Sarah Willoughby: Ecclesiastical ‘on track’ to achieve art and private client growth target

Specialist charity owned insurer Ecclesiastical is “on track” to deliver the “ambitious growth” target set for its art and private client arm, according to Sarah Willoughby, the company’s art and private client business director.

In August 2022, Ecclesiastical determined that it wanted to double its art and private client business within the upcoming five years, primarily in terms of gross written premium (GWP).

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times, Willoughby notes that – as at July 2024 – Ecclesiastical’s art and private client division has recorded consistent GWP growth of 23% each year since the onset of this growth strategy in 2022. She is therefore confident that her team will hit the ringfenced target within the five-year time frame.

“I’m so super proud of my area and the growth that we’ve done,” she says. “It’s absolutely incredible what we’re achieving so far. It just excites me.

“We’re on track. I’m hoping to hit that double our size [target] in the next couple of years – that would be absolutely fantastic.

“I came in [to work at Ecclesiastical] seven [and a] half years ago and art and private clients in Ecclesiastical is just going from strength to strength.”

For Willoughby, there are two main facets that have spearheaded her division’s growth year-on-year.

First is expanding the in-house team. This includes “creating some new roles”, as well as improving the “regional spread” of the team – in particular, around London and Manchester. Willoughby has hired around five new staff since 2022.

She also emphasises the unique expertise of her quickly multiplying team – she calculates that across her staff, there is 180 years’ worth of high net worth (HNW) insurance experience.

She says: “We’ve got a mixture of high net worth and art historians in our team, so we truly understand what we’re insuring [and] what the client’s got. My underwriting director is a doctor in his own right.”

Ecclesiastical additionally has an in-house risk team and claims team, Willoughby explains, providing extra resource and support for her HNW colleagues.

‘Service is key’

The second element driving growth for Ecclesiastical’s art and private client division is its focus on broker service.

Willoughby explains: “How we get [to double our size] is about making sure [we have] got the right people in [our] team, making sure [we have] got the right products.

“The most important thing in this space is service. Service is key. If you don’t deliver the service, you won’t grow. You won’t get the business. Brokers need us to provide that service.”

For Willoughby, providing a top-notch service for Ecclesiastical’s broker partners means not only handling “transactional” aspects – such as new business, renewals and mid-term agreements – but also offering easy access to decision-makers and “looking after them from a guidance and advice perspective”.

She continues: “Brokers need to talk to art and private client underwriters [because] high net worth individuals are so demanding and they want a quick response.”

Underinsurance education

As part of its service proposition for brokers, Ecclesiastical is extremely focused on providing unique training opportunities about the nuances of the HNW market – an additional driver of this strategy is to help eliminate underinsurance, which Willoughby describes as “worsening” in her line of business.

For example, in September 2023, Ecclesiastical ran a collectibles masterclass at Herefordshire’s listed property Hatfield House, in conjunction with one of its third party valuation partners.

The day event – aimed at “rising star” individuals at brokers – focused on understanding the sums insured needed for collections such as paintings, books, rugs, clocks, stamps and coins.

The insurer ran another broker education day this year. In July 2024, it took around 40 brokers to west London’s Chiswick House and Gardens to provide training on building valuations and rebuilding costs.

The day included guided tours of the property where brokers had to determine rebuilding values, factoring in HNW elements such as statues, as well as training on fire risks and building security.

Aligning with these broker days, Ecclesiastical additionally hosts subsequent sessions for broker managers. Following last September’s event, for example, the insurer took managers to London’s Apsley House in order to brief brokers on what their staff learned during the day at Hatfield House.

Willoughby is planning a further broker manager event for later in 2024, to brief attendees on the learnings from the Chiswick House broker day and provide education around wine collections.

The insurer has also conducted ad hoc webinars or face-to-face education on topics such as Consumer Duty and cyber security.

Willoughby explains: “We’re just trying to do everything in our gift that we can, using the experts that we’ve got – [such as] our risk team, preferred suppliers [and] the valuation companies as well.

“That’s what we’re doing to help brokers, but also to help build that bridge [to tackle] underinsurance and make sure that our end clients are insured correctly.

“I hope brokers feel the benefit [of these events] to help support their conversations [with end clients].

“It’s just raising awareness of underinsurance. When I’m talking about fine art and antiques, we normally suggest [clients] get valuations [every] three [to] five years, depending on what elements of fine art, antiques and jewellery you’re looking at.

“And then also, what the insured should do with the broker is review their sums insured on an annual basis because everybody forgets about gifts that they’ve been bought or what they’ve purchased and never thinks about increasing their sums insured.”