We act for more than 300 financial institutions, from hedge fund managers and private equity firms to stockbrokers and private banks. Bartlett has a 90% new business conversion rate and a near 100% client retention rate. And over the last 12 months our investment management division has saved our new clients an average of 30%. (Our record so far is 68%).
Our secret weapon? It's that we know where this specialist insurance market breaks down, and we know how to fix it.
The financial institutions sector is too varied for underwriters to rely on statistical models. Instead, they depend on their professional assessment of each individual risk.
To do this they need information. If they don't know something, they can't insure against it. If their information is incomplete, they won't be able to set a realistic price. Insurers dislike the unknown, so they protect themselves against it.
It's your broker's job to guide underwriters through the facts that will get you the right policy at the right price.
But more than half of the policies we audit are seriously coverage deficient, and the vast majority are priced too high. This is the unknown at work – a sign that underwriters simply do not have the information that lets them do their job.
How will your policy cope if you need to make a claim?
Subtle differences in policy wording can have a big impact your cover. You could find that you are not insured in key situations. Equally, you may be paying for unnecessary and irrelevant policy extensions. There is no market standard for financial institutions coverage, so terms and conditions can vary wildly from one policy to the next.
That's why we always give you a clear walk-through of your policy mechanics. It lets you understand how your policy will respond in the event of a loss. And it eliminates misunderstandings and wording ambiguities before the policy goes live.
There's only one way to get the right price, and that's to show insurers exactly what they're insuring.
That means really getting under the skin of your business. It means engaging insurers by taking them through a detailed report, not posting them a superficial proposal form.
The practical benefits?
We can dictate terms to the market, because we have the facts to back them up. (Normally insurers will dictate their terms to you.)
And full detail means statutory full disclosure (as set out in the 2015 Insurance Act), so you won't be at risk of your insurer reducing or repudiating coverage in the event of a claim.
Our process is detailed and painstaking, but the hard work is done by us, not by you. And it's the only way to let the market see you as an individual business, with individual risks and needs.
We begin with a confidential review of your insurance arrangements to assess if coverage is adequate and fairly priced. If you decide there's room for improvement, we'll move on to a full review.
After a much more extensive fact find, we create a detailed insurer presentation, then begin negotiations with the market to provide formal quotes.
An objective, fully referenced, line-by-line audit of your current policies, to establish the suitability of your current coverage. A review of key firm literature (e.g. fund PPMs, performance reports, investor DDQs) to generate indicative pricing.
A full fact find that lets us produce a detailed insurer presentation and take it to the market. This tailored review is much deeper than the standardised proposal forms you may be used to. It has three advantages, giving you:
We hope we've given you food for thought. If you'd like to refer offline to this information, please download it in pdf format. Or if you're interested in a face-to-face conversation, please get in touch.
Andrew Bartlett
Director, Speciality Risks
Email: abartlett@bartlettgroup.com
