Aon Manchester takes on Scottish PI clients

Aon will service its Scottish professional risks business from Manchester after losing a team to rival Marsh, Insurance Times has learned.

Aon said it would not replace the four members of its Scottish professional risks team, who were specialists in professional indemnity (PI) for architects, engineering and construction companies.

Instead it will shift its professional risks focus to financial institutions business such as hedge funds, fund managers and banks.

This business will be handled from Aon’s Manchester office.

An Aon spokesman said all PI accounts will remain and did not anticipate any losses. “We will successfully serve Scotland [for PI] out of Manchester,” he added.

The spokesman added that the majority of clients that the team looked after were small Scottish companies.

The four brokers joining Marsh at the broker’s Finpro national business division are Garry Hill, Mhairi Scott-Bennett, Shona Van der Merwe and Robert Morris.

Marsh said the team would be based in its offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh and will focus on client service and development across Finpro’s business in Scotland and the North.

Mike Still, managing director of business development at Marsh’s UK national business division said this local presence was a huge advantage for them over Aon and that the construction sector, under this line of business, was booming.

“If you look at the CBI statistics in terms of growth, the construction sector is forecast to do higher growth than the financial institutions sector,” he added.

Chris Lay, head of national business at Marsh, added: “The latest appointments in Finpro national are testament to our position as the UK’s leading insurance broker and risk adviser.

“The depth and breadth of Marsh’s resources and expertise in both insurance broking and business risk advice places us in an unrivalled position to service our clients’ evolving requirements. Our new recruits will have an important role to play in our plans for growth.”