Q&A: Mark Plews, Markel UK

You’ve been at Markel UK for about six months now. How are you finding the role?

Good, really good. It’s a nice place to be. After 16 years somewhere else, you don’t know how you’re going to adjust to it, but I was quite optimistic, and it’s been even better than I had hoped it would be.

How does it compare to your previous positions at Hiscox?

I was an underwriter at Hiscox originally, then a regional manager, and finally head of schemes and partnerships. My position at Markel is now less to do with distribution, and more purely focused on the underwriting and the bottom line, whereas previously I would have had top-line and bottom-line focus within my role. I’m not restricted to schemes and partnerships now, but I’m also dealing with open market lines, as well as delegated authority.

Would you say you have more of a passion for underwriting than for distribution?

I like both, but it’s a really exciting time to be in underwriting. You can actually make a difference. Markel is very keen to underwrite consistently profitably because that’s how we maintain consistency in what we offer the brokers. In other words, we stay consistent in the market. So, I like both underwriting and distribution, but I am really enjoying getting involved in the fine detail of the underwriting and managing the portfolio.

You’ve overseen a number of new hires in your department recently.

Yes, we’ve got Vicky Read, who joins us as head of liability and oversees our professional indemnity book, as well as liability and life sciences. Vicky joined from AIG, where she’d been for about 12 years.

We also have a new head of product for technology – we’ll wait until he joins to share his name, but that role will help us boost our presence in the technology market. We’re excited about both of those hires – and there’s more to come.

On Vicky’s hire, you said that since you joined Markel UK a few months ago, the opportunity for growth had “become obvious”. What did you mean by that?

We’re set up really well. Markel has been growing strongly for the past five years. We have got a really strong set of underwriters, and I’m lucky to have inherited some really good product heads. In turn, the underwriters within their teams, that are broker-facing, are really strong too.

We’ve got a great claims service and great products, so we should be able to leverage that more. We also have the opportunity to look at new sectors – I haven’t decided what those might be yet, but we’ll look into a side where there’s a big enough opportunity for us, and we’ll invest there as well.

We’re just very well set up to carry on our growth trajectory based on what we’ve done so far. We’ve got a strong team, a lot of experience, and we’re bringing in new talent that can give new ideas and suggestions.

Our service proposition is good, our sales approach is more sophisticated than it used to be, and we’re building stronger relationships with brokers all the time. We also had a really good response at BIBA recently, which reflects that people see Markel differently from how they used to.

With a new position, you can come in and say you’re going to change the world in 100 days – I didn’t think that was realistic, or even sensible. To me, the most important thing is getting to know the business and the team. It was a case of getting to understand what our book, our objective and our culture is like, before I came in and made any big decisions.”

What’s your proudest accomplishment at Markel UK so far?

With a new position, you can come in and say you’re going to change the world in 100 days – I didn’t think that was realistic, or even sensible. To me, the most important thing is getting to know the business and the team. It was a case of getting to understand what our book, our objective and our culture is like before I came in and made any big decisions.

If I had started making decisions right away, it would have been irresponsible, so I have spent a lot of time looking at those areas, and from there I can work with my team over the next two or three months on evolving and updating our underwriting strategy.

We’re not resetting anything – we were already in a strong place before – but now that I’ve got that understanding and built those relationships, we’ll start to see new things coming through.

Nic Brown, divisional director of broker at Markel UK, has described “unsustainable” underwriting practices in the PI space. What’s your approach to this?

Nic was trying to explain the soft and hard market cycle which exists in the sector . If you look at it from outside of insurance, it seems a very funny way of doing things. We try not to get too involved in that.

Obviously, it is sometimes necessary – as in the current climate with factors like inflation – but no single insurer can control the market by itself. What we try to do is make sure we are not showing the extremes of price undulation, and set a consistent pricing level that we know is profitable. We want to be a consistent partner to our brokers – we don’t come in and out of products, as I mentioned earlier.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we stayed within social welfare, and the PI lines we had established. We didn’t pull out of providing capacity, unlike some of the other markets. The point we’re trying to make is that we are spending a lot of time and energy making sure we are a reliable and trustworthy market for our broker partners.

How does this approach set Markel UK apart?

I think we can be proud of the fact that we have remained consistent throughout a difficult time, while others haven’t. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we were very quick to pay claims, for example, and while others were walking away from care, we continued in care and actually grew our book at the same time.

Lots of other insurers are very good at what they do, but we can be proud of what we achieved in the last couple of years in terms of our consistency and approach to the market.

No single insurer can control the market by itself. What we try to do is make sure we are not showing the extremes of price undulation, and set a consistent pricing level that we know is profitable. We want to be a consistent partner to our brokers.”

Can you tell us anything about Markel UK’s upcoming construction PI offering?

We already have a construction appetite within the business called ECIC. We’ll be updating that proposition and bringing it more in line with Markel branding.

We’ll also be looking to widen our appetite from where it is more into general construction, while continuing with electrical and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning risks. This will allow us to update our wordings, and allow policies to be combined with PI and employer’s liability/public liability for construction, and so on – all covers will be placed together. We should have that by early 2023, and construction is one of our key target areas for next year.

Is there anything else big on the horizon?

We’ve been spending a lot of time recently working on portfolio deals – that is, large transfers – with professional indemnity being one. PI is our fastest growing line of business, and we want to see that continue through to 2025.

We also have an interest in, and appetite for, life sciences. It’s a budding sector in the UK, and one where the UK is very strong, so we feel that we should be doing more there. Finally, we have our tech proposition, which we are updating to allow all covers to be placed together, as with our other offerings.

Is there any significant threat posed to Markel UK from the Russo-Ukrainian war?

We did a thorough deep dive into our UK account, and we don’t actually have a huge exposure to the Russia and Ukraine situation – there are knock-on effects to inflation, and we are preparing for those, and our wholesale business has some exposure, but within our UK business, there’s very little.

Dealing with inflation right now is quite tough. We know we need to carry rates to manage our inflation exposure – it’s a tough balancing act to make sure we get that right. But we do have to take some action to protect the bottom line for the foreseeable future.”

How will you tackle inflation specifically?

Dealing with inflation right now is quite tough – especially against the backdrop of a hard market. We know we need to carry rates to manage our inflation exposure, and it’s a tough balancing act to make sure we get that right.

But we do have to take some action to protect the bottom line for the foreseeable future – back to the point I made about a sustainable and consistent partner to brokers.

What’s your personal underwriting philosophy?

At Markel, we have a 2025 plan that guides everything we do from a corporate level downwards. We want to make a certain level of profitability, and that guides how we approach the line we want to look into in the future, and what type of exposure we want to take on.

We have been growing quickly and we want to continue to grow quickly – but we have to make sure we’re in an area we know we can be for the long haul.