Broker briefing: Mercury West takes high net worth north

Name of broker: Mercury West Associates

Office locations and number of staff: Two offices in Hatfield and Liverpool, 15 staff

GWP controlled: Around £6m

Major clients: Around 30% footballers and 70% other high net worth clients including royalty, chief executives, members of the media and entertainment industries

Senior management: Managing director Katie Small, operations manager Gary Moore, director of sports and media Ian Morris, national business development manager Colin McKenna

Mercury West Associates is a high net worth (HNW) specialist broker with big plans.

Managing director Katie Small has only headed up the broker for around a year, but has already supervised the opening of Mercury West’s second office, in Liverpool, earlier this month.

Small, previously an investment banker, says the HNW market is underbroked in the North West of England. “It has been, embarrassingly I think, unserviced,” Small says. She wants Mercury West to snap up much more market share.

Though the firm is well known for supplying insurance to famous footballers, Small is keen for it to expand into supplying insurance for other sports people and HNW clients.

Anyone hoping to read some inside gossip on glamorous HNW clients, however, will be disappointed. Client confidentiality is everything to Small, who knows that building up trust with famous clients will reap dividends.

“All our of our business has been totally built on word of mouth. Reputation and perception is everything,” Small says. “Before two months ago, we had never advertised or taken any kind of PR initiative.”

The broker handles HNW lines such as classic car, fine art and holiday home insurance, but also provides commercial lines insurance for its clients.

Small says the broker will work with its key insurers to create bespoke policies if there is nothing in the market that is suitable.

“We don’t want to be all things to all people, but we want to be everything to those that value our service,” Small says.

Founded seven years ago, Mercury West has an unusual management structure for an insurance broker. Small has retooled the firm to give its management team greater equality.

“We don’t like hierarchy, we don’t like politics, we just like individuals with free thinking,” Small explains.

“We don’t conform, we aren’t traditional. We do things very, very differently to the rest of the insurance world.”

Small says Mercury West has been offered acquisitions before, and has also been asked if it wants to sell up.

Despite this, Small says the firm has no plans to acquire or be acquired.

“We haven’t seen somebody that has the same ethos we have,” Small says. “But it’s not to say it won’t happen.”

The key insurers on Mercury West’s panel are Amlin, Aviva, Chubb, Hiscox, Markerstudy, RSA and Zurich.