Peter Wood is known for big ideas, so a big-picture role makes sense
The big news this morning was that Esure’s Stuart Vann is replacing Peter Wood as chief executive.
Wood will keep his role as chairman and will take a more strategic role, while Vann handles the day-to-day running of the business.
There’s a lot of strategy to handle. Wood has mooted plans for an Esure flotation by 2014, and barely three months ago the company launched two new broking brands, Esure Broker and Sheilas’ Wheels Broker. Wood also has plans to increase his 50% stake in aggregator Gocompare.
Wood is a ‘big ideas’ man, as his founding of Direct Line shows. If his new role has bought him any extra time in the working day, what other big insurance plans could he come up with?
Vann, previously Esure chief operating officer, has been with the business for a long time and has a lot of respect in the market. As Wood said in this morning’s press release, Vann’s new job title “is effectively confirmation of a role he has undertaken for some time”.
DAS turns it round, but challenges may emerge
Legal expenses insurer DAS must be celebrating its £7m after-tax profit in 2011 after recording a loss of £470,000 the year before.
The insurer was rocked by increasing claims frequencies and costs following the 2008 recession.
DAS chief executive Paul Asplin said he expected claims frequency to remain high, but said that more people are now aware of legal expenses products.
The bigger picture for legal expenses insurers this year will be affected by the outcome of an Office of Fair Trading investigation into the sale of motor legal protection insurance.
The watchdog is concerned that many consumers do not understand the product and may not know that they can opt out of buying it.
It is unclear how much this will affect the standalone legal expenses insurers, or the motor insurers that cross-sell, when the OFT makes an announcement this spring.
No comments yet