Podcast with outgoing NIBA CEO, Dallas Booth
Mark Silveira of Business Made Personal, a podcast series for insurance professionals, speaks to Dallas about his time prior to NIBA working with the government on serious personal injury compensation and how that work assisted in the creation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). His self-admitted interest in shaping the law and the process to achieve good outcomes for the community has made his work professionally rewarding and he outlines the huge challenges he faced as part of the legal team charged with obtaining compensation for asbestos disease (mesothelioma) victims and his delight in obtaining over $70 million for Australian victims.
The podcast also highlights Dallas’ view on insurance brokers now and what he sees as the future of broking. He comments that clients with good brokers are ‘rusted on’ to their brokers, but governments generally don’t have a good understanding of insurance brokers and brokers’ commercial value to businesses. The relationship between the broker and the client is a very personal relationship and will remain crucial regardless of technological advancements. He warns that brokers focusing on transaction processing will be forced to reinvent themselves, particularly as he believes Blockchain will play a big part in the simplification of transactional processes in the next five to ten years.
He shares his view on ‘risk’ and its catastrophic impact when it goes wrong, specifically talking about climate change and cyber risk as to the ‘new’ concerns not just for Australia but also globally.
Dallas then turns his attention to NIBA, and its focus on clients – more specifically in the areas of legislation and proposals to make sure insurance operates in the interest of clients. He highlights the requirements of indigenous communities, leisure and amusement industries and other niche client communities that may have gone unnoticed had it not been for NIBA and its broker members.
Looking back on his tenure at NIBA, he recalls that each and every year since joining NIBA, there has been at least one major event such as the Royal Commission, in which brokers have been within scope. Interestingly he points out, brokers have rarely, if ever, contributed to the failure of public policy in financial services. As an example, he reflects those brokers who came through the Royal Commission with a high level of respect because there was no evidence of systemic poor client outcomes, but he cautions, brokers cannot take that for granted. He urges all brokers to put their clients’ needs first and foremost and to act with ethics and integrity.
The podcast is accessible at www.bmppodcast.com.au