When hard-to-place risks become standard

When non-standard risks fall outside the appetites of general insurers, successful placement relies on brokers finding markets willing to consider the business. 

Brokers do this exceptionally well. In fact, analysis of over 640,000 commercial policies in the Broker Insights platform shows that these risks are placed across 1,000+ markets. This number raises an important question, however: 

Does a hard-to-place risk remain ‘hard to place’ forever? 

Focussing on renewal data for the past four years, we can establish that on average, hard-to-place risks stay with the same market for at least 23.3%* longer than standard risks. While that market was right at the time, is it still the best choice now? 

Greater claims history and shifting insurer appetites can expand market options for once hard-to-place business, prompting the need for regular reviews. Brokers who do so benefit from:  

• the ability to place more business with preferred partners and explore leveraging better terms; 
• the chance to rationalise barely used agencies; 
• and, a lesser due diligence burden with managing a smaller agency base.   

How Broker Insights reduces the burden on brokers  

It takes time and effort to explore new markets for this type of business. The unique MatchPoints™ technology within Broker Insights Vision™ instantly shows you markets with an appetite for your risk – pinpointing the right insurer, for the right policy, at the right time.  

Many brokers also use Vision to define wider opportunities beyond individual renewals and find insurers looking to take volumes of particular business classes, all while saving time and energy. 

Benefits of reviewing specialist business placement 

To understand how we can support your business specifically, email enquiries@brokerinsights.com and follow us on LinkedIn. If you’re already part of the Broker Insights community, please contact your Trading Manager with any questions.  

*The rationale for ‘hard to place’ is based on analysis of the data within Vision, to determine the number of markets writing a particular product, assuming that products with less markets are harder to place. For the purposes of this analysis, hard to place products are those with 35 or fewer markets.