Senior insurance bod at your service

[Lazykitten]

I'm on leave today following a 2 hour dentist appointment so need a distraction!!
Appreciate this may be the mistake boring AMA to ever happen, but I'm always surprised at the questions folks seem to have about my job and insurance in general 😆

I've been a senior underwriter and now a broker working in corporate (so arranging various covers for national companies). Gave also previously worked in public sector (Local authorities, police, fire, education).

Started out in personal lines do a bit rusty but if you have any questions there I can give them a stab!

Also happy if this falls on its arse as most uninspired AMA 😄

There are lots of concerns about the future of AI and how it will impact on future job markets. With that in mind, do you think Yorkshire pudding with roast chicken is acceptable?

I'm vegetarian, but Yorkshire pud goes with everything Inc just a mug of gravy.

AI is already a big concern re jobs, not so much broking but it will heavily hit underwriting

Why has car insurance gone up by some much in the last year or two ?

Also an insurance broker, I work in personal lines.

What do you think your biggest challenge is as an underwriter?

Was reading an article about when telematics (black boxes) were introduced as part of car insurance.

Do you think that data and sensors will ever be introduced as part of home/business insurance for things like flood risk? And if so, who would be driving that introduction - would it be insurers?

And on a totally separate topic, I understand that reinsurance is insurance that the insurers buy. But do reinsurers then turn around and buy insurance from other reinsurers? (Re-re-insurance??)

why cant I insure my cats against needing dental work done?

What is the longest ever time gap before a successful claim?

Also, if I dont make any claims for 10 years then make two claims in the same month, does that look suspicious?

Also, any tips for getting cheaper insurance? What answers give the best rates? Trueful ones, obviously, but when it comes to things we could actually change

Long accumilation of reasons.

1. motor has run at a loss for about 20+ years, as in more claims are paid than premium taken. The income made was through investment, but it's not gaining the same income it was 10 years ago so it has to revert to 'tradional' premium over claims. If you think the most expensive personal lines claim was around the £40m mark that's a lot to get in the pot.

2. world events. Mainly being war and climate change. Every policy has extra 'layers' called reinsurance for catastrophic claims or the potential of many claims at once. These layers (that you don't see on your quote they're built in) are placed on the global market so reinsurance has gone through the roof

3. EVs. The market is being reactive to EVs as it still is so new. Went to a seminar about this end of last year and for a multitude of reasons it's adding around 70% on claims costs, but that's fluctuating month to month as the market responds

4. General higher costs all around. Everything from wages to contractors to materials etc

5. regulation has changed and tightened a lot in the last 7 or so years with 2 different insurance acts plus a couple of FCA guidelines. Whilst this is good, it does generate additional costs

6. brexit. Insurers can no longer 'passport in' to the UK so it creates a lot of red rape. 2 insurers I have worked with in the past have pulled out of the UK altogether (although 1 was so burned I suspect they'd have done so anyway)

Main points off top of my head lol

Rates are softening elsewhere though eg in financial lines and indemnities so you may find it passed on to motor over the next few years, but it will be slow and not dramatic enough to really notice.

Other underwriters 😆 they can be an odd bunch (myself included in that!!)

I think there is less flexibility in underwriting from when I started. All the new modelling systems has taken away a lot of specialist knowledge.

Yes, it's already happening. No experience of it myself but went to an interesting talk on 'smart houses' and how that can be used to calculate risk. There was a new company at one point pushing escape of water technology and how that can be used to monitor water risk which is now the biggest cause of personal lines home claims. But I think it will be used as risk monitoring rather than a direct cost basis if that makes sense?

And kinda yes on reinsurance. Many will only insure up to a certain level. So one will go in on 10M over 10M, then another for the next 50M for example

Never worked in pet insurance I'm afraid. But usually if its a common exclusion it will simply be because its too common a claim to pay out on

I've seen claims run on for years and years, my company has a big national event that's still ongoing. Believe 9/11 was over a decade in various aspects

As to getting it cheaper I'm afraid its the boring answer of shop around. Different insurers will have different rating factors, or even the same insurer a different scheme so it can vary greatly. If its one particular issue then you need to find someone who doesn't ask the question (that is if it's personal, if it's commercial the onus is on you to supply it rather than the insurer to ask it). And use a broker.

I'm 60 and DH is nearly 70. We watch a lot of USA true crime stuff (Forensic Files/Medical Detectives, etc) where it is always the wife/husband who has killed their partner for their $400,000 life insurance.

Obviously, I'm not thinking of murdering DH (I am now an expert on 'luminol' and forensics and know I'd get caught, as well as missing the old bugger) but it did make me think about insuring him! (And me). We have life insurance linked to the mortgage which is almost paid off and I think it ends when the mortgage does.

Should we take out life insurance on each other - and would it mean that the other one was comfortably set up when one of us died? Or at our age would the premiums be so expensive that we'd just about end up with enough to pay out for a funeral? Is it easy/expensive to set up, say, £500,000 in life insurance?

Why when someone crashes into you (so they're totally at fault), does then my insurance go up!!!

Oh and on the claims, no I would see that as bad luck not suspicious, especially if you've been claims free for 10 years.

The rule of thumb for home insurance though is 3 claims in 5 years will push you into specialist markets, and 5 you're a distressed risk. (Or it was when I worked in it 20 years ago!)

What is a broker?
What is an underwriter?
What did you study?
How did you end up in insurance? (I’m assuming it wasn’t a lifelong goal?)

Oh and an interesting thing I've come across lately is liability exclusions on forever chemicals (can't remember exactly what they're called. PBsomethings). Someone said the market I'd panicking that it might be the next asbestosis 😯

A broker arranges and services the policies.
An underwriter declines or accepts cover, prices and applies T&Cs (broadly)

I have a humanities degree, then took professional qualifications through the Chartered Insurance Institute.

And no, I've only met one person who planned on going into insurance. The rest of us kinda fell into it! I got a temp job after uni answering mail (so old!!!) then just stayed.....

There are a lot if graduates schemes around now though. It can be a good route to a profession. Not the most exciting job in the world, but bits can be interesting and I would say it's stable. Although AI might change that.

Never worked in life sorry. Only thing I remember from my exams was hundreds of years ago you could insure the life of anyone. Then loads of people did and started bumping them off!! So now you need a financial reason (eg spouse or mortgage to do so).
If he died and it would financially impact you, then yes I'd recommend it. But that's a lay person talking. Life insurance us very different to what I do, different qualifications etc.

What can I do to lower the cost of our house insurance?
It was a very tame £200 - £300 for 20 years then went up 5 years ago and is now over £1100.

We have never claimed on it, but neighbours behind us, claimed multiple times for flooding due to a blocked drain which caused damage to their outbuildings and the EA seems to have assessed us as high flood risk. We have never had a flood, and are not affected by the formerly blocked drain. (Insurance sorted it I think & it no longer causes problems).

Would going to an independent broker help us do you think?

Alternative answer to the OP's is that some workers in the asbestos industry contracted asbestosis up to fifty years later and were able to sue the insurers who'd covered their negligent employers at the time, even if the employer was long gone.

You have a time limit of only a few years to sue someone who's injured you, but that clock starts ticking from the time when you could have known about the injury.

oooo, interesting, tell us more! thanks for this thread. Its like looking at your intestines, not glamourous, but vital to keep life moving on as usual

Personal lines is pretty much all done on modelling now unfortunately. EA mapping for fluvial and surface water, but also there will be claims mapping which will show your neighbours problems. Commercial has more flexibility/muscle but personal is a lot more 'computer says no'

And yes, I always recommend using a broker. A local one if you can as they should have local knowledge so will know the best markets to approach. The answer probably is you take a hit on the flood excess. It's been many years since I worked in personal lines though sorry