective around the partners that we work with in that particular space.”
Another challenging space is property, mainly in the mid-market-to-corporate space, with high-value sums insured clients needing more of a co-line program than 100% coverage by just one insurer.
“So, Berkshire Hathaway or AIG or CGU might be a lead insurer, but finding the supporting agencies or other major insurers to follow their terms has certainly [become] bit more complicated than I've seen in the previous few years,” Bates told IBTV.
An industry sector that Bates finds challenging is mining, especially when it comes to securing adequate PI and liability coverages. He also said that newer markets like fintech and the sharing economy have been tricky.
“Businesses that are popping up to provide a financial technology platform – working through their asset licensing has been challenging in the Australian marketplace, as well as the blockchain risks,” he said. “And [there’s also] sharing economy risk, where people are opening up their homes [and] boats – that’s a new market risk emerging in Australia and that tends to be more challenging.”
See the rest of the interview and how Bell Partners solves these challenges by watching the IBTV episode here for free.
