Ageas UK is ‘very interested’ in embedded insurance – Ant Middle

Personal lines insurer Ageas UK is currently investigating how it can distribute its products via embedded propositions, with the firm’s chief executive Ant Middle confirming to Insurance Times that the insurer hopes to bring these “important” plans to fruition in the “medium term”.

According to professional services firm Accenture, embedded insurance refers to any insurance policy that can be purchased within the commercial transaction of another product or service.

An example of this would be when a customer buys travel insurance when booking and paying for a holiday.

Middle told Insurance Times that given Ageas UK’s personal lines “bias”, embedded distribution models are “really important to the future development of our business” and something he is “very interested in”.

Middle continued: “Given we’re a personal lines specialist, thinking about how consumers will want to buy insurance protection in the future – not necessarily with the insurance product being the lead product – is a really important development for us.

“We are exploring distribution opportunities right now in terms of how we might be able to develop, with partners, embedded propositions in a range of different sectors.

“That will be medium term coming to fruition, but that’s really important to the future development of our business.”

As for where Middle envisions Ageas UK getting involved with embedded insurance propositions, he believes the mobility sector presents a ripe opportunity – especially considering that Ageas UK is “a major motor insurer”.

He explained: “We think hard about the future of mobility. [How] end customers get mobile, stay mobile, how they buy their car might not be through the traditional routes that we see today – [for example,] leasing a vehicle, car clubs and so on. That will evolve further.

“And so, for at least a section of the UK population, they may go about achieving their mobility needs through a different route. And those will need insurance, but they might not want to buy insurance separately – that [approach] might welcome an embedded mobility proposition.

“Given our business and the bias of it, that is an area that we are obviously really interested in and [we are] making sure we stay very close to that.”

Research supports Middle’s view that mobility is now much more than just car ownership.

For example, June 2024 research published by shared transport charity Collaborative Mobility UK found that membership of car clubs in the UK has more than doubled, growing 122% between 2019 and 2023.

Which? describes a car club as offering “members access to one or more local vehicles that can be booked and used for short periods on a pay-as-you-go basis”.

Furthermore, a December 2024 report published by Transport for London – entitled Travel in London 2024 Focus report: Car ownership trends – recorded a 4% dip since 2010 in people aged between 17 and 29 obtaining a full car driving licence.

This has a subsequent impact on car ownership and the associated purchase of mandatory, traditional motor policies.

Broker involvement

With the primary tenet of embedded insurance being that it is woven into a retail purchasing journey, making it almost a direct to customer offering, it is only natural that some brokers may be scratching their heads at how they can get involved with this model.

Although Middle noted that he could “see where the challenge may come” here, he added “that there is a real space for an entrepreneurial, forward-thinking set of businesses that can bring agility to different sectors of the market, to embed insurance propositions”.

This is important considering that around 80% of Ageas UK’s current book of overall business is intermediated.

He continued: “There can be a really important role for brokers here and it will depend on their particular strengths, attributes, brands, the data that they have, the propositions that they can embed themselves within.

“I think brokers can play a role [within the embedded insurance market]. It will depend on their appetite, their particular attributes, but just given the entrepreneurial nature of broker businesses, I can see a real role there for brokers to play.”