Edgeley calls for ‘closer collaboration between insurers and brokers on insurer service

There is a need for improved “alignment” and “responsiveness” in the evolving insurance landscape.

That was according to Mike Edgeley, chief executive at Clear Group and the winner of the Insurance Times Broker CEO of the Year award at the Insurance Times Awards 2023, who spoke as part of Insurance Times’ webinar entitled Top 50 Brokers: What makes a successful broker, hosted last week (13 December 2023).

Edgeley was joined on the webinar by Seventeen Group chief executive Paul Anscombe and MarshBerry UK managing director Olly Laughton-Scott. The session was chaired by Insurance Times’ acting editor Yiannis Kotoulas.

Edgeley said there was a need for closer collaboration between insurers and brokers to ensure efficient “client service” in addressing issues such as “claims and the increased cost of the supply chain”.

His comments came after Catherine Carey, head of marketing at Consumer Intelligence, previously told Insurance Times that over 60% of claimants cited speed and efficiency as the element of the claims experience needing the most improvement.

Edgeley noted that there had been an industry-wide effort to transition business operations to the cloud in the last 18 months since the pandemic.

For example, the company now has its own software technology house, enabling communication with its platform and subsequently with insurers.

However, Edgeley noted that this integration was a gradual process that required careful “planning and investment”.

Different pace

Edgeley continued: “Insurers, in response to post-Covid challenges, have adopted different models, focusing on efficiency through technology.”

As relationship-oriented businesses however, Edgeley noted that brokers varied in their pace of adoption much more than their insurer partners.

“The way theat some of the insurers are developing their models, the linkage with brokers needs to improve to in order to make sure that the clients are served as quickly as possible.”

The evolving insurer model has also led to staff concentration in certain locations, potentially impacting broker-insurer connectivity, according to Edgeley.

However, he noted that there remains a need for “increased connectivity with brokers” to ensure that the relationship is “responsive”.

Edgeley noted that the of speed of “response to get things done sometimes is slower than it should be.”