LMI PolicyComparison.com turns 20!

The upcoming NIBA Conference marks the 20^th anniversary of the official launch of LMI’s PolicyComparison.com.

The origin of this valuable research site for both brokers and underwriters goes back 23 years to early 2000. Let me explain.

LMI Group was given life on the 25^th February 1999, primarily handling claims. Within a short time, I noticed that Insured’s were being advised to change Insurer to obtain a cheaper premium but often with a serious reduction in coverage. At the time of the claim, this resulted in the insured suffering uninsured losses, sometimes significant amounts which in turn opened up the potential for a professional indemnity claim against the broker for not adequately explaining the derogation in coverage.

Within the first year of starting LMI, I was asked to speak at broker Professional Development days and at conferences and I produced an Excel spreadsheet to highlight some of the key differences in the Material Damage and Business Interruption sections of the major business packs available in the Australian market.

Brokers requested a copy of the spreadsheet which I was happy to do. Because of the detail, I had to produce it on A3 but many brokers did not have the capability at that time to print A3 so they requested a hard copy. This of course added to the cost.

As it was I was spending every weekend updating the spreadsheet as it seemed that no sooner had I updated the sheet, one insurer would change their wording. On top of this, brokers asked for more sections to be compared, particularly the broadform liability coverages and later money and burglary.

The more I provided the more the audience wanted and soon I was providing comparisons of the key sections of Farm Packs.

The work load to keep this up to date was significant and I had to do this outside normal business hours as I had my normal work load to attend to.

It came to the point where I felt that I was being used and abused by some who were not only continually asking for printed updates, but seeking advice on a range of insurance questions and yet, when they had a fee paying job they assigned the case to someone else.

In February 2003, I spoke at a conference in Happy Valley Victoria and handed out my last Excel Spreadsheets, explaining that it had all become too much.

Three brokers at that conference came up to me and said words to the effect that I was an idiot for doing all this for free and that I needed to put it up on line and charge for the time it takes. On top of this, Keith Till, then of Zurich Insurance, a person I had never met before, came up and said that what I had been providing was an extremely valuable service to brokers and floated the idea that I put the comparisons online and charge a subscription. His position was that the service would be even more important moving forward because of the changes to the Financial Service Licensing requirements. To help me get stared he arranged for Zurich Insurance Australia Limited to subscribe to an online service which at that time was only an idea and a belief that I could deliver.

Encouraged by both the brokers and Keith, I went on the hunt for someone to build the site while at the same time, brainstormed all the things that the site could provide. It needed to keep the history, have a policy library and be an education tool as well as a research one. Through the friend of a friend, I was introduced to Ian Fry of Fry Systems in Adelaide and he took my ideas and initial design and delivered a working model by 30 June 2003. Try doing that today!

As mentioned above, besides just doing the comparisons, I wanted to explain to users, including the Insured what each section of coverage covered along with tips, trips and traps. Originally this was titled: Points to Consider; but is now simply: Explained.

I vividly recall locking myself away on the Victorian Queen’s Birthday weekend to write the Points to Consider for the Business Packs and Farm comparison templates.

Before the official launch at NIBA 2003, brokers who had heard of the service started to subscribe, with Griffiths Goodall in Shepperton the first broker to subscribe. A copy of their cheque still sits on the wall of my office.

With the website completed and tested I headed off to NIBA 2003 with my laptop and a pile of glossy brochures.

As a claims person, I had found standing at a booth in the market place of any conference or trade show to be hard work. While the insurers and underwriters had lots of traffic it was a bit sad and lonely on my stand.

NIBA 2003 was completely different. It seemed everyone wanted a demonstration of the new service and more importantly, a great many signed up including the major broker groups on behalf of their members.

The team at LMI PolicyComparison, many of which have been with us for over 15 years and some from the very start, compare around 1,000 new policies a year across 22 classes of general insurance just for Australia. That is in a normal year, but in a year like we had recently, where most policies were updated due to the  new legislation on unfair contract terms, the team completed nearly double this number. I cannot see how any individual or company could possibly keep on top of this many changes without the backing of LMI PolicyComparison.com. With some policies running to well over 50 pages it is not always easy to pick up every change despite the best efforts of our dedicated team particularly when it may be one word or number. I thank those brokers and other users who have spotted something and let us know. We appreciate this and always highlight the item so as to reduce the liklihood of missing a similar point.

On the other side of the coin, we have helped insurers when we have identified a problem in the wording and relayed this back to the insurer. This confirms just how difficult it is to draft an insurance policy where a missing comma or carriage return can make a huge difference to the intended meaning.

One of those attending the 2003 NIBA Convention was the incoming President of IBANZ (the broker institute of New Zealand) and he asked that we take the service to New Zealand which we did the following year.

Zurich Australia, as has many Australian Insurers, introduced Steve Manning and I to the UK Market and we now provide the service there as well. Other countries and online services followed such as LMI BIcalculator, LMI RiskCoach, LMI ContinuityCoach, LMI PolicyCoach, and LMI ClaimsComparison.

The journey from my kitchen table on weekends to the adrenaline packed official launch 20 years ago, to now being part of a team of expert and dedicated researches comparing over 3,000 policies in Australia has been quite the ride.

But it did not stop there. I received a call a few years after the introduction of the online version of LMI PolicyComparison with the observation that “if I could read and interpret a policy, surely I could write one. Therefore would you please draft a business pack for our group”. That was the start of LMI’s Policy Drafting Division that has drafted hundreds of policies in half a dozen countries including the UK’s first specialty wording for the wine industry.  

Over the years, I have had so many people ring, email or speak to me at a conference to thank me and the team for providing the service. They go on to explain how they have won or retained an important client, or how the comparison has protected them from a professional indemnity claim. One comes immediately to mind. This was an underwriter at a major reinsurer. His overseas head office emailed him asking what exposure they had in the Australian market due to flooding during the 2010 Brisbane floods. He ran a report on LMI PolicyComparison.com on the product feature “Flood” and sent the download back to his head office in Europe in 10 minutes. The head office personnel could not believe that he could produce this so quick while the underwriter himself was relieved he was not stuck doing the exercise of contacting every insurer for a copy of their wording and then reading the document but came across as an on the ball expert with his head office.

Many times it has been a great benefit to our claims team. When a natural disaster hits we determine what features our team need to know. For example, following a bushfire it is important that we know what the limits for fencing, food in freezers, removal of debris, etc. We plug the identified features applicable to that event into LMI PolicyComparison and we produce a summary of those features, benefits and exclusions for every policy in the Australian market. We email this off to our claims team who can then answer questions and provide advice immediately.

No one could have done this on their own and I want to thank all the team at LMI PolicyComparison, especially the admin, researchers and drafters who have been with me since the early days, namely: Kim, Carmel, Sue, Wendy, Loretta T, Sharron, Kristen and Deb, headed by Director of Policy Service, Sharron Walker, as well as the IT team and designers that work so well together constantly updating and improving the site. Two others that contributed to the development of the service are Mike Quinlan and Peter Jenkins.

Finally, a huge thank you to all those that have subscribed to the service, encouraged us to expand the offering, and or made recommendations for improvement. I and the team greatly value and appreciate your support and loyalty.

The journey does not end at 20 years. We continue to expand and improve our services and with your support we plan to be here for many years to come.

I and some of the team return for NIBA 2023 so please come along and say hello and share your PolicyComparison.com story.