SSP is next on board the MGA gravy train
It was never a question of if, more who with, and when. Jonathan Davey eventually landed at technology provider SSP a year ago and is now ready to do what he knows best by delivering a managed general agency arm. There is MGA’s launching everywhere right now. Broker led models; insurer backed offshoots, as well as a fair few experienced entrepreneurs looking for the right deal and backing to land a quick buck or three year return. But how will they differentiate? SSP believes it has got the answer.
Davey could have probably have done this on his own, approached Munich Re or secured his own backing, but what SSP provides is a secure association of brokers through its Keychoice Network as well as lengthy relationships with its insurer customers. After all, SSP has spent years building up trust and expertise in the technology sector and will not want to expose its heritage to scrutiny. SSP also has an entrepreneurial management team with the funds to invest and build the business in the right way.
What will be important to the Keychoice underwriting, as it is to be called, will be the remuneration arrangements to be put in place for both brokers and insurers. The number of MGA’s that are profitable are few and far between and you can count on one hand the numbers that are returning regular profits to insurers in this climate.
If SSP can start small and build the business slowly, and in the right way, using its bulk of secure ambitious personal lines brokers who are looking for a trustworthy underwriting partner to move into the commercial space with then it can be a success. What it won’t want to do is to undermine its position as a leading technology provider in the market or drive the business at the expense of this position. And it won’t want to become just another MGA either.
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