Jo Musselle: Hiscox targets ‘new distribution deals’ with brokers as part of ‘omnichannel’ strategy

Hiscox is focused on “partnering with brokers” to form “new distribution deals” within its commercial lines business in 2024, with six agreements already inked during the first half of the year, according to Jo Musselle, the insurer’s chief underwriting officer.

Within its 2024 half-year trading update, published on 7 August 2024, Hiscox noted that its UK arm achieved a 4.3% improvement in insurance contract written premium (ICWP), on a constant currency basis, to $427.4m (£334m).

This is compared to $399.3m (£312m) for H1 2023.

In part, this “positive business momentum in the UK” was driven by Hiscox’s “UK commercial business growing well” throughout the first six months of 2024, the financial report stated.

For Musselle, the growth in Hiscox UK’s commercial business has been impacted by the insurer’s commitment to delivering an “omnichannel distribution” strategy, which has included “looking at new distribution deals” with brokers.

These distribution deals in the UK and Europe include broker schemes – which are “quite prevalent in the UK” to bring together “like-minded risks”, Musselle notes – or offering “a variety of different products under one broker”.

Hiscox’s US business calls these agreements “partnerships”, Musselle continues.

In this territory, “we’re distributing our product via others, [such as] other insurance companies that don’t offer our products”, Musselle tells Insurance Times.

“They might offer a different product set and want to sell our product set alongside. But [distribution deals] could [also] be through agencies or other partners.”

Overall, Hiscox’s omnichannel approach is designed to boost customer engagement.

Musselle explains: “We have omnichannel distribution where we don’t want to dictate to customers how they buy our product.

“Some people want to buy it direct through our website, but some people want to go through a broker and [take advantage of] the advice and choice that brokers offer.

“What we want to do is provide our products in a way that people can access, however they want to buy.”

Musselle acknowledges that the six distribution deals arranged with brokers in the UK so far in 2024 will “take a while to fully activate”, meaning that the insurer does not expect to reap the benefits of these partnerships until “the second half [of 2024] and then into 2025”.

She continues: “But [it is] really pleasing to sign up some new deals. That’s great on the commercial side.”

Prospering private clients

Another area that has spearheaded bottom line growth at Hiscox UK is its high net worth (HNW) proposition, which the insurer writes in the UK and Europe.

Over the first six months of 2024, Hiscox’s “private client segment has grown 7%” through a “combination of rate and customer growth” – a development Musselle describes as “pleasing”.

A key contributor to this particular area of growth was Hiscox UK’s decision to eTrade HNW risks via its extranet – this rollout started in April 2024, with Musselle confirming that the insurer’s full HNW proposition will be fully available for brokers to eTrade by the end of the year.

“We’re going to be rolling that out to all of our brokers in the second half, enabling our product to be accessed in a digital way,” Musselle adds.

Hiscox UK currently works with around 140 brokers that operate in the HNW market.

Tapping into technology

HNW and private clients is not a common risk found on eTrading platforms. Musselle noted that Hiscox sought to fill a gap in the market by allowing its long-standing HNW products to be digitally traded via its extranet, which first launched in January 2023.

“It’s certainly not prevalent,” Musselle says.

“HNW is a specialist product and historically, it’s been traded through intermediaries. That has absolute benefits in terms of choice and advice, but actually, we wanted to speed up that process utilising technology.

“We utilise technology to do one of three things. Firstly, to provide a quicker or a better experience for both our customers and brokers. Clearly, eTrade does that because you can get an [immediate] response around a quote.

“The other thing technology helps us with is underwriting and risk selection. Manual checks can now be done in an automated way through technology. Technology has really helped in terms of risk selection and some of the underwriting.

“And then lastly, efficiency. Toing and froing with a broker to provide a quote is quite inefficient. If we can provide, through an eTrade capability, a more immediate response which a broker can then bind immediately with the client sat there [with them] or on the phone, then that’s a good solution and a good customer service.”

Musselle adds that “digital adoption” and “people looking to trade more in a digital way” is a key trend Hiscox is observing.

“With our expertise around digital and automatic underwriting, we can provide solutions to customers through seamless technology – whether that be through eTrade, brokers, or our own website. That’s [been] another area of growth in [our] retail commercial [business],” she says.

• Insurance Times converted dollar amounts to pound sterling at a conversion rate of £1 = $1.28, as at August 2024.