Richard Turnbull: Collegiate marking 40 years of quiet success

When Richard Turnbull spotted a job advert in the early 2000s for a professional indemnity underwriting role aimed not at insurance professionals, but at compliance specialists from the independent financial advisor (IFA) sector, he was intrigued. 

“Between 2000 and 2003 the professional indemnity market for IFAs was incredibly difficult. There was a dearth of underwriters in the London insurance market,” Turnbull recalls.

“I saw the advert and the rest is history.”

More than two decades later, Turnbull is managing director at Collegiate, the specialist professional indemnity MGA that this year celebrates its 40th anniversary.

Incorporated in October 1986, the business has navigated market cycles, reinvented itself twice and grown from a niche mutual insurance manager into a firm writing around £100m in gross written premium across three core professional lines.

Despite all of this, Turnbull says the firm’s story remains largely untold.

“The best known company that no one’s ever heard about is quite a good way to describe us,” he admits.

“One thing we hadn’t done brilliantly over the years is blow our own horn. A lot of this year is about telling people about the journey and trying to celebrate it.”

Born from a broken market

Collegiate’s origins lie in a shift that reshaped the professional services landscape. In the mid-1980s, professional bodies and the government were placing pressure on professions to carry professional indemnity insurance.

The Law Society had made cover mandatory for solicitors in 1976 and accountancy and surveying bodies followed through the early-to-mid 1980s, according to a Biba representation paper published in October 2008.

However, the commercial market was not ready.

“Insurers didn’t really understand all the risks at the time and the insurance market was very hard,” Turnbull explains.

“It was very difficult for accountants, financial advisors and surveyors to get affordable professional indemnity cover.”

The answer, devised by founders Tony Howe, Roger Pedder and Brian Porter, was mutual insurance companies – member-owned vehicles designed to fill the gap left by a retreating market.

“A hard market solution is mutual insurance companies,” Turnbull says.

“Howe was the driving force behind it all. He had the idea to form a company that managed and ran mutual insurance companies.”

If Collegiate’s 40-year story has a narrative spine, it is built around two moments.

The first came in 1998, when the firm closed its mutual vehicles and adopted a more traditional, market-based underwriting model.

“In 98 we effectively reinvented ourselves,” Turnbull says. “We closed down the mutuals, which was quite a job in itself and then operated a more traditional market-based underwriting model.”

For much of the next two decades, Collegiate remained small and specialist. “Pretty much static through much of the noughties. Quite small, then incremental growth,” Turnbull says. By the end of 2019, gross written premium sat at around £10m.

The second turning point arrived that same year with the addition of underwriters Russell Newell, Alex Dyer and Amanda Ennis, who joined from AL Underwriting and brought experience in solicitors’ and construction professional indemnity.

“With the addition of the AL underwriting team, we rapidly grew from £10m to about £100m GWP at the end of 2022,” Turnbull says.

“That indicates the level of growth we saw.”

He describes the 2019 pivot as the moment Collegiate became “quite a relevant player, rather than just niche provider – one product for one profession”.

Today, gross written premium are spread equally across solicitors, construction professionals and financial advisors.

That trajectory mirrors a broader trend. According to a Clyde and Co professional indemnity market report published in 2024, 36% of respondents expected that the volume of PI business written through MGAs and delegated authority structures to continue rising by up to 5% over the following two years.

Discipline over volume

Having navigated growth, Turnbull is now focused on consolidation and process improvement.

“We barely had time to look around and take stock,” he says. “Now that premiums are declining, we’re very much concentrating on product and process and efficiency.”

The UK PI market entered “its strongest softening phase in nearly a decade” in the closing months of 2025, with rates reducing 25% to 30% compared with 2024, according to a Professional Indemnity Insurance Brokers market report.

For Turnbull, the data validates a philosophy forged over decades.

“I could write as much premium as you want, but it won’t be profit-making premium,” he says.

“The art of the game really is to manage your way through the cycle. Run a profitable business when premiums are at their lowest so that you’re the last person standing.”

His concern is backed by claims data. According to the Clyde and Co report, 74% of respondents expect PI claims severity to rise over two years, while 90% of professionals surveyed by Professional Indemnity Insurance Brokers predict claim volumes will increase.

“I think our whole history is about not following market trends,” Turnbull says.

“It’s very easy to do what everyone else is doing and make the same mistakes. We don’t have that luxury. We have to be very, very competent and stable, because if we’re not, that’s a massive business risk for us.”

People as product

When Turnbull joined, Collegiate employed around 30 to 35 people. The current headcount stands at roughly 45, which is a deliberate tactic.

“It’s not a volume business, it’s a quality business,” he says.

Average employee tenure now exceeds 10 years and Turnbull credits culture as the firm’s most reliable competitive advantage.

“Culturally, we’re fundamentally the same. We were always very much a people business,” he says.

“We recruit graduates. We try to train them well. If they want to seek careers elsewhere, we shake their hands and we want to send professional, qualified people out to the market.”

He pauses before adding a more personal note. “For me, it’s been sort of a family away from family and that’s why people stay so long.”

Collegiate is now part of the ANV Group and is exploring European expansion, although Turnbull’s framing is characteristically measured.

“The US might be a stretch, but we have underwriters here with mainland EU experience,” he says.

“We are looking to try and expand our reach into Europe – as soon as compliance can figure out how we’re going to do it.”

Asked what Collegiate should look like at 80, Turnbull returns to the theme that has defined his tenure.

“Same things we’ve always been known for – professionalism, underwriting discipline, stability,” he says.

“It would probably be nice to be best known for the quality of people we’ve produced over the years.”