DAS reports 8% GWP growth following Arag acquisition

Legal expenses specialist insurer DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company grew its gross written premium (GWP) by 8% in 2023, reaching £139.3m up from £128.8m the year before.

The 2023 financial results for the company will be the last that DAS post for the period when they were an independent firm, having been acquired by German legal expenses insurer Arag Group at the beginning of the year 2 January 2024.

One isolated post-event insurance claim saw DAS also report an overall loss of £1.1m after tax for 2023. Losses were at £0.2m in 2022.

The insurer’s combined operating ratio (COR) improved marginally to 95.3%, compared with 95.5% in 2022.

Tony Buss, chief executive at Arag, said: “These results show why Arag was keen to acquire DAS. The team that joined us has really turned the business around in recent years, after a period of difficult challenges and underinvestment.

“Over the past few years, DAS has shown the sort of steady and stable growth that Arag values and the underlying data demonstrate the fundamental strengths that made the acquisition appealing.”

‘Perfect platform’

In April 2024, Arag UK reported similar growth for 2023, marking 14 years of successive profit.

Buss said: “The integration of the two businesses continues at a truly impressive pace and personally, I’m delighted by the enthusiasm and professionalism with which all the staff have worked together to build a bigger and even better Arag presence in the UK.”

He added that he was “confident” that the acquisition provides “the perfect platform for Arag to provide greater access to justice along with ancillary services to the millions of established Das customers in the UK”.