Diary of an Insurer: Markel’s Nick Rugg

Monday

The Monday morning alarm gets me up at 6.30am. I usually work from home on Mondays unless I need to be in London for a meeting. This means that instead of the commute, I can help the kids get ready for school.

After this, I will grab a coffee and start working at my desk. The first task I do on Monday mornings is write a list of the things that I need to achieve during the week.

There are various aspects to my job such as underwriting, working on projects, and team management, so this list is really important to know what I need to get done and by when. Once I have written my list, I can start cracking on with the day’s work.

I am training for the Cambridge Half Marathon so at lunchtime I head out for a quick eight-mile run. Unfortunately, it is quite hilly where I live, so these runs are not as enjoyable as they could be.

On Monday afternoon I have weekly catch-ups with some brokers over MS Teams to check in on how things are progressing and to talk about any new business opportunities.

Tuesday

On Tuesday morning I catch the 7am train to London. My commute takes me one hour into Liverpool Street, so it gives me time to respond to some emails before I get in the office.

Due to the international nature of the fintech and investment management portfolios that I manage, there are always emails that come in overnight from Asia, Australia, and Canada, and they require my immediate attention.

I arrive in the office and one of the first things on the agenda is our weekly team meeting, which takes place every Tuesday. In this meeting, we focus on various aspects of the financial institutions portfolio and rotate the theme each week.

This week, we are looking at gross written premium and broker performance. Given that we are quite a large team of 12 now, the meeting is a great chance for everybody to discuss what each of us are seeing in the market and share any concerns.

It is also a good opportunity for the younger members of the team to learn. I much prefer my days at work being in the office with the team because you cannot beat the enjoyment you get working side-by-side with your colleagues.

In the afternoon I have a client meeting over in Farringdon. Again, the face-to-face nature of these meetings is something that was really missed during Covid.

Wednesday

Another day in the office and a very different one to the day before. Today the team is taking part in an all-day training course on payments.

We write a lot of business in the payments space, so we arranged for a guru from the payments industry to give us a training session. It was a very comprehensive overview of the whole payments ecosystem.

We opened the invitation up to our brokers too. Overall, it was a good training course where everybody learnt a lot and it was appreciated by our brokers.

Thursday

Thursday morning in the office starts with a peer review session. This is where each underwriter in the team is tasked with discussing some of the risks that they have bound over the past month, explaining the rationale behind writing them and their thought process, covering off exposures, pricing, and wording language, among other things.

We try and keep the atmosphere to be less of a Dragons Den vibe and more of a learning and idea sharing environment. This is a great chance for the younger members of the team to really understand what underwriters are looking for and thinking about when it comes to underwriting risk.

Thursday lunchtime I get out for another run. Time is ticking and getting closer to the half marathon date. When running during my lunch break I like to head up to Haggerston and follow the canal for a while, before looping back to the City of London.

Late afternoon we head over to Islington for a professional and financial risk division evening out. We hired the Bill Murray Comedy Club to see four acts perform. It was very funny.

After that we headed over to the Old Queens Head for some food and karaoke. For better or worse, everybody got involved with the karaoke; it was a brilliant night.

Friday

Friday is the day where my inbox is a little less manic, so I use this as my day for tying things up and clearing off any outstanding administrative tasks. I also check my list from Monday to make sure everything was completed during the week.

One of my brokers has kindly invited me to the England vs Scotland Six Nations match at Twickenham tomorrow, so it will be a quiet night for me in anticipation of a good day tomorrow.