Reflecting on 50 years in General Insurance

50 years ago today, I started my career in insurance by joining the claims department of the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation. What a great career choice I made as a young teenager.

I have been thinking about the massive changes in technology, distribution and wordings much of which has been for the better but at the same time lament the change in claims service that I see many great brands now show their customers.

For my small part, I reflect on the sales, training, comparison and research services that I created which are now used by those in the industry in 4 continents. These include PolicyComparison.com, BIcalculator.com, ContinuityCoach.com, LMI PolicyCoach, LMI RiskCoach and ClaimsComparison.com.

Working alone or with one of my children we have written over 15 books on general insurance which have been sent all over the world helping train the next generation in insurance. This has led to my delivering nearly 1,300 seminars or training sessions across over 20 countries. Later this month, my daughter Dr Susan Rodriguez-Manning and I are presenting at the 2021 Risk Insurance Managers Conference in the US.

My love of research and training has led to the development of LMI College which is an important part of the LMI Group which covers claims, eServices, forensic accounting, legal, risk management, business continuity management, policy drafting, media and psychology services. Psychology services being the latest service due to the mental distress more and more insured’s are enduring when they lodge a claim.

While still enjoy working in claims, my role is now quite diverse acting as an expert witness, drafting and reviewing insurance policies and or endorsements and take pleasure that I have been able to introduce several important changes in wordings that help genuine insureds in their hour of need. Things such as the 20% uplift on building sums insured on business pack policies, a 25% increase in indemnity periods again triggered by a natural catastrophe.

I am not finished yet, my mind and health are still in good order and I have no desire to retire and I feel I have much more to give. With the LMI Group is in the good hands of Steve Manning, who has been our CEO for coming up to 2 years, supported by a great team of divisional, country and state managers. This allows me to focus on the areas that I feel I can do the most good for the industry including some lobbying [for positive change, the removal of taxes in insurance and natural catastrophe risk mitigation], The Mansfield Awards for Claims Excellence, our charitable foundation which among other things helps an orphanage in Sumatra, and of course research and training.

I end by thanking everyone who has supported me in my career, our loyal customers, the great team at LMI including my wife (who I also met 50 years ago today) my children and my daughter-in-law & son-in-law, all of whom work with me at LMI Group.