The Voice of Insurance The Voice of Insurance Mark Geoghegan

Today’s podcast is all about the insurance of political risk and violence and we are going to come at this subject from all angles.
This episode is intended to be an all-round masterclass for anyone with an interest in these fascinating and fast-growing specialist lines of business.
Is the world a riskier place and are risks going to remain insurable? And where is most of the new demand of the coming decades going to be coming from? All is examined in detail.
Much has been made of the exceptional number of elections taking place in global democracies in 2024 as another possible source of political complications and conflict.
Africa has also been highlighted as a potentially huge new source of demand, driven by the global transition to net zero carbon emissions and this goal’s need for the rare earth metals that are to be found in abundance in many of its Southern and Eastern States.
But it’s no secret that many of Africa’s most mineral-rich nations with the largest development potential are also places where political stability can be in short supply.
For this reason, I talk to Lara Wolfe, Senior Sub-Saharan Africa Risk Analyst at risk consultancy BMI, which is part of the Fitch Group. (Pictured Top)
This market sounds like the ideal territory for brave underwriters to be operating in and this is where the expertise of Roddy Barnett (Pictured bottom), Head of Political Risks and Trade Credit at Beazley is invaluable.
Finally, with the help of Beazley’s Head of Political Risk and Violence Claims, Alex Hill, (pictured middle) we’ll learn how the political risk product actually works on the.
I am very pleased with how this first thematic documentary-style podcast has turned out – I do hope you enjoy it and find it useful.
NOTES:Here’s the link to the Navigating political risk in an era of heightened global tensions report: https://www.beazley.com/en-US/news-and-events/geopolitical-risk-snapshot-2024
There’s a great summary, but I highly recommend downloading and reading it in its entirety.

Today’s Podcast is all about innovation and today’s guest has been responsible for doing more of it than most.
James Slaughter is Chief Underwriting Officer at Apollo Group, a Lloyd’s business that has been behind collaborations and new product launches galore in recent times.
Be it exploring semi-automatic underwriting and the application of artificial intelligence, the development of its own ibott syndicate, helping launch a parametric syndicate, or other specialist start-ups focusing on risks as diverse as Cyber, Drones, employee parental benefits or unlocking new business from Africa, Apollo has become one of the go-to market enablers for innovation in the London Market in recent times.
James is always incredibly direct as an interviewee – and what you see is what you get – I find he’s exactly the same person whether the microphones are switched on or off.
And that’s why this Episode is such a treat, James always says what he thinks - and it’s clear he thinks a lot more than most.
Listen on and you’ll learn a lot about what is coming down the track, how some of the vanguard technologies are best being exploited and which of the newest developments at the insurance cutting edge James is most excited about.
It’s breathless stuff – I had a lot of fun recording this one and I think you’ll enjoy a listen.
 
NOTES:Abbreviations:
UNL – Ultimate Net Loss. In this context it is shorthand for traditional contract-of-indemnity insurance versus a parametric insurance structure.
GUA – the General Underwriters Agreement, which is a leading underwriters agreement designed to govern and streamline how amendments to subscription market placements can be carried out, often allowing a leader or leaders to bind on behalf of following markets.
ICX and TCX – Lloyd’s class of business codes for innovation and the energy transition respectively.
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com

Today’s guest carries out an incredibly important role representing the whole London Market in the UK’s corridors of power.
That means looking out for a market that wrote over $100bn in core gross written premium and controlled just under $160bn in all in 2022, increasing its global market share to over 8 per cent.
That also means representing a market that now employs some 60,000 people and produces two percent of UK GDP and eight-and-a-half percent of London’s GDP.
Caroline Wagstaff, CEO of the London Market Group, was born to do a job like this.
She’s passionate and very difficult to say no to, but she’s also a great communicator and is very good at reading a room and understanding a collective mood.
The London Market Group (or the LMG) allows Lloyd’s, Liiba, the IUA and the LMA to speak with one voice on broad London Market-related topics and in this Episode we dissect the LMG’s latest London Matters Report and catch up with what is now top of the LMG’s busy agenda.
The Report is an essential companion to this episode and there will be a link to it in the Notes – I highly recommend a read – it isn’t long and is packed full of very useful facts about the London market’s place in the global risk ecosystem, as a well as its direction of travel.
Caroline is on excellent form in this discussion and the podcast is crackling with energy. I for one am extremely glad that we have been able to get someone of her calibre to represent us as an industry.
London has been doing relatively well of late but listening back to this recording it’s clear that there is zero complacency at the LMG.
It’s clear that Caroline is not going to rest until the UK government and regulators are working harder to make it do even better.
NOTES:The Latest London Matters report can be found here: https://lmg.london/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/London-Matters-2024-Data-Pack.pdf
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

Today’s guest is in charge of a team of around 400, writing a book approaching $3 billion in gross written premium in the largest wholesale insurance market in the world
I have had many CEOs on the show who run significantly smaller operations.
And that’s what gives this podcast so much weight.
Wendy Houser is Chief Wholesale Officer of Markel Specialty and is one of a select group of people with day-to-day visibility of the booming US Excess and Surplus lines (E and S) market.
So today we are going to go into quite a lot of detail about the state of this huge and dynamic segment.
An unprecedented level of business flow and rate rises has produced something of a golden age for E&S and we’ll be trying answer how much longer this state of affairs can continue.
Wendy is great company, so along the way we’ll be getting to know a remarkable and charismatic insurance leader with a huge amount of knowledge and insight, who isn’t afraid of making difficult decisions and certainly doesn’t duck any of my more probing questions.
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/

I can’t believe it’s been three-and-a-half years since I had Alex Maloney on the podcast for a full episode to himself.
We’ve had brief catch-ups at Monte Carlo and when we bump into each other in the London Market, but I haven’t had time with Alex properly devoted to understanding what he and the Lancashire Group is thinking.
A huge amount has happened since we last spoke, not least Lancashire’s entry into the Casualty Treaty arena and its decision to open up a new operation in the US Excess & Surplus lines market.
Alex is a great guest because he is one of the most direct and straight-talking people I have had on the show.
What you see is what you get.
And what we get here is a tour of global insurance and reinsurance market opportunities and what Lancashire is doing to make the most of them, with a minimum of fuss.
We also get a distillation of Lancashire’s strategy of managing selective growth while trying to preserve a small company mindset and culture and at the same time pitching something slightly different to industry talent.
It’s all substance and no spin.
Listen on and I promise you’ll learn an awful lot in a very short amount of time. You’ll also get to meet probably the straightest shooter running a public company in our sector.
NOTES:
I let the abbreviation TIV sneak through. It is a property term and stands for Total Insured Values.
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com

Today’s episode is a masterclass with two leaders in the North American professional liability market.
Often on this show we talk about the big picture in very broad brushstrokes, but today is refreshing because we are getting into specific and specialist detail about some of the most broad-reaching and dynamic classes of business anywhere in the world.
Danielle Librizzi, Head of Professional Liability, and Chris Cooper, Head of Media Liability, at QBE North America have a lifetime of market experience between them and this is a lively discussion.
Casualty is under the spotlight the world over, but nowhere more so than in North America, so these two senior underwriters are right at the frontline in the battle to keep on top of new perils and trends in the world’s fastest-moving and highest stakes market.
Here I ask what Danielle makes of casualty rate adequacy and I ask Chris how the pandemic, the trend to digital platforms and the writers’ strike have affected the media liability risk landscape.
How is QBE’s professional liability division responding to the call for the globalisation of QBE’s offering and far great collaboration between departments?
And how is QBE utilizing Artificial Intelligence on the ground in its own underwriting processes and, perhaps more importantly, how does Chris view it as an emerging media liability and potentially systemic general E&O peril?
I got all the answers I was looking for and if you stay tuned so will you.
Danielle and Chris are excellent company and this will be a very rewarding listen for anyone wanting to get a better perspective on the North American professional liability market
LINKS:We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:https://www.advantagego.com/