Serge Raffard: Allianz Personal sees ‘huge opportunity’ in broker relationships

Allianz Personal sees “lots of partnership opportunities” to work with brokers, as the business’ managing director, Serge Raffard, describes scheme collaborations as “one of our strengths”.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times, Raffard notes that there is a “huge opportunity” for Allianz’s personal lines division, which includes LV=, to team up with UK brokers – especially as a “few competitors [have] left the broker space or reduced capacity in the broker space”.

He explains: “We like the broker space. I see this as huge opportunity.

“Here in [the UKGI] market, it’s only the brokers [that] can provide the advice. We see a lot of value in brokers [that] are providing advice. The customer values this advice and we think there is a big place for advice.”

As an example, Raffard cites that home insurance is increasingly becoming more of a non-standard risk, meaning that personalised advice is more important as a result.

Supporting this ethos, Raffard believes that Allianz Personal is “quite strong” when it comes to forging “partnership opportunities”. Primarily, this collaboration is centred around schemes – such as the “cool” scheme the insurer implemented last June to cover Range Rover vehicles.

Launched in conjunction with manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) as an embedded insurance product, called Land Rover Insurance, the scheme provides a comprehensive monthly subscription-based policy for new Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar vehicles.

The scheme was launched in October 2023, with Allianz Personal providing the underwriting capacity and platform provider Wrisk administering the product.

Insurance provision for JLR vehicles has been a hot topic across the industry for the past few years as increased instances of targeted theft saw motor premiums skyrocket and capacity to cover these cars shrink.

Paul Huntley, managing director of private clients at PIB Insurance Brokers, told Insurance Times in February 2023 that high volumes of JLR vehicle theft meant that sourcing associated motor cover for high net worth clients had been “difficult” and “a nightmare”.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) by the Mail Online, published in January 2024, confirmed the scale of JLR vehicle thefts. It revealed that 954 Land Rover Discovery Sport cars had been stolen in 2023, an increase of 15.2% compared to 2022.

These most recent FOI figures did show some decreases in JLR car thefts, however. Around 1,631 Range Rover Sport vehicles were stolen last year – down 28.6% on 2022 – while 1,489 Range Rover Evoque cars were nabbed by criminals, a decrease of 2.8% versus 2022.

Although the percentage of JLR associated thefts is heading in the right direction, the numbers still show that a vast number of these cars are being robbed.

Raffard says: “There is the Range Rover crisis and we’re actually the only insurer insuring the Range Rovers directly with Jaguar Land Rover.

“We created a scheme with Jaguar Land Rover so we can help. We are proud of this and we wanted to help. We created this great scheme.

“We started small and on specific models. [Now], we are expanding it.”

Allianz Personal provides similar schemes in conjunction with Wrisk for BMW, Mini and Volvo vehicles.

Tapping into market ‘competitiveness’

Although Raffard has been in his current UK-based role for just over a year now, his tenure at Allianz initially started six years ago in 2018.

The Frenchman began his career at Allianz as the group’s strategy officer, based over in Germany.

This role was expanded in 2019 to also include marketing and distribution responsibilities before Raffard crossed the Channel to join the insurer’s UK arm in July 2023.

“I’m grateful [Allianz Personal staff] accepted the Frenchie here,” he jokes.

“[I am] excited to be here. I want to make a difference for the country, for the clients, for employees. Bring more products, extend the product range and be there when the clients need us.”

For Raffard, the “competitiveness of the [UK] market” was a real attraction and driver when accepting his current position.

“There are more opportunities than I thought,” he explains. “In a competitive market, you could think everything has been exploited already, but [it has] not.

“What I’ve really enjoyed is the fact that you can make changes fast and quickly and see the impact. So, that’s exciting.”

Shaping the flood market

Raffard mentions the attention Allianz Personal has dedicated to its home insurance proposition as an example of an area where speedy changes have been impactful.

He continues: “This market is going through a lot of natural catastrophe events. The last winter season was clearly an important one with so many named storms and floods.

“[However,] we could really see the impact of some of the actions we took. So, for example, how we leverage Flood Re [now] compared to how we leveraged it before.

“I know other countries are envious of this scheme. I think clearly the UK is ahead.”

Flood Re is a joint reinsurance scheme between insurers and the UK government that aims to make flood insurance more accessible and affordable. The initiative launched in 2016 and was designed to run for 25 years.

This focus on flood risk in the home insurance market is ringfenced as a key focus for Allianz Personal in H2 of 2024, Raffard confirms. He adds that the insurer wants “to be a big shaper” in this line of business.

“We continue to invest a lot in home [and] case management in home because when you have multiple flood, multiple storm, multiple freeze events, we can [and must] deliver the same level of customer experience in these moments. So, it’s quite a lot of work,” he says.

Raffard believes “there is a lot happening” in the UK to tackle risks arising from flash and river flooding – but that current conversations are “very fragmented”.

Pair this with the “the perfect storm of higher demand and lower supply” when it comes to building and home repairs and “tension” is, therefore, unavoidable.

He continues: “I hope there will be more care [from governments] to not build in flood prone zones. [This] cannot be the [only] solution, [but] how you build from scratch better and investment in infrastructure [is] huge.

“That’s where we want to shape the market”.

Areas of interest

In his first year at the helm, Raffard has had a busy to-do list.

Initially, his primary ambition “was to bring back the level of profitability that we aspire to, while keeping the great purpose and culture we have” following “a couple of tough years that the entire industry suffered” in the motor and home markets.

As for the remainder of 2024, Raffard explains that – alongside his focus on flood risks – Allianz Personal will be investing in its digital customer journey, ensuring that this aligns with and is held to the same standards as its call centre operation.

Raffard also feels that supporting senior individuals presents an opportunity because “a lot of companies are actually reducing their exposure” to this demographic.

He explains that as drivers get older, many families have difficult conversations about when senior members of the family should give up driving due to safety reasons – for example, because of poor eyesight.

However, these debates can be tricky as deciding to no longer drive can impact an individual’s independence.

“If we could help our customers in this transition, that is clearly an opportunity,” Raffard says.