Sponsored: Louise Joyce, head of industry practices as Chubb, talks to Insurance Times about the expertise and social good its model provides
1. What is Chubb’s Industry Practice model and how does it benefit brokers?
Chubb’s industry practice model was formed more than 25 years ago and gives us that deep industry knowledge to deliver propositions that work most effectively for our clients. It’s focused on seamless coverage, the specialist underwriters, claims expertise and risk engineering solutions.
Most of all, we speak the client’s language and we think that is crucial when supporting them in what can be quite unique, complex sectors.
Technology, for example, was our first industry practice proposition in the UK that we launched way back in the late 1990s. It set the framework for us to align with specific industries and cover their operations in the UK and overseas, while adapting as their businesses grew.
What also makes our industry practices offering stand out is that we empower one underwriter to write multiple lines for each specialism. So, for example, a single technology underwriter has the authority to write property, casualty, profressional indemnity or errors and omissions and cyber rather than involving a separate underwriter for each.
2. What industries does Chubb target under the industry practice business?
We have several practices in place including real estate, life sciences and technology. Over the coming months we’re expanding our life sciences practice to include health tech and our technology practice to include media, which is aimed at businesses in advertising, graphic design, public relations and branding.
Most recently we launched climate tech and the first proposition under that new practice was climate+ renewables, which provides continuity of insurance across the construction and operational phases of onshore wind and solar projects in the UK.
The industries we work with are often fast to market and experience rapid growth. They move through that lifecycle very quickly and need an insurance partner that can keep up. Take life sciences - businesses in that sector can shift gears from research and development through to commercialised product in a matter of months and having a deep understanding means we can support them through those phases.
3. Thinking about your new climate+ renewables product, what are the insurance implications and needs of renewable energy projects such as wind and solar?
Like some of the other industries we’ve mentioned above, the UK renewables sector is experiencing huge growth. The UK government is expecting £100bn of private investment into green technology by 2030, with an anticipated five times growth in UK solar capacity by 2035.
Those are staggering numbers, which put into sharp focus the need for specialist insurance. In developing our renewables product, we spent a lot of time talking to brokers and businesses and those insights shaped our thinking around designing coverage for the construction and operational phases.
One area of cover that is often overlooked is environmental, but we’ve handled claims for renewables projects where one of the key risks is the environmental damaged caused by plant and machinery during the construction phase.
4. How can renewable energy businesses at the smaller end of the scale be supported by the insurance sector?
As an industry, we have a real opportunity to help enable the growth of green energy in the UK and globally. Having the right insurance programme is just one piece of the puzzle.
It is also about educating businesses in this space on the risks and helping to reduce them. Risk engineering is crucial to help clients get ahead of their exposures and implement strategies to mitigate them.
We have a responsibly to support these new and emerging industries, not only through insurance cover but also by sharing knowledge and insights, thus making insurance an enabler to growth.
- To find out more about Chubb’s industry practice model, click here.
