Change is the only constant in the directors’ and officers’ insurance market. For Brendan Husband-Whiting (pictured), senior account underwriter, management liability at Allianz UK, it is that constant state of flux along with the creativity required to support the market’s broad range of clients that first caught and held his interest.
“D&O is an ever-evolving product because what you’re covering is threats to directors and companies, which most of the time come from a legislative or regulatory point of view,” he said. “The thing about the legislative and regulatory framework is that it’s always changing and being updated. It can change depending on what hot topics are happening in the world right now so it does keep you on your toes.”
Husband-Whiting noted that when he started his career in Allianz’s digital e-trade he had the opportunity to deal with about a dozen different insurance products but D&O soon caught his eye as something completely different. It’s such a fluid product, he said, and there’s something new happening which means you need to be constantly evaluating the real exposures facing your clients and how to support them in navigating an ever-changing threat landscape.
Examining what’s happening in the D&O market, he highlighted the competitive and challenging landscape of the wider financial lines sector. It’s one that has seen a lot of changes through and post-COVID, he said, and for those working in the D&O market today, the focus is on balancing present challenges with emerging threats.
“For example, things like climate change won’t be news to anyone and it will continue to be a topic of conversation until an ironclad regulatory framework and legislation is put into place,” he said. “So, that’s always on the horizon. But then we have topics like cladding post-Grenfell which made for an interesting time for the D&O and PI market.
“One of the ongoing topics for us at the moment, is the cost-of-living crisis and the economic downturn. That affects D&O because we know from years of underwriting D&O that there is a direct correlation between the financial performance of a company and how it performs from a risk perspective. That’s something that we’re always wary of but these things can’t always be helped. You just have to work out the right underwriting approach and make sure you keep a close eye on it.”
The challenge facing brokers is how to best navigate this complex and fast-changing risk environment on behalf of their clients, he said, and Allianz UK sees it as its responsibility to help them meet that challenge head-on. From broker breakfasts, to lunch and learns, to broker partner days, to virtual presentations, to in-office visits, to training days, to webinars – the list of services in place to support brokers is boundless, but he emphasised that it does not and cannot end there.
“This is an ongoing piece of work for us,” he said. “There isn’t ever going to be a day when we sit back and say, ‘our job is done, the market has been educated’. And we don’t mind that because this is actually something we really like to do.
“Our fantastic marketing team recently set up a broker webinar which nearly 500 brokers attended which was about the impacts of the current economic challenge and how it affects D&O and how it can affect clients who don’t have D&O insurance in place. And it was great to see not just the attendance figures but the engagement of our broker partners.”
Meeting brokers’ demand for more and better education around D&O, he said, is vital not least because uptake of the critical coverage remains far too low. From conversations with brokers, it’s clear that clients often simply do not understand their exposures and the benefits that come with having a D&O policy. As such, this education piece is critical to reducing that protection gap and building a healthier and more sustainable D&O marketplace.
What’s been interesting to see, Husband-Whiting said, is that while brokers have always reacted positively to the support services on offer, their engagement has increased in the last year to 18 months. Pressing socio-economic factors have likely played a part in that, with businesses – and particularly SMEs – becoming more exposed.
“Brokers are naturally questioning what other insurance products might be necessary to make sure their clients are properly protected in these market conditions, and D&O is certainly one I would place in that bracket,” he said. “We’ve had an increase in queries, in brokers reaching out to us to ask if we can give them a basic a-to-z of D&O and how it works. And as long as those requests keep coming in, we’re more than happy to oblige.”
Husband-Whiting said he’s proud that continuing to support broker partners remains top of the agenda for him and his team. The ambition is there to grow Allianz’s financial lines book, he said, and it’s an ambition the insurer has made very clear to the market and its partners.
“This is a very exciting time for us in the financial lines space here at Allianz, and we’re really looking forward to what’s next,” he said. “That, for us, is keeping up the broker engagement and getting more engagement where we can. We’re in a very exciting position now that we’ve got the three financial lines hubs we recently put in place. It’s the first time we’ve done this, and we’ve been looking forward to it for a long time.
“It means we now have more local subject matter experts in more areas of the UK who can link in with their local markets. So not only can we maximise our opportunities to access that business, we can also access more brokers on a local level and spread the good word. What’s next is to keep doing what we’re doing because it’s working. We’re building some strong broker relationships, which is fantastic and, at the end of the day, if we want to achieve our ambition of being a top financial lines player in the market within the next few years, we need to keep doing that.”
