MGA Q&A: Iprism promises ‘to have open conversations with brokers’

The Five Star Rating Report: MGA 2021/22 - compiled by Insurance Times - is out now. What is your reaction to the five star rating awarded to Iprism by brokers?

I am delighted to see such a strong improvement in Iprism’s rating, especially over the course of a challenging year for all of us. Achieving a five star ranking is a true reflection of the commitment Iprism has to providing great service to our broker partners and demonstrates our continued efforts to build on that level of expert support.

In this year’s survey, which polled more than 1,000 brokers, we found that 7% of respondents were extremely concerned about the prospect of capacity being removed from an MGA, while 69% were moderately or very concerned about this. How do you reassure broker partners about this?

These concerns are well founded and the market has experienced some significant movements in capacity over the past year.

However, Iprism’s brokers can - and do - take a great deal of comfort in the fact that we take a disciplined approach to underwriting, grounded in data driven insights and expert knowledge of our market. We are selective of the risks we take on and aren’t afraid to say no if we know a risk doesn’t fit our portfolio. It would be easy to accept any and all risks, but in the long term, this approach simply isn’t profitable for our capacity providers.

We make our decisions based on a wealth of historic data and specialist knowledge, which actively protects our capacity providers. Recent capacity challenges faced by some MGAs also highlights the importance of using rated, UK-domiciled and regulated capacity providers. By taking steps to find out where the capacity is coming from, brokers can offer greater security to their clients that the risk is securely backed.

There will inevitably be a series of challenges for the MGA market over the next 12 months - what do you think will be your MGA’s biggest challenge and how do you aim to tackle this?

The biggest challenge for Iprism is the one we set ourselves - to continue to find new ways to meet and exceed the standard of service that brokers have come to expect from Iprism. We have set a high bar - now we must ensure we continue to work with our brokers to maintain and build on the progress we’ve made over the last year and, of course, score another five star ranking in 2022.

What new products or service developments do you have in store for the broker community across the next 12 months?

We have a wide selection of products to meet the needs of the majority of SMEs, commercial businesses and high value homeowners. We know these products provide good levels of cover at competitive rates and brokers like them, so our focus is on strengthening our distribution strategy to make it easier for more brokers to access them.

As we go forward, we will continue to have open conversations with our brokers, keep pace with the market and customer needs and continue to adapt our offering.

In terms of the Insurance Times MGA Data Insight Book, which can be bought alongside the main report, what insight and feedback from brokers really stood out to you and why?

We found the broker comments extremely valuable. Broker feedback is important to the business - we are led by our broker partners when considering updates and new developments, so having sight of this positive feedback is very important to us.