Rob Corner: Dual targets organic and acquisitional growth in upcoming 12 months

One area being explored by Insurance Times’ 2024 MGA Survey is how MGAs can deepen broker partnerships. How is Dual achieving this?

At Dual, we pride ourselves on both our service and expertise. We work with over 3,500 brokers in the UK – we believe they value these qualities and, in particular, the ability of our underwriters to make quick decisions.

We’re particularly proud of the 60 plus accounts that have grown their business with us to over £1m gross written premium (GWP), giving us confidence that we’re getting things right.

Looking ahead, we will be doing more by delivering an increasingly joined up Dual to our brokers.

We will aim to combine underwriting excellence with investment in our distribution capability. We will be building out our regional underwriting and distribution teams, which should allow us to get closer to more brokers and provide them with the tools and products they need to grow their business.

Concern from brokers around the removal of or changes to capacity arrangements is still very apparent. Should brokers have any concerns about capacity arrangements at Dual?

Our philosophy is to manage results across the cycle. We’ve done this successfully for over 20 years in the UK, with some of our capacity partnerships extending into decades.

This is made possible by attracting some of the most experienced underwriters in the specialisms we trade in, investing for the long term and working with highly recognised capacity providers.

We continue to invest heavily in our actuarial, pricing and underwriting capability and control. In collaboration with our capacity providers, our experienced underwriters strive to manage the cycle effectively by delivering stable capacity for us, our brokers and our clients.

While we operate in a fast-evolving risk landscape, we believe we are well positioned to support our broker partners in the years ahead.

What can brokers expect in the next 12 months from Dual?

Over the next 12 months, we will focus on investing in the business to drive organic growth, targeted acquisitions of specialist MGAs and supercharging our regional commercial growth strategy.

We will be building our plan to create a presence in Manchester and Bristol, opening end-to-end trading branches and working with selected brokers that are looking for a service led, solution orientated, expert underwriting partner.

We feel brokers and their clients are looking increasingly for more bespoke, tailored propositions. We believe there is a gap in the market in the £10,000 to £40,000 premium segment and we will be working with a targeted number of brokers to build propositions to respond to this.

We’ll be unleashing the scale of Dual’s existing estate, as well as bringing in new propositions to help support brokers win and retain new business. Importantly, we want to build this with our clients’ needs at the forefront.

Brokers can expect us to maintain our underwriting led approach, crafting solutions to help them grow their business.

What are the major challenges facing the MGA market in the year ahead?

I’m very optimistic about the future for MGAs – and Dual in particular.

In an increasingly dynamic risk environment, I feel brokers are looking for partners that know their sectors, can respond at pace and are able to offer bespoke solutions, which is something I believe Dual does well.

The three broad challenges facing MGAs are:

• Relevance – Relevance is often contextual and time-bound. Brokers have choices and MGAs need to evolve to maintain their relevance and what makes them stand out in the market. Capacity providers also have choices on where to deploy their capital, so MGAs should aim to be laser focused on the elements which make them great strategic partners.
• Market cycle – As we’re seeing the market turning in some quarters, MGAs should strive to maintain their underwriting discipline and be cautious of chasing growth in a softening market. Capacity providers are the fuel that powers an MGA’s engine and they generally expect market cycles to be appropriately navigated.
• Talent and succession – While the talent and succession challenge is industry-wide, this is particularly acute within specialist MGAs, so it is important that these businesses nurture and develop their existing talent and plan ahead.

What is Dual doing to attract, develop and retain talent? What do you think needs to be done to attract the next generation of talent?

At Dual, we believe we are a home for expert underwriters and our entrepreneurial culture gives people the freedom to not only build business, but their own talent and experience too.

We are reviewing our recruitment and onboarding processes to ensure they are candidate and employee experience led because we know it is important for employees to have a great interaction with us right from the beginning.

As a global organisation, we also have the opportunity to leverage our scale and develop talent across regions. We have some great examples of global mobility, with colleagues taking secondments across all four of our operating regions – UK, Europe, USA and Australia.

Being part of Howden enables Dual to leverage the group’s early careers initiatives, including Howden Pioneers, the Get Into Insurance programme, internships and apprenticeships.

Howden is also a founding member of Lloyd’s Inclusive Futures programme, which aims to deliver meaningful, lasting change towards a more inclusive insurance marketplace and society.

Our recent Global People Survey results show that what we’ve done so far is having a positive impact, with our employees scoring us 7.9 out of 10 for the metrics ‘my job enables me to learn and develop new skills’ and ‘either my manager or mentor encourages and supports my development’.