Apology and preannouncement for the 2021 Mansfield Awards

I want to start by apologising that I have been a bit lax in posting of late but this year has been manic.

First up, with the new Unfair Contract Terms we have been working with many organisations, large and small reviewing and where necessary rewriting sections of their policy wordings. We have literally done thousands so far and more are coming in.

This of course has meant a lot of extra work for the LMI PolicyComparison team who are stretched but coping with the extra work load that Unfair Contract Terms have created.

The second area that has kept me personally busy is the number of brokers and in an increasing number of cases where clients have asked us to do a full peer review of their insurance program. The hardening market has been part of this but more and more boards are keen to ensure that their organisation is adequately protected.

With the hardening market, more and more business owners and boards have come to the realisation that they need to better manage their risk, develop a long standing sustainable relationship with an insurer(s) and demonstrate that they are genuinely managing their risks. Risk Engineering, Risk Surveying and Business Continuity Management planning have all been very busy. Often this is being done as part of the peer review and as we prefer to see the risk first hand, it has involved a fair bit of travel.

Finally, LMI College continues to grow and besides all the work required to comply with the changes to the Diploma of Insurance Broking, I and the team have been working on new courses for those in claims and risk surveying.

Mansfield Awards

I met with the co-founder of the Mansfield Awards for Claims Excellence, Terry McMullan of InsuranceNEWS and I am pleased to say that we are reverting back to a live event for 2021, COVID permitting. We are in the process of securing a venue and once we have the date confirmed – it will be announced in InsuranceNEWS and in the Mansfield Awards website.

This week, I have put aside time to update the survey form to include any new entrants that we know of. We plan to start the 2021 survey next Monday 10th May, 2021 and this will run for 4 weeks until Sunday 6th June (D-Day).

Just a reminder that any insurer or underwriting agency is eligible to participate and there are absolutely no fees charged. If you were not in last year’s survey and would like to be, please let me know at allan.manning@lmigroup.com and I will personally ensure that you are included.

A reminder that this is a not for profit event designed to promote all that is good about general insurance, the unsung heros of the profession, ie the claims teams and to drive positive change. All proceeds from ticket sales and with the support of the event sponsors the proceeds go to an orphanage and school for special needs children in Bengkulu Indonesia, near the site of Fort Marlborough, the location of the claim that gave rise to Lord Mansfield’s seminal decision on Utmost Good Faith. The Insurance Industry can be justifiably proud of the difference made to the lives of these children.

More on the survey and Mansfield Awards next week. Till then, please stay safe and well.