Interview: Chubb's new UK retail boss Sara Mitchell eyes improved service in changing broker landscape

This time last year the Chubb team was attending Biba with a view to finding out what brokers thought of its new strategy for independents.

Fair to say that strategy, to launch six independent broker teams across the country, has gone down well with brokers, as Chubb secured a strong showing in the Insurance Times star ratings.

The move provides a separate bespoke offering for both its independent and international brokers in a bid to realise Chubb’s middle-market ambition. Twelve months on and one of the architects of that plan, Chubb’s former head of middle-market Sara Mitchell, returns to Biba as the newly-appointed head of Chubb’s UK and Ireland retail business.

Taking over from David Robinson, who is on a sabbatical, Mitchell became Chubb’s division president for UK and Ireland retail at the start of this month.

With responsibilities covering property and casualty, accident and health and personal lines, Mitchell is looking to use Biba as an opportunity to speak with brokers of all types about what they want from Chubb as she seeks to shape the insurer’s UK and Ireland retail business.

Broker feedback

“We’ve already got a great foundation and David Robinson has left it in excellent shape,” she said.

“For me it’s about understanding and getting feedback from the team, meeting our brokers and ones we may not have had significant relationships with previously and hearing their views.

“It’s really important to take a step back and assess the landscape before you even consider making changes.”

Building on the success Mitchell achieved in her previous middle-market role to increase awareness of Chubb’s independent broker teams will continue to be important.

But as Mitchell beds herself in, she’s under no illusions that with the broker market changing constantly, providing service to meet these evolving needs will be a primary focus.

Consolidation and private equity in the broker market is one such force and Mitchell says she is alive to how it is changing broker models.

But for now, she says there is currently still a healthy level of competition.

“Consolidation brings a different dynamic to the market,” she said. “I’m always amazed at the pace at which it continues and it just shows what a buoyant market the UK is and that there is still that amount of investment and capital to support those types of acquisitions.

“I expect more to continue, but I think because we have such a vibrant marketplace, there is still so much opportunity and competition and that’s what drives the best outcomes for clients.

“There are still multiple avenues for customers to seek their insurance, whether that is through brokers or direct.”

E-trading

Looking forward it is in e-trading where Mitchell thinks there is the most potential for insurers to improve how they service brokers.

“It’s about making it easier for the broker and achieving greater efficiencies for them. We want to facilitate distribution by minimising question sets where applicable.

“We recognise that the policies which best fit E-trading are the more simple ones where only limited information is required so we are trying to speed up the process by asking as few questions as possible.

“We continually need to evolve and we’re not perfect. It’s about looking at the examples we see out in the market and looking at our own experiences as customers.”

She says this area of dealing with brokers is only going to grow further in take-up, and expects more premium to be written through its e-trade platform Ignite in the coming years.

Efficiency

Mitchell is looking to speak to brokers about what other lines they would like to be traded digitally, but recognises that there will be products too complex to make available through digital channels.

The challenge, she says, is ensuring products are not overly-simplified to make them accessible on e-trade.

Mitchell said: “There is an efficiency requirement both for clients and brokers in certain lines of business that e-trading brings.

“It allows brokers to get a policy issued quickly, however there will always be products that do not fit the system.”

For this reason, she says Chubb is committed to supporting the role of the underwriter moving forward.

“You can’t get away from the complexity of some risks, especially if you look at the larger more technical exposures,” she said.

“There are risks of such size and significance that you need the experience of an underwriter.

“Our IT team build the infrastructure, but how we rate the product, how the policy wording appears, what’s in the detail, that’s all the underwriters, and you can’t get away from that level of experience and intellect that we need.”