Chapman and Stacey’s managing director Paul Wingfield shares his ‘disappointment’ over his firm’s star rating for this year
The Five Star Rating Report: MGA 2021/22 - compiled by Insurance Times - is out now. What is your reaction to the star rating awarded to Chapman and Stacey by brokers?
Disappointment really. Four stars is OK, but we strive to provide a five star service across all areas. I did note a single negative comment in the survey, from a broker that was not familiar with one of our capacity providers. If that is the limit of any dissatisfaction, then we will live with that - and encourage the broker in question to ask if more information is required.
In this year’s survey, which polled more than 1,000 brokers, we found that 7% of respondents were extremely concerned about the prospect of capacity being removed from an MGA, while 69% were moderately or very concerned about this. How do you reassure broker partners about this?
Our longevity is based on long-term relationships with our carriers and we look to work with capacity providers that are prepared to commit to longer periods.
Insurer relationships do inevitably come to an end on occasion, but this must never be at short notice or without continuity already arranged. Part of the business of running an MGA is keeping capacity continuity seamless for your broker supporters.
There will inevitably be a series of challenges for the MGA market over the next 12 months - what do you think will be your MGA’s biggest challenge and how do you aim to tackle this?
If an MGA is a genuine underwriting business, then the challenges it faces are those that face the entire insurance market.
This includes global warming-related weathers losses - like flood claims in London in July - controlling and reducing fraud and managing regulatory change .
MGA specific issues have always related to capacity provision and moving forward, MGAs will additionally need to ensure that their infrastructure keeps pace with increasing data demands from capacity providers.
What new products or service developments do you have in store for the broker community across the next 12 months?
More of the same in service levels. We aim for ‘instant’ and, with rare exceptions, keep quote turnaround within a couple of hours at all times, even on complex and refer classes.
We do see a couple of product areas where we can add real value to the market and will launch into those areas in the future.
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