//podcastplus.net/feed/the-voice-of-insurance~de7d738a Insurance is a maze. Don’t get lost. Mark Geoghegan asks directions from all the top people in the Global Insurance and Reinsurance Industry Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:07:32 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/fvwmfh45srsryguc/Ep269_Richard_Brindle_and_JP_O_Harea1y3r.mp3 Every year for the past four years I have been lucky enough to be given time with Richard Brindle at the opening of the Monte Carlo Rendezvous and every year we have had the sort of conversation that helps set the tone for the rest of the gathering and indeed the rest for the calendar year and into the next.This year was no exception. As ever, Richard was forceful, unambiguous and direct on all topics, from the state of the market and the growth opportunities within it to what The Fidelis Partnership has learnt from its experience with the Russia-Ukraine Aviation War losses and the California wildfires. Richard was joined by John-Paul O’Hare, the Fidelis Partnership’s Group Director of Underwriting. As the discussion took flight and encompassed subjects as diverse as the Application of Ai and algorithmic underwriting to the insurance work ethic, service levels and the return to the office, John-Paul held his own.As a result I can highly recommend this episode for an original and uncompromising view on t... Tue, 23 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/fvwmfh45srsryguc/Ep269_Richard_Brindle_and_JP_O_Harea1y3r.mp3 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/kgk53wswj6sg29jp/Sp_Ep_Simon_Fagg_Ali_Shahkaramia9s4p.mp3 Successful insurers have always been in the business of gaining a competitive edge in the form of better information and intelligence. Going right back to the days of early marine underwriters funding improved communication between global ports and ship operators, the best players have always made sure they had the clearest possible view of the risk in front of them both, at a granular, individual level and then at the portfolio level. But there’s more to it than that. The most successful underwriters today are now able to do all of their analysis and assessment at the sort of speed that would have been impossible even a decade ago. Because they can cut turnarounds from days to minutes they can hugely increase the number of submissions they can handle and therefore greatly improve their chances of selecting the best and most optimally profitable risks for their portfolios. It’s clear that with the advent of smart underwriting workbenches that enable underwriting teams and their managers to blend multipl... Fri, 19 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/kgk53wswj6sg29jp/Sp_Ep_Simon_Fagg_Ali_Shahkaramia9s4p.mp3 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/476v8s8uebmrx7ue/Ep268_Sarah_Murrow9l6a9.mp3 Insurance has a huge amount of specialisms that don’t always cross over, which means that we can go our whole careers as insurance professionals, having a rough idea about what a particular class of business does, but not really ever appreciating the detailed picture.I think Trade Credit is one of those classes and that’s something we should all fix, not least because it’s a product that our clients could probably all benefit from That’s why I’m really glad that an element of this podcast is a really useful primer on the class and that my guest today has one of the biggest single jobs in this line anywhere in the world and has over twenty years’ experience to share with us.Sarah Murrow is President & CEO at Allianz Trade Americas and what follows is a helpful rundown of this global and really useful class of business. This is insurance in its purest and most relevant form – risk taking that allows customers to stick to what they’re best at and also improves their return on capital. This ... Sun, 14 Sep 2025 07:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/476v8s8uebmrx7ue/Ep268_Sarah_Murrow9l6a9.mp3 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/v3mvvvbmht5hhqgd/SpEp_Beazley_Powering_Progress8aayu.mp3 Deep down we are all know that innovation isn't just a buzzword; it's really a matter of long-term survival. It is getting increasingly difficult to argue against the idea that the speed of change keeps accelerating and we now live in a world where what was science fiction only 20 years ago could soon become the norm. For instance, who would have guessed that the majority of our growing energy needs are going to be almost entirely met my novel green production methods within the next twenty-five years, perhaps even including scaled up nuclear fusion within the mix? Who would have imagined that commercial exploitation of space would become ever more economically viable, including the possibility of space-based manufacturing and even lunar habitation? In such an environment a failure to innovate means that not only will your company stagnate over time, but better-run, more innovative competitors might take an unassailable lead over you. If innovation is imperative this begs the question of whether t... Fri, 12 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/v3mvvvbmht5hhqgd/SpEp_Beazley_Powering_Progress8aayu.mp3 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/8s337uwb3tsx7zfr/Ep267_Clemens_Jungsthofel8h0pk.mp3 Today’s guest has just taken over the reins at a business that has always aimed to be a company that people find easy to work with and enjoy dealing with. Having been around long enough to have met and interviewed all three of his immediate predecessors, I can attest to this. Despite being at the head of a key global reinsurer, all those leaders were always open, accessible and down to earth: very much the sort of executives who you imagined answered their own emails and organised their own diaries. So I am happy to report that Clemens Jungsthofel, the CEO of Hannover Re, represents a continuation of his firm’s refreshing and highly individual character. When you buy reinsurance, at the most fundamental level you are buying life insurance for your insurance company as you protect your capital base from potentially fatal losses. It’s not a relationship you enter into lightly. It’s much more like a marriage than a simple business transaction. That’s why cedants seek out reinsurers who are strong, st... Fri, 05 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/8s337uwb3tsx7zfr/Ep267_Clemens_Jungsthofel8h0pk.mp3 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/uiy8u6z4hmuvhvfr/Ep266_Jonathan_Spry7tz51.mp3 I really enjoyed today’s interview because is it packed full of eureka moments. Sometimes looking at a business from the outside it is hard to work out exactly what it does and how and why it does it. Visiting the website of a company of this sort tends to throw up more questions than it answers. And that’s frustrating for a journalist as It’s my job to make sense of these thingsFor me cyber reinsurance underwriter Envelop Risk was one of those business – a bit of a black box that was hard to see into. I had known Jonathan Spry its CEO for about twenty years. Jonathan is very smart and has always operated at the high added value end of the Insurance value chain, where insurance and reinsurance blur into the capital markets, but in all that time I had never sat down and had a really long, researched conversation with him. And that’s why this is such a satisfying interview. In the next forty-five minutes we dissect Envelop’s augmented underwriting business model, looking at its Lloyd’s and Bermu... Tue, 02 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/uiy8u6z4hmuvhvfr/Ep266_Jonathan_Spry7tz51.mp3 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/wnx2qkfdhaw6hcc9/Ep265_Gregg_Bundschuhbuw1u.mp3 If you just confined your view to the top four brokers, you might easily assume that not much has happened in the US retail broking segment in the last ten years. But if you broadened you view to the top ten or twenty, you’d be faced with a very large number of billion-dollar-plus revenue broking groups that you would have been hard pressed to name ten years ago and many of which didn’t exist as far back as the turn of the millennium. This has come about through huge sums in private investment, a lot of strategic realignment and a considerable amount of M&A. There are a lot of untold stories buried in this remarkable era of expansion and this podcast is all about beginning to remedy that because today’s guest forms part of this remarkably fast-evolving cohort. Gregg Bundschuh is the chief Growth Officer at EPIC, the retail broking arm of the wider Galway Holdings business, which also includes wholesaler JENCAP.As the business approaches $2bn in annual revenues and this podcast does a thorough exam... Tue, 26 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/wnx2qkfdhaw6hcc9/Ep265_Gregg_Bundschuhbuw1u.mp3 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/6vg6epfzpue8p3sj/Sp_Ep_Jeff_Ward9owgj.mp3 Todays’ guest has been working on implanting the best technology into the London Market since the days when computer screens only displayed varying shades of green. He’s someone who I have known for twenty years and have come to rely upon to unpack all the jargon, spell out the acronyms and explain in layman’s terms what is really happening in the ongoing process of London Market technological reform. This is because Jeff Ward, the sales Director of Ebix Europe, is very wise, very patient and also very good company. He also has clear, common-sense opinions and is good at giving logical, concise answers to complex questions, when others might end up over-elaborating, or indeed over-simplifying.In short Jeff Ward is a market gem and an invaluable friend to help navigate the complex process of digitisation in which the market currently finds itself. Ebix Europe was behind the first iteration of PPL and is now in the market with the latest generation of that market pioneer, a sophisticated digital placing... Fri, 15 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/6vg6epfzpue8p3sj/Sp_Ep_Jeff_Ward9owgj.mp3 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/gxxztdwycdkzd56f/Ep264_Andrew_McMellin9kcu6.mp3 The global, wholesale and specialty insurance and reinsurance segment of the global market has been putting out very strong results in recent times. If I had to highlight a consistent theme in my interviews of the past year, it would be an almost universal desire among carriers for continued growth, but without compromising on profitability as appetites return and the market becomes more competitive.Today’s guest is a senior underwriter who embodies that conundrum.Andrew McMellin is President of Markel International, a business that has done extremely well in the past few years, and which has set itself ambitious growth targets for the next. This podcast examines the delicate balance that allows growth to continue to flow down to the bottom line and not just add volume on the top. Andrew has had a long and successful career and his insight and long-term perspective is extremely valuable. In this podcast we examine Markel International’s growth strategy in detail and on our way evaluate all the concurren... Tue, 12 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/gxxztdwycdkzd56f/Ep264_Andrew_McMellin9kcu6.mp3 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/cumxuafzx6v2buyu/SpEp_Owen_Whelan_Simon_Pollack_Calibranta4bul.mp3 Today's Episode is fun and insightful from start to finish and that is entirely down to my guests. One of the great Eureka moments in insurance comes when you meet an actuary who is a great communicator. Five minutes chatting to them usually unlocks understanding that would take you years to glean yourself, or which indeed you may never have worked out without their help.Luckily today I am talking not to one, but two such people. Simon Pollack (pictured top) is the Founder and Director and Owen Whelan is the Managing Director of Calibrant, a really interesting, relatively young business concentrating on portfolio management, particularly in the burgeoning field of Delegated Underwriting Authority. With MGAs continually gaining market share and also garnering extra scrutiny from senior managers and market regulators, Calibrant is in a fast-growing segment of the market. The core of what Calibrant and its Sybil software platform does is to wring improvements to the loss ratio of underwriting portfolios throug... Fri, 08 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/cumxuafzx6v2buyu/SpEp_Owen_Whelan_Simon_Pollack_Calibranta4bul.mp3