What makes a good underwriting partner?

What makes a good underwriting partner? | Insurance Business Canada

Insurance News

What makes a good underwriting partner?

Award winners on what they’re doing right

Insurance News

By
Mika Pangilinan

What makes a good underwriting partner?

This is the question that hundreds of Canadian brokers sought to answer as they narrowed down candidates for Insurance Business Canada’s Brokers on Underwriters 2023 award.

One of the characteristics that brokers named was innovation. As Beverley Fox of Westland Insurance Services put it, brokers want to work with “someone who understands the insurance world and can think outside the box.”

It was his forward-thinking attitude that helped Alexander Blair-Johns, CEO of Signal Underwriting, stand out among IBC’s underwriter nominees.

To win more business, Blair-Johns focuses on keeping service levels high and assisting brokers with placements, in addition to knowledge transfer.

“The other thing we’re doing is bringing new products to the market,” he said. “We have three or four new products that will be coming out in the next six months.”

Another winner, Forward Insurance managing director Linden Kerr, said her company is focused on being responsive, consistent, accessible, and competitive as they work to launch 18 more products in the next year.

“The most important thing about being a really good underwriter for your brokers is hard work,” she said.

Meanwhile, award-winner Connie Givelas, senior property casualty underwriter at Special Risk Insurance Managers (SIRM), said she wants to continue helping brokers by maintaining mutual trust.

“It is not enough to be very responsive anymore,” she said. “It is about being solution driven.”

Sylvester Slowakiewicz, director of personal lines at Billyard Insurance Group, highlighted the importance of the relationship between brokers and underwriters.

“Undoubtedly, it’s a demanding task, but if you approach brokers as your clients and the way you’d like to be treated as a client, you will quickly develop a reputation as the go-to industry expert and preferred business partner,” he said.