Soft market puts MGA service advantage to the test

The softening insurance market is forcing MGAs to work harder to retain business, as greater competition from insurers puts pressure on pricing and broker relationships.

The latest scores from the Insurance Times Five Star Rating Report: MGA Market 2026/27 Overall Ratings reflects that challenge. Though the full report comes out in November 2026, the scores published last week revealed that just six MGAs achieved a five-star rating, down from 11 in the previous survey, while overall scores also declined based on feedback from more than 1,400 UK general insurance brokers.

However, speaking to Insurance Times at the Managing General Agents’ Association’s (MGAA) Broker Exchange in Leeds on 15 October 2026, chief executive Michael Keating argued that the results do not necessarily indicate falling standards.

Instead, he said they reflect a tougher market in which MGAs are having to invest significantly more effort to achieve the same outcomes.

“[They’re] having to work twice as hard to get the same result,” he said.

Keating also said insurers were increasingly looking beyond their traditional appetite in search of growth, bringing them into competition with MGAs.

As insurers widen their risk appetites in pursuit of growth, MGAs face a more demanding environment where specialist expertise, underwriting discipline and strong broker relationships are becoming increasingly important differentiators.

“Business which insurers would not underwrite in a hard market – they actually will now look at,” Keating said.

The price of competition

The pressure is especially clear at renewal, where MGAs are increasingly defending existing accounts against significantly cheaper quotations.

Kerry Eves, business development manager at Yutree, said brokers were demanding faster responses and greater access to underwriters as clients pushed for lower premiums.

“We are absolutely inundated with enquiries. We are fighting hand, tooth and nail to keep hold of renewals,” she said.

Eves said brokers wanted direct conversations rather than having to rely entirely on digital systems.

“We don’t just want to do things on a portal. We don’t just want to do things by email. We want to be able to ring someone up, talk through a risk with them,” she said.

Yet Eves argued that competitiveness cannot come at the expense of underwriting discipline. Working with specialist capacity providers means Yutree must balance broker expectations with the long-term performance of its portfolio.

She cited examples where a £20,000 renewal premium had been challenged by a rival quote of £12,000. While Yutree would discuss such differences with insurer partners, it would not pursue business at a price it considered unsustainable.

“Our reputation to us is everything,” she said.

The dilemma highlights a key challenge for MGAs in a soft market. Meeting the cheapest quote may help retain business in the short-term, but could damage relationships with capacity providers if risks are underpriced.

For Eves, transparency is crucial. Where insurers cannot support lower pricing, MGAs must explain that position clearly rather than over-promise.

Access remains the advantage

Despite increasing competitive pressure, brokers continue to value one of the core features that has long distinguished MGAs from larger insurers – direct access to specialist underwriters.

MGAs benefit from being able to connect brokers with decision-makers who have the authority and expertise to respond quickly.

That view was echoed by Tim Jones, director at MPR Underwriting, which received a five-star rating in this year’s Insurance Times survey and the top score of 4.90.

Now in its 10th underwriting year, MPR has focused on developing long-term broker relationships and employing experienced, accessible underwriting staff rather than constantly expanding its proposition.

“We’ve very much focused our attention on having high quality, talented staff that are accessible to our brokers,” Jones said.

The business provides direct contact details for underwriters and empowers staff to make decisions without unnecessary escalation.

Jones said technology should support, rather than obstruct, those relationships.

“We’re not hiding behind any kind of systems,” he said.

“We utilise systems for efficiency to create time for underwriters to spend their time doing what’s best, which we believe is communicating with brokers.”

Jones said investment in talent and operational support had enabled MPR to increase policy volumes while maintaining responsiveness.

Broker feedback had also reinforced the importance of consistency, with many preferring the business to continue delivering what it already does well rather than frequently changing direction.

“The best compliment we’ve got is people saying just keep doing what you’re doing,” he said.

Jo Widdall, senior underwriter for property and casualty at Dual, said specialist expertise, tailored propositions and speed of decision-making remain important factors behind the sector’s appeal.

She added that flatter organisational structures can allow MGAs to respond more quickly than larger insurers.

“It’s not about just being here for now, it’s about the longer-term piece and that ongoing commitment to customers,” she said.

Technology as the key

However, those advantages are not guaranteed to hold as businesses grow. Expansion can create additional layers of process and administration, making it harder to preserve the accessibility that brokers value.

Many MGAs see technology as part of the solution.

Keating called for wider adoption of application programming interfaces (APIs) to automate the exchange of information between MGA and broker systems, reducing the need for manual data entry and administration.

Keating described the objective as a process in which information flows directly into a broker’s back-office system after a policy is placed.

“I place a bit of business with an MGA as a broker, I don’t have to rekey that in at all,” he said, describing the potential for automated data transfer and policy documentation.

He argued that greater connectivity could free brokers and underwriters to spend more time supporting clients and developing products.

MPR is also investing in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency, although Jones stressed that automation should support broker relationships rather than replace them.

Meanwhile, Yutree recently launched a new platform with technology provider Recorder and is exploring AI tools to reduce administrative workloads.

Eves said the objective was to free experienced underwriters from repetitive tasks so they could focus on technical underwriting and broker engagement.

However, Keating acknowledged that implementation remains challenging. Firms facing day-to-day commercial pressures often struggle to find time for operational improvement projects, even when they promise longer-term benefits.

The challenge for MGAs is therefore not simply adopting new technology, but doing so without undermining the personal relationships on which much of their value proposition is built.

For Jones, successful technology investment should create more opportunities for human interaction rather than fewer.

A test of resilience

The overall ratings of the Insurance Times report provide a snapshot of broker sentiment at a time when market conditions are becoming more challenging.

While ratings have fallen, MGA leaders argue this reflects rising workloads, greater competition and evolving broker expectations rather than a widespread decline in standards.

The wider question is whether MGAs can continue to differentiate themselves as insurers compete more aggressively for business.

Keating said the MGAA would review the survey findings and broker feedback once the whole report is published, identify areas where brokers want more support and consider how the association can help members respond through education and broker engagement initiatives.

For Widdall, maintaining a long-term perspective will be critical regardless of market conditions.

“It’s not about just being here for now, it’s about the longer-term piece and that ongoing commitment to customers,” she said.

As competition intensifies, the success of the MGA model may depend less on offering an alternative to traditional insurers and more on proving that specialist expertise, accessibility and underwriting discipline remain valuable when business becomes harder to win.