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Choppy waters ahead for your insurances

By Alex Mitchell

Wentworth Alexander

TWO months ago, we published an article highlighting difficulties concerning the availability and cost of professional indemnity cover particularly for those involved in the construction industry.

These difficulties continue and have now spread to the wider insurance marketplace.

For over a decade there has been a stable insurance marketplace with a large number of insurers involved in strong competition for well-managed businesses.

This has resulted in premiums remaining unaltered or reducing over this period for such businesses. It could also be argued that an element of ‘lazy’ insurance broking has crept into the marketplace due to the ease with which alternative insurers have been able to be sourced.

However, the last 10 years have also seen increasing claims costs with various pieces of legislation resulting in greatly inflated claims settlements.

In the past few months this has led to several insurers completely withdrawing from the UK market as it has proved to be consistently unprofitable for them. Other insurers are also reviewing how they intend to trade in the short to medium term.

This reduced availability of insurers with an urgent need to address profitability is starting to result in a much more difficult insurance market, not just for professional indemnity but for many other classes of insurance, too. Soon there will be potentially double digit increases to premiums particularly in the areas of motor fleet insurance and commercial liabilities including employers and public/product liability.

There is now a need for more experienced and professional insurance brokers who will take the time and trouble to understand your business and present this information in a way that enables underwriters to make an informed decision and provide a market competitive price.

At Wentworth Alexander we take this time and have a team of experienced insurance professionals who understand what is required in difficult times.

As an independent broker we provide a full-service including risk management advice, claims servicing and always represent our client’s best interests in our dealings with insurers.

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss our proposition further.

Contact Wentworth Alexander on 01327 706874, email or visit www.waib.co.uk

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