We often find that FDs do not have simple financial facts about their insurance risk transfer partners; common questions we get are “How big are they?” (Total Assets, Total Liabilities, Net Assets), “What’s their Income?” (Gross Written Premium) and “How solvent are they?” (SCR Ratio)
So, here are some quick published financial facts about common insurers we come across, which is a small subset of the information which is easily and publicly available which should be used to choose an insurer.
-big table here
Our top 5 points to watch are:
- Some insurers may have EU Holding companies/non-EU parent companies, able to provide additional financial support
- Your actual risks may have been placed with a separate Lloyd’s syndicate, owed by one of the above, but subject to separate Lloyd’s of London Solvency II reporting/capital requirements
- Your actual insurer must be named in your policy documents; many clients incorrectly name their broker as the insurer
- All UK insurers (and Lloyd’s in aggregate) must publish Solvency & Financial Condition Reports (SFCRs) annually
- Insurers’ names and financial conditions can change over time, so they should both be monitored for as long as a claim is possible under your policy, to ensure that you have an up-to-date assessment of your insurance asset quality
We cover these under “IV: Your Best Provider”, “V: Your Money” and “VI: Your Review Process”
Source: InsuranceRiskData: www.insuranceriskdata.com, a subscription-only database we subscribe to.
- Assets: QRT: S.02.01.02.01 (Solvency II Balance sheet), R0500, Total assets, C0010
- Liabilities: QRT: S.02.01.02.01 (Solvency II Balance sheet), R0900, Total Liabilities, C0010
- Net Assets: QRT: S.02.01.02.01 (Solvency II Balance sheet), R1000, Excess of assets over liabilities, C0010
- GWP: QRT: S.05.01.02.01 (Premiums..Non-life), R0110 (Direct) + R0120 (Propn Reins) + R0130 (Non-propn reins), C0020
- SCR Ratio: QRT: S.23.01.01.01 (Own Funds (solo)), R0620, Ratio of Eligible own funds to SCR, C0010
The InsuranceInspect Services approach to Insurance Buying
| Stage | Purpose |
| I.Your Past | What can you learn from your past? How much profit have insurers made from you? |
| II. Your Future | What can happen in your future? How likely are large claims really? What’s the best way to pay for them? |
| III. Your CustomMade Product | Is an off-the-shelf policy right for you? What are the alternatives? Why insure in the first place? |
| IV. Your Best Providers | Is the brokers’ panel comprehensive enough? How much are they being paid? What if you need a bespoke solution? |
| V. Your Money | Where does your money go? Offshore? Tax Haven? Who is your actual insurer? What about your claimants? |
| VI: Your Review Process | How do you know that you made the right decision at the last renewal? What information do you need? |
