Neil McCarthy: MPR Underwriting strives to be ‘accessible expert’ for brokers

How has MPR Underwriting developed its service levels to match and exceed broker expectations?

We have continued to be acutely sensitive to the need to deliver a highly differentiated, service led proposition, so in that sense it has very much been business as usual.

We have onboarded a small number of new brokers, but maintained the balance between delivering against the standards we have set with carefully curating our broker estate and bringing MPR to new audiences.

Face-to-face workshops have proved very useful and we will continue to do this through the remainder of 2024 and into 2025.

Our ongoing commitment to a high quality, service focused proposition has been supported by the business’ accreditation as a Chartered Insurance Underwriting Agent by the Chartered Insurance Institute and we remain committed to the highest standards of professionalism in how we deliver our offering.

On the claims side, we have sharpened our proposition during 2024.

As we have grown, it has been equally important to meet broker expectations on claims as it has on the underwriting and service side of the business and we now have a framework that we are confident has the scalability, professionalism and standards that brokers expect from the MPR brand.

How is MPR Underwriting deepening its broker relationships and taking existing broker partnerships to the next level?

The fact that we are specialists and only write management and professional risks is a key feature of the role we play in relationship and placement strategies.

Our aspirational brand position was to be accessible experts that are able to be utilised when required – not only for the placement of high quality MPR propositions, but also to provide a sense check and reference point on all matters associated with any of the 20 plus products we produce. What we exist to do has not changed since day one back in 2017.

However, as we have developed and matured, brokers have seen the solidity and quality in what we do, so the relationships deepen and we hope the sense of pride we have in our delivery plays out in the level and quality of the relationships with our brokers.

We offer training modules, underwriting support agreements, marketing content and other opportunities to collaborate to strengthen our broker relationships. The fact that MPR Underwriting is not characterised by the constant underwriter rotation seen through much of the market allows us to have confident conversations about the next level and longer-term expectations of our brokers.

Each year, brokers provide product feedback on how they feel products can be enhanced. Which of your products have faced the biggest developments through working with brokers?

Most of what we do has been in response to broker requests and feedback, so our marketing and product development is picked up from this feedback loop. This contrasts much of what we see in the market, which is presumptive and typically driven by those who do not speak to brokers and are several steps away from them.

MPR Underwriting aggregates broker conversations and feeds these quickly into the creation of content and products.

One good example is our portfolio of eight management liability products. Most competing markets have one, sometimes two, products in comparison.

Plus, the gestation of these products can often be several years in a company environment, as opposed to several weeks in the MGA world. This makes us much more able to respond quickly to any changes brokers tell us they need in a product.

Poor service is a constant theme in our discussions with brokers and we continue to be focused not only on the speed of our response, but also on the quality.

Even if what brokers are asking for is not possible or is difficult to engineer, we are always available and quick to deal with enquiries of all shapes and sizes.

Concern over changes to capacity arrangements is still very apparent in the MGA market. Should brokers have any concerns about the capacity arrangements at MPR Underwriting?

No one can see round corners – something we have learnt after many years in the industry. However, within the framework of the financial lines market, the most violent changes and disruptions have been caused by the company market over the last five years, either through total abandonment or via the most radical of strategy changes.

MPR enters its eighth underwriting year with Axis Speciality SE in 2024 – we have a three-year agreement with the insurer out to 2027. In addition, we have a long-term perspective on cyber with Chaucer.

MPR has been consistently measured, sensible, flexible and diligent through market turmoil.

As an MGA, we have a truly differentiated proposition that is supported by a highly experienced team and a supply line of younger underwriters to absorb knowledge and experience. Such a strongly differentiated MGA is arguably better positioned than most companies because we have more options in the event of an unexpected sequence of events.

What can brokers expect in the next 12 months from MPR Underwriting?

As boring as it might sound, more of the same.

What we do is actually quite straightforward, but we have discovered that it is rather difficult to do well. We believe we have established ourselves as a high quality solution for brokers across the market and across a wide range of products.

We will remain alive to new opportunities and constantly seek self-improvement, while guaranteeing not to compromise the standards we have set.

What are the major challenges facing the MGA market in the year ahead?

There seems to have been a perceptible growth in confidence in the MGA model across the market, recognising the flexibility, agility and lack of bureaucracy that is attractive to both underwriters and brokers.

The influx of competition means we will remain as laser focused as we always have been on product quality and exceptional output. ETrade continues to demonstrate inherent weaknesses in our lines, so that is an opportunity as well as a challenge – the key here being effective front foot communication.

One of the biggest issues across the market continues to be the development of new talent.

We have recognised for many years, even prior to the existence of MPR Underwriting, that knowledge transfer has diminished in favour of the obsession with eTrade on our lines of risk, so some of our work is making sure we have succession planning and empowerment across the MPR business, to make sure we can continue to deliver for our brokers in the long term.

Claims inflation and consolidation in the broker market are areas to watch, but these are not uniquely MGA issues.