UK General
Has broker Bennetts set a record with seven owners since 2000?
Content Director’s View: Private equity, consolidators, insurers seeking diversification ... these have all contributed to a boom in M&A and investment in the UK insurance sector since 2000. Jonathan Swift looks at which businesses have – as a result – changed hands the most since the turn of the century.
Q&A: Tim Smyth, Bspoke Group
Tim Smyth, CEO of Bspoke Group, sits down with Insurance Post to talk acquisitions, scaling back UK General, and the complacency currently within the HNW market.
Wedding insurance after Covid cancelled nuptials
After couples were forced to cancel their nuptials due to Covid-19 restrictions, Tim Evershed examines how wedding insurers coped with a barrage of claims and the make-up of the market in 2024.
Bspoke acquires Police Mutual personal lines business
Bspoke Group has completed the acquisition of Police Mutual personal lines business less than four years after the mutual was absorbed by Royal London.
MGA Review of the Year 2023
With large insurers and mainstream players pulling out of certain lines in 2023, and products reverting to the core areas, MGA chiefs plan to continue to step up and fill that gap in 2024.
What next for Primary Group in the UK after Policy Expert sale?
Content Director’s View: Jonathan Swift reflects on what the future might hold for the Primary Group in the UK after the sale of Policy Expert left it with only one significant investment in the local market.
View from the Top: Bspoke’s Tim Smyth on inflation challenging MGAs
Tim Smyth, CEO of Bspoke Group (formerly UK General), says MGAs need to make their voices heard and engage regulators and policyholders on the challenges facing the sector.
Believe in better – will Sky Protect break the smart tech home insurance hoodoo?
Content director’s view: Jonathan Swift muses on whether Sky Protect could disrupt the household insurance Premier League in the same way it did with English football following its investment in the game in 1992.
Ardonagh in double swoop; UK General rebrands; SRG launches in Europe
Friday Round-Up: Insurance Post wraps up the major insurance deals, launches, investments, and strategic moves of the week.
Combined UK General and PPL business to pursue ‘substantial’ growth and acquisitions
The combined business formed by the bringing together of managing general agents UK General and Precision Partnership is to pursue “substantial” short-term growth, CEO Tim Smyth has told Post.
Data evolution is needed to become the Amazon of insurance, says Tim Smyth
Tim Smyth, CEO of UK General Insurance, says the key to Amazon’s success lies in its use of data, and that brokers and managing general agents must invest in their own data capabilities if they want to replicate the multinational’s success.
Aviva reports 13% spike in fraud; Accredited hails £2bn Policy Expert deal; Urban Jungle to recruit 100; and PRA warns insurers of ‘significant headwinds’ over climate change
For the record: Post wraps up the major insurance deals, launches, investments and strategic moves of the week.
Briefing: With the sale of its commercial book to Axa, Ageas has gone full circle to return its old self again
Post content director Jonathan Swift looks at the journey Ageas has been on over the last 13 years and concludes it has done an awful lot - but now looks more like its 2009 incarnation than ever.
UK General names David Boulcott as CUO
UK General has appointed David Boulcott as chief underwriting officer, replacing interim CUO David Brown, with effect from 1 January 2022.
Spotlight: Digital culture – Claims - the genesis for digital transformation and cultural change
Tim Evershed speaks to insurers about whether there are any digital skills gaps in claims departments, and if so, how they can be filled
Spotlight: Digital culture – Adapting and evolving to maximise the potential of automation in underwriting
Automation is a growing reality in every corner of an insurance business. Tim Evershed explores the impact it is having on underwriting - and how staff are acquiring the skills to maximise its potential benefits here.
Pen’s Nick Wright on why scale matters to the modern MGA
Media headlines about the managing general agent market have recently taken a welcome turn, from all the talk of capacity crunch and crisis to a message of renewed and rising confidence, observes Nick Wright, chief business development officer at Pen…
Covid wedding claimants could have lost out due to 'misleading information'
Exclusive: Wedding insurance customers of UK General and Great Lakes may have been supplied “misleading information” leading to a reduction in Covid-19 claim payouts or preventing them from claiming.
UK General's Tim Smyth on why ‘know their stuff’ MGAs are thriving
Tim Smyth, CEO of UK General, explains why the next ten years could be a golden decade for the managing general agent sector.
Operating losses worsen at UK General in 2020 as turnover falls
UK General Insurance has posted an operating loss before exceptional items of £7.4m for a 15-month period ended 30 June 2020, more than double the £3.2m deficit the year before.
Weddingplan claims being paid following Supreme Court BI ruling
Some claims on wedding insurance policies sold by managing general agent UK General that were initially rejected are now being paid with policyholders also receiving compensation, Post has learned.