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- Will a crack in your windscreen dent your wallet?
- Fire hazards at home
- Ministry of Justice claims reforms
- 40th anniversary
- Life begins at 40.....
Life begins at 40.....
The insurance industry is popularly thought of as containing dull, even boring, people with no sense of excitement or daring, but nothing is further from the truth.
In the early years of our existence the principal underwriters were men (unfortunately too few females in the 1970’s) of knowledge, technical appreciation conviction and, most importantly, of their word. A phone call at 4.55pm on a Friday evening would secure the placement of cover without the need of written confirmation of instruction before Monday.
The flip side is that they were hard taskmasters who expected you, as the broker, to know all the features of the risk (good and bad) that you were broking to them. There were no computer models available, acceptance or declinature and the rating of the risk were matters of human judgement. What a wonderful training ground that represented!
These great individuals carried glorious titles like Fire or Accident Superintendant, Life and Pensions Managers etc and they were the final arbitrators of their Company’s decision outside Head Office.
For 90% of the market, rating was controlled by tariffs which were theoretically the confidential business of the insurers, but every broker worth his salt had a copy of the principal tariffs in his area and knew what he could expect. ‘Non-tariff’ insurers like General Accident, Eagle Star and National Employers Mutual would infrequently quote terms of their own, but more customarily simply discounted the tariff rates by 10% to 15%. This cosy cartel continued until the 80’s and was blown away with the arrival of giant American and European insurers who had the capacity to take on the tariff insurers head on.
Reflecting the needs of their customers, one of the then most dynamic sections of the market was the engineering companies who wrote the Contractors All Risks, Boiler, Lifts and Cranes and Air Receivers with idiosyncratic risk exposures that demanded particular expertise. The companies transacting this business had names like British Engine & Boiler, National Vulcan and Scottish Boiler and seemed to employ hard nosed characters who were as happy discussing the risk features of a piece of plant as arguing the toss with a broker.
One such individual was Tony O’Brien who, after years of declining to take instruction or advice from Head Office colleagues, was seconded to the Birmingham Olympic Games bid as number 2 to Lord Howell (previously Sir Denis, the Sports Minister and Minister of Drought!). When the bid failed, British Engine decided to close their Birmingham office and make their principal troublemaker redundant.
After a lifetime spent beating up the rest of the market, where was this character going to go? He came to Perkins Slade to develop and grow a tiny interest in Amateur Sport into the largest Amateur Sports Broker in the UK. Tony was a natural public speaker and he and his wife Irene drove around the country visiting AGM’s of various Governing Bodies for Tony to lecture on the increasing liability exposures of the sports people and how to protect the financial consequences of those risks.
Invariably he would then be a hugely amusing after dinner speaker in the evening, so that no sporting gathering was complete without him.
Another memorable colleague was Peter Thompson who left a seemingly safe and secure position as Accident Manager with Sedgwicks (a subsequent takeover target of Marsh, so not as safe and secure as I suggest) to join Perkins Slade when we were only 3 years old.
The week after he arrived, he was on the big silver bird to Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, to review the insurance of the Measurado Corporation, a massive trading conglomerate owned by William Tolbert the President of Liberia. As the programme had been designed by an insurance “expert” whose principal claim to fame was to chew wine and spirit glasses, it is perhaps not surprising that Peter drove a horse and cart through the covers and was instructed to completely re-arrange the programme. This was the beginning of a relationship with claims involving an aircraft that crashed into the sea in a storm immediately on take off, whilst carrying the Finance Minister of Liberia, a ship that sank to the bottom of the ocean on a calm and serene day, a stolen consignment of motorcycles and exotic cars that were traced to Northern Cyprus from where they were ‘snatched back’ and which ended with the gruesome murder of 20 to 30 of our clients tied to palm trees on the beach and shot by the soldiers of the rebel army who ousted William Tolbert in a coup. All of this before Perkins Slade was 10 years old!!
Whilst the dynamic activities of these two characters were stealing our headlines, the company was continuing to grow through conventional UK portfolios of business. National newspapers, van manufacturers, national architectural practices, consulting engineers, greenhouse manufacturers and developers of linear accelerators (the forerunners of the electron blasters now shooting beams around the inside of a mountain in Switzerland) were all part of the UK bread and butter business, which was underpinning Perkins Slade.
One exciting, challenging journey and the interest continues.
Next Steps
To discuss the issues raised in this article or for further information, please speak to your usual Perkins Slade contact. Alternatively you can call 0121 698 8000 and ask to speak to a member of our Private Clients team or email privateclients@perkins-slade.com
