Travelers’ Strategic Growth in Underwriting Insurance Schemes

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Red curved lines swirl around a Logo: Travelers. An interviewer wears a pinstripe suit and a dotted tie.

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INTERVIEWER: To discuss Travelers' growing appetite to underwrite schemes, I'm joined by the group's Schemes Development Manager, David Bailey. David, is this a new area for Travelers?

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Text: David Bailey, Schemes Development Manager.

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DAVID BAILEY: It's not. Travelers has got significant experience in the schemes area, delegated authorities and MGAs within Europe, across Lloyd's Specialty and our Syndicate business, and we have some business within the SME area as well. We're looking to expand. We're looking to use our expertise in underwriting.

So we have breadth within 30,000 employees available. We've got 40 billion pounds' worth of revenue from 2023, and we've got, effectively, 160 years’ experience within the market. So we're looking to strategically grow in this area to actually maximise opportunities, but also balance our portfolio account.

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David nods. He and the interviewer sit in arm chairs with a small table between them.

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INTERVIEWER: And what's the attraction of that schemes marketplace for Travelers?

DAVID BAILEY: It's a growing area. There's a significant amount of niche business where we look to use not only our expertise, but by utilising delegated authority, we can actually use brokers' expertise of underwriting and that knowledge of that sector to work together. So we can grow out a profitable portfolio, but diverse to our traditional areas that we underwrite manually.

INTERVIEWER: What would you say makes a good scheme?

DAVID BAILEY: It's got to be the people. You have to have a strong partnership with the scheme business. You work closely with your partner, so that collaboration is critical. Yes, the sector, the distribution route, the niche, is really, really vital, as is profitability. But actually to pull that all together, you've got to have a strong working partnership and focus that you can deliver.

INTERVIEWER: Why should a broker engage with or consider engaging with Travelers?

DAVID BAILEY: That wealth of experience and drive to develop our business can also be applied to the broker, the delegated authority, MGA, to help them grow their business as well. And we work very closely on a process called 4D to bring efficiency to an assessment of any new scheme. So effectively, it's on the initial phase of discovery, then design, then we move on to delivery and development.

So in the discovery phase, we work together-- back to the collaboration piece, which is critical-- to make sure that actually, we both understand each other's business model. It's a scheme that can benefit both organisations. But principally, we need to do that due diligence, that understanding, building the knowledge, making sure we've got a good product overview and that both parties can bring something to the table.

After discovery comes design, where we actually work on the scheme in more detail, so effectively pulling together what the needs and demands are, but also carrying out further due diligence with the partner so that we get under the bonnet of the detail of the scheme, the sector, the covers, so that we can work up an overall product value basis for the end customer.

So once you've designed, we have to deliver, and that's a mutual-- it's a variation, depending on what the scheme is, what the sector, whose policy wording it is. But effectively, we're working to sometimes very tight timescales, but actually keeping that collaboration and momentum going, make sure each party knows where we are with the process, to effectively reach that live date and that end goal that we can say, OK, the scheme is now live. We can start transacting business.

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The interviewer nods.

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But it doesn't stop there. We then move on to development. So effectively, once the scheme is live, we can look at the opportunity to say, what areas can we further expand in? But before we get to that stage, we need a few months to make sure the scheme is bedded in, it's working as expected, making sure that communication-collaboration piece is there, and then moving to quarterly reviews, where we start to look at the performance, look at the production, ultimately the profitability.

But the meetings focus on forward thinking. Are we where we need to be? And what can we do to drive that forward so that we can deliver those three to five-year-plus, 10 years, in terms of schemes relationships?

INTERVIEWER: Ultimately, what's your goal in the scheme space?

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Visit travelers dot co dot uk slash schemes or email dj bailey at travelers dot com.

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DAVID BAILEY: It's to develop relationships with brokers. It's to widen our understanding, widen out the breadth of our underwriting appetite, and ultimately to open the doors to new opportunities at a steady rate of profitable growth, and looking to maximise where we can in the chosen sectors that we work with brokers on.

INTERVIEWER: David Bailey, thank you.

DAVID BAILEY: Thank you.

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Both men smile. Red curved lines swirl around a Logo: Travelers.

Information and opinions contained in this interview have been arrived at by Travelers, and any underlying research or analysis has been procured by Travelers for its own purposes. It does not, and it is not intended to, provide legal, technical, or other professional advice, nor does it amend, or otherwise affect, the provisions or coverages of any insurance policy issued by Travelers. Travelers does not warrant that adherence to, or compliance with, any recommendations, best practices, checklists, or guidelines will result in a particular outcome. Furthermore, laws, regulations, standards, guidance and codes may change from time to time, and you should always refer to the most current requirements and take specific advice when dealing with specific situations.

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