Highlights from 2021.2 NIBA Convention
NIBA’s hybrid 2021.2 NIBA Convention rounded off its five-state tour in Sydney on Monday 21 February. Read all the highlights from the five days of insurance broking inspiration and insight. Sessions can still be watched on-demand
Melbourne 8 February
The 2021.2 NIBA five-day hybrid Convention kicked off in Melbourne on 8 February at the Crown Melbourne.
A key theme of the session, which was MCed by public speaking coach, Jordana Borensztajn, was the future of financial services regulation.
Dr. Rhys Bollen, Senior Executive Leader, Insurers, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Emma Curtis, Lead Ombudsman Insurance at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and Oscar Shub, Chairperson, Insurance Brokers Code Compliance Committee (IBCCC) came together to share their viewpoints on the current compliance and regulatory environment.
We also heard from David Thompson, Principal, Hunt & Hunt Lawyers about the key challenges for many businesses over the coming months in establishing effective COVID-19 working practices. David dissected the key things businesses need to get right when establishing workplaces that will work for employees during and post COVID-19.
Mark Carter, an experienced global learning and development pro, from Igniting Human Potential, presented an immersive, cinematic experience that served as a fantastic pep talk to everyone who watched in person and online. It underlined the value we each have, the value we can bring to the industry, as well as the elements that clients truly value. Most importantly, it focused on how we can get maximum value from ourselves. It’s one that you simply have to watch!
Missed this session – watch it on-demand
Adelaide 11 February
The second session of NIBA’s 2021.2 Convention took place in Adelaide on Friday 11 February, following hot on the heels of a successful debut event in Melbourne.
The event, which was MCed by NIBA’s CEO Philip Kewin, featured a presentation from NIBA President Dianne Phelan on the evolving role of the broker. Dianne talked about excellence in insurance broking, with a focus on what broking needs to look like in 2025. Over the coming years, she said, there needs to be a focus on risk management and mitigation in addition to the end insurance product. With brokers becoming trusted advisers of clients and communities, and trusted partners of underwriters, capital providers, and governments.
Industry expert and chair of ICA’s new Business Advisory Council, Dallas Booth then provided an overview of the current state of the industry, covering large falls in industry profits, high claims costs from ongoing weather events, and lower investment returns, including problems with affordability and availability, and business interruption issues.
John Trowbridge, who was appointed in 2020 by the ICA to review the affordability and availability of commercial insurance, shared some of the insights he’d gained during his review, which focused on affordability, availability, market failure, and government intervention.
One of John Trowbridge’s key recommendations from the ICA review is to facilitate the bringing of different sectors of the industry together and share data to truly understand risk factors, and ICA CEO Andrew Hall said he believes the new Business Advisory Council will be key to facilitating this collaboration. ‘’The Business Advisory Council presents a ‘really good opportunity for better engagement and better understanding”, said Hall.
A panel discussion, which featured former NIBA CEO Dallas Booth, industry expert John Trowbridge, and Andrew Hall, CEO, of the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) discussed the current State of the Industry.
The new Insurance Brokers Code of Practice is set to launch on 1 March with changes coming into effect on 1 November 2022. NIBA President, Dianne Phelan explained the Code is the product of an extensive review and consultation process undertaken by an independent reviewer.
“We decided a new Code of Practice should be built from the ground up, one which exceeds the law and holds members to a higher standard,” she said.
NIBA CEO Philip Kewin also discussed the upcoming Quality of Advice Review, which will include a review of the existing conflicted remuneration exemption for general insurance brokers.
Kewin stressed it has been important for the industry to get on the front foot, highlighting the value of the empirical data created by the Deloitte Access Economics Report on the Economic Value of Insurance Broking, which NIBA commissioned.
Missed this session – watch it on-demand
Perth 14 February
The third session of NIBA’s 2021.2 Convention took place in Western Australia at Crown Perth. The event was MCed by TV and radio personality Christina Morrissy, and key topics included workers’ compensation and the COVID-19 related business interruption claims and test cases.
Professor Fiona Wood AM delivered a fantastic keynote presentation on resilience to get the event off to a stunning start. She discussed the concept of resilience, sharing experiences from her career in plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Throughout her career, Professor Wood has witnessed some horrific scenes and says her desire to learn every day helps her deal with those experiences.
“Fundamentally, I feel that we have to think about today only as a platform for tomorrow. ‘Learn from today to make tomorrow better’ has been my mantra all the way through, and that helps me deal with some of the suffering I see on a daily basis.”
The first changes to the WA Workers’ Compensation Act in 30 years were put under the microscope by an expert panel of Chris White, Workcover WA, Chief Executive Officer; Ian Maybury, National Manager at Lockton; and Clint Jeuring, Regional Director at EBM, and was chaired by Rebecca Harris, Workcover WA, General Manager.
Chris White said the new Workers Compensation Bill represented the biggest change in the workers’ compensation world in 30 years, and its rollout would be fully supported by relevant materials.
“The new Act will be supported by extensive education, training and awareness-raising, and it will provide another opportunity for the broker community to participate in that and learn.”
Rebecca Harris, Workcover WA, General Manager, said, “We’re really keen that you [brokers] know your role and we know ours, that we have a good working relationship together – everything doesn’t need to be set in stone through legislation or regulations. It works in those relationships.”
The need for good education and communication was highlighted as vital for the workers’ compensation sector, and Clint Jeuring, Regional Director at EBM, said, “Professionalism is a key pillar of NIBA, and it’s super important to lift that level of professionalism through continued professional development and education.”
Ian Maybury outlined the role of the broker in workers’ compensation. “The need for advice and support is really critical,” he said.
The business interruption test cases resulting from the global pandemic have created major headlines across the globe, and Adam Squire, Head of Claims, Gallagher and Ken Wise, Managing Principal, Marsh, provided an update to the Convention audience.
“The starting position was that insurers never intended to cover pandemic risks, unless there were very specific policies for this, but due to wording ambiguity, it’s left the situation open for policyholders to challenge their cover, and also for brokers to do that on their behalf as well,” said Squires.
Wise said that, in Australia, the first test case – which revolved around the use of the Quarantine Act as a reference in policy wording – was found in favour of insureds.
“It was found that the Quarantine Act couldn’t be relied upon, so insurers can’t rely on that to exclude a claim on its own,” he said. In the second round of test cases, nine of ten decisions went in favour of the insurers.
“The law from those test cases is likely to be applied to the class actions as well,” said Wise.
Brisbane 16 February
The fourth session of the 2021.2 NIBA Convention took place in Brisbane yesterday and was MCed by media personality Bill McDonald, who hosted a fascinating afternoon delving into all aspects of natural disasters.
Dr Ryan Crompton, Managing Director of Risk Frontiers, David Henderson, Chief Engineer, Cyclone Testing Station, James Cook University, Stephen McShane, Northern Region Technical Property Specialist, CGU, Steven Hill, Qld Director, Capital Innovation Insurance Group and Ron Bellert, Director, North Queensland Insurance Brokers, provided expert insights on a topic that many of us are – unfortunately – only too familiar with.
Dr Ryan Crompton, Managing Director of Risk Frontiers, shared an in-depth presentation on catastrophe loss modelling and future weather-related risks.
Risk Frontiers develops complex catastrophe loss models to predict future loss levels, and Dr Crompton said: “We combine our understanding of projected changes in hazards and climate model data more generally to assess future risk levels.”
Over the coming years, our weather will evolve, and based on the modelling Dr Crompton presented, tropical cyclone activity is forecast to decrease between 4% and 12% under different scenarios. However, the frequency of Cat 4 cyclones is expected to experience little change or a slight increase.
Going beyond life safety and identifying opportunities to make buildings more resilient should be a key focus of our approach to dealing with weather events, said David Henderson, Chief Engineer, Cyclone Testing Station, James Cook University.
“We need to maintain functionality,” he said. “We want our buildings – whether that be our houses, shops, where we live and play – to be functional a short time after a major event.
“We need to be able to minimise the dislocation of people in the community, which means we all recover quicker, and hopefully the damage bills are much lower, too.”
Stephen McShane, Northern Region Technical Property Specialist, CGU offered valuable insights into what underwriters look for in a submission from brokers and tips for getting clients the right cover.
When considering new policies, underwriters look at several factors, including timing, the information provided, the opportunity and claims history.
Steven Hill, Qld Director, Capital Innovation Insurance Group, and Ron Bellert, Director, North Queensland Insurance Brokers, discussed the Northern Australia Cyclone reinsurance pool, which is speculated to come into effect on 1 July 2022.
It will take six months for insurers to build the reinsurance pool into their pricing model, Hill commented.
Bellert agreed and highlighted a further potential problem if the reinsurance pool, which is to cover home, strata and small business up to $5 million, isn’t finalised soon.
“If it’s not resolved, insurers will probably choose not to write that business – and that presents the biggest danger we face in North Queensland’’, added Bellert.
Sydney 21 February
A fantastic five days of insurance inspiration and insight came to a close on Monday, as NIBA’s hybrid 2021.2 NIBA Convention rounded off its five-state tour with another stellar event, this time taking place at the ICC Sydney.
The event was MCed by Andrew Klein and was focused firmly on the future, with the topic of personal advice versus general advice taking centre stage.
Legal expert Mark Radford, Principal Solicitor at Radford Lawyers, Tim Wedlock, Managing Director at AEI Broking Group and NIBA President, Dianne Phelan explored offering personal advice from every angle during their insightful panel discussion.
Mark Radford updated the audience on two major industry reviews that are currently or scheduled to take place this year. The Treasury Quality of Advice Review will consider a range of issues relating to the provision of financial advice (including insurance advice) to retail clients. As part of the review, existing exemptions to the ban on conflicted remuneration will also be placed under the microscope.
At the same time, the Australian Law Reform Commission will also review the existing legislative framework surrounding the provision of advice, with the aim to simplify the law. While this review will obviously impact brokers, Radford pinpointed the Quality of Advice Review as holding greater significance for brokers.
Further establishing insurance brokers as trusted advisors delivering personal advice – where it’s possible to do so – was highlighted by Dianne Phelan, NIBA President, as a key component of the NIBA Strategic Review to 2025.
“Customers expect us to be competent, professional, ethical, and people who act with high integrity and so, therefore, delivering personal advice is actually what most retail clients would expect – and what we prefer brokers to be delivering where it’s possible to do so” added Phelan.
Former NIBA President Tim Wedlock said that he was very proud that, when representing the profession to ASIC, there was no evidence of any systemic wrongdoing and highlighted the benefits of the QPIB (Qualified Professional Insurance Broker) nomination in further advancing the professionalism of the industry.
“The minimum standard of broking, tier one, is something that – as a broking community and working with industry leaders and the NIBA Board – we believe we should be exceeding”.
Chris ‘Boo’ Boucousis, one of only 400 trained fighter pilots in the country, and the creator of four successful startups delivered a memorable keynote – the theme of which was deep performance, a journey beyond high performance.
Boucousis highlighted a daily debriefing culture as one that can set businesses on the course of significant growth – but only if you first have a plan.
Bourcousis, who now works with businesses to help them improve said, “if you compound a 1% improvement every day over a year, and you work 225 days, that’s theoretically a 900% improvement”.
Significant change can be achieved by spending time every day analysing performance, giving feedback and taking positive criticism.
Towards the end of the session, NIBA CEO Phil Kewin thanked all of the speakers who have taken part in the five-day event, in addition to the NIBA Board and staff, and sponsors, for helping to bring the hybrid NIBA Conference to life.
“We always knew the broker community wanted an opportunity to get back together. We had to come back to some sort of normality at some stage, and that’s why I’m proud that we’ve been able to deliver an event that our members, sponsors and exhibitors have supported and deserve. The calibre of the speakers has been of the highest quality.”
Kewin also paid special thanks to former NIBA CEO Dallas Booth, who helped put the program together and has been a key presence throughout the five days.
Kewin also reinforced the opportunities for brokers and said that the new Code of Practice was “the cornerstone for our ongoing professionalism”.