Brokers in the Americas are coming together to achieve some common goals. At the end of February, global broking network company Brokerslink announced the launch of a new regional team that will have oversight over the company’s efforts to assist broker partners and affiliates in the region. Ariel Couto, Brokerslink Americas regional manager, will lead the steering team and will rely on the help of key Brokerslink partners, including Shawn DeSantis, president and CEO of Navacord in Canada, to be active in managing the network across this broad region.
There are a few top of mind goals for the steering committee as it begins its work.
“The first one will be enhancing the brand awareness of Brokerslink across the region,” said Couto. “Secondly will be seizing opportunities and the third one will be replicating best practices across the region.”
After a recent meeting in Miami, the team is dividing and conquering to determine the critical workstreams and divide responsibilities among its members.
“We can have one workstream, for example, on targeting business, another one for carrier relationships, another one for training and replicating of the best practices, [and another] related to product development,” explained Couto. “Each member can be responsible for one [of these] or will be part of more than one workstream, helping me to be more active. The main goal I believe is in increasing the efficiency and the brand awareness of Brokerslink across the region.”
The Americas steering team will also assist in the creation of new niche products and services. One emerging trend that requires some insurance innovation has been the implementation of data privacy regulations that have already appeared in Europe, California and other US states, and Canada, and will be coming to Brazil on August 16. This legislation presents a potentially new risk mitigation and insurance need for companies, according to Couto. Another area ripe for opportunity is alterative risk transfer and parametric solutions, he added, with which many companies are already experimenting.
“We can make use of the capabilities we have within the network, and advocate and expand [these solutions] to the other countries,” said Couto, adding that the new team will help him to understand the strengths that Brokerslink already has access to and pinpoint different opportunities across the
region.
While opportunities abound for brokers across the Americas, there are also challenges, such as hardening markets in certain lines of business as well as mergers and acquisitions of big names in the broking industry, that put pressure on smaller firms to stand out. The Brokerslink team plans to be there for its partners as they navigate these hurdles as well.
“This will be another important workstream,” said Couto. “At the same time as we find the opportunities we have to develop business together, we also will be available for the entire network across the region to address issues they have regarding maybe a specific carrier or maybe a claim. We will be there to help them, supporting them in both addressing the opportunities and also the issues they can have in the running of the business.”
