Veracity - September 2017 edition

By  Vero Insurance 01 September 2017

Vero joins BOQ in support of the Children’s Hospital Foundation with a $45,750 Donation

Vero recently teamed with the Bank of Queensland (BOQ) to raise funds for the Children’s Hospital Foundation. Hospital CEO Rosie Simpson told the assembled crowd how the funds are used to purchase medical equipment and special facilities for children in hospital including reading nooks and play areas – an important component of healing for kids.

Handing over the cheque for $45,750, BOQ chief John Sutton said the campaign was a favourite with the Bank and specifically called out Vero for being a strong supporter. A $100 donation was made on every Vero Home & Contents and $50 for every Motor policy sold through the BOQ network in July. Ongoing support will be provided through Vero’s volunteer day initiative.

Adam Ware announced Warren Tickle Award winner at NIBA

Australia’s leading young professional broker was awarded the prestigious Warren Tickle Memorial Award at the NIBA Conference, staged at Sydney’s International Convention Centre.

Adam Ware from BJS Insurance Brokers in Gippsland, Victoria won this prestigious, Vero-sponsored award over four other state finalists: Stephen Allan, from GSA Insurance Brokers; Stacey Lloyd, from Marsh; Jamie Rigoli, from JLT and Mitchell Sleigh, from Arthur J Gallagher. Find out more about the finalists and their views on the future of the industry by watching this video.

Congratulating Adam on his win, Sam Sanfilippo, Head of International Intermediaries, Vero said: “Brokers like Adam are the reason Vero has been proud to support the Warren Tickle Memorial Award for 27 consecutive years. Adam is a future leader of the broking profession, and we are delighted to support and nurture the next generation.”

Adam will soon be on an exciting trip to London as part of this year’s prize. All finalists demonstrated their commitment to professional development, industry high standards and excellence, making it very difficult for the judges to choose the winner. Well done to all!

As a Principal partner Vero had a strong presence throughout the Convention including two sell out sessions relating to the Hardening Market. David Hoffman, Vero’s Head of Corporate & Risk Managed Underwriting shared some insights as to why the market is transitioning and Beverley Bradley Distribution Partners Manager provided tips and tools so brokers could sharpen their questioning technique and have more confidence to tackle difficult conversations.

Vero’s ‘photo finish’ in the Gold Mansfield Awards for claims handling

Vero figured in a closely fought final contest in the inaugural Gold Mansfield Award for excellence in claims-handling. Finalists across a range of categories were measured using a system devised by claims specialist LMI Group.

The system rated claims performance using both official data and user surveys. The results were also weighted to cater for the range of policies available from individual insurers as well as the speed of service, proactivity, accuracy and fairness.

Vero fought out the final with two other major players – a ‘photo-finish’ result seeing Vero pipped at the post, finishing in second place in the Gold Mansfield Award.

Find out more

Suncorp’s 2016 – 2017 results reflect market buoyancy

Suncorp recently released their results for the 2016 - 2017 financial year. While the year featured a number of natural disasters, the overall figures are positive and indicate a return to relative buoyancy in the market place.

Highlights include:

  • Top-line growth of 3.6%
  • Group Nett Profit After Tax is $1.075m, up 3.6%
  • Underlying Insurance Trading Result back to 12%
  • Outlook: Suncorp’s Business is well positioned. There is some headwind from increased natural hazard allowance, however long term outlook strong.

Find out more on Suncorp’s results

SME Index reveals broker opportunities in fourth release

The fourth release from Vero’s SME Insurance Index has identified some very actionable opportunities for brokers – including strategies to help convince direct buyers to consider using a broker.

The research study of 1500 SME owners and decision makers across Australia revealed that 61% consider that advice beyond business insurance was important to them. Personal insurance, life insurance and other financial products are all of interest to these SMEs. The concept of bundling these products appealed to a great number of those surveyed and they looked to their brokers for advice and information.

This was also revealed as a great opportunity for brokers to reinforce their position with direct buyers – 49% of them stating that they were interested in gaining broker advice beyond business insurance. 42% of direct buyers expressed interest in bundling their business insurance with other products including personal insurance and other financial products.

For more detail on the fourth release of the SME Insurance Index, please contact your BDM or you can download the report.

Could this be the ‘Good Book’?

The Insurance Website Marketing Bible is available as a free download and contains tips on social media use, lead generation, making sure your brokerage looks good and building trust with prospects before they even talk to you.

Written by US-based author John Carroll, this ‘bible’ has a strong bias towards online marketing and could be a real help in building your knowledge of this essential and dynamic medium. Check it out at insurancewebsitebible.com.

Staring at the ceiling at 3am? Why are small business owners losing sleep?

By Brad Dalton, Head of Commercial and Consumer Underwriting at Suncorp

Anyone who runs their own business will be familiar with the disturbing fact that from time to time, your sleep will be interrupted. Staring at the ceiling at 3:00 am is rarely a pleasant experience, especially as the night time darkness always seems to emphasise the severity of our problems while robbing us of possible solutions.

Vero’s research reveals that while a significant percentage of small to medium business owners (SMEs) worry that a catastrophe might interrupt their ability to trade, a much smaller number are covered against such an eventuality. Over 30% of SMEs are concerned about a disaster robbing them of their revenue stream for an extended period while a similar percentage fear equipment failures could negatively impact their business.

Yet 80% of these business owners say they are not covered for either of these insurable events. How can so many people rationalise their failure to protect themselves against acknowledged fears?

There are several possible – if not credible – explanations for this. Something inside us tells us that disasters only ever happen to other people. Everyone fears a plane crash, but that doesn’t stop them flying. Others dread visiting the dentist, but a severe tooth ache can rapidly change their minds.

Psychologists have spent some time studying this human ability to separate emotions like fear from the rational response to it. As Harvard University psychology consultant David Ropeik puts it, “the fears don’t match the facts”. He explains that our reactions to risks are instant while it takes more time for us to form our rational responses.

The ‘fight or flight’ centre of the brain – the Amygdala – reacts immediately to a threat. It then sends messages to the pre-frontal cortex where cognitive responses are formed. The reasoning brain can then say ‘now we know what the threat is, let’s work out what we should do about it.’ In other words, our brains are hard wired to fear instantly (causing us to stare at the ceiling in the middle of the night) and think later (motivating us to act).

Unfortunately, there is another cause for failing to cover insurable risks. A perception that the cost of insuring against a business catastrophe can be a prohibitive barrier. Once again, when the logical brain takes over, it will tell you that compared to the ultimate price of going out of business, the premiums seem very reasonable indeed.

A case in point is the subject of a video case study on a fire that severely impacted a workshop in Victoria. The business owner was horrified to discover that the business couldn’t continue to run until a complete rebuild was completed.

His broker had included Vero business interruption insurance in his package. An immediate payment was made to him and he was trading from rented premises nearby within two weeks. Today, the business is back up and running in its rebuilt premises.

The lessons from this sobering tale could help all SMEs sleep better at night.

Vero releases Contingency Planning Tool

To support the release of the Vero SME Index Issue 4, Vero has developed a Contingency Planning Tool for brokers to help their SME clients prepare better for the unexpected.

The tool provides information on each of the risks SMEs could face and is aimed at assisting brokers to demonstrate the value and service they can provide as a risk advisor. This follows a finding in the 2017 Vero SME Insurance Index that suggests many small business owners want to feel they have better control of their businesses.

Brokers who register will receive a link to the survey which they can then send to their clients to complete. 

Register for the tool

Vero awards first of three $10,000 Business Grants

Bushland Bees has been announced as the winner of the first of three $10,000 business grants Vero is giving away as part of our latest Business Success advertising campaign.

Bushland Bees impressed our panel of judges with their ‘out of the box’ idea for mobile honey extraction

The winner was understandably very excited about her win and advised that the grant will go towards the purchase of some new harvesting equipment. You can read more about her story. Vero is giving away two more $10,000 grants over September and October - to find out more go to Business Success Hub.

SME Packages on VeroEdge Update

Investment continues in the VeroEdge platform with the soon to be launched motor registration search capability, as well as improved user experience enhancements and underwritten workers compensation renewals.

Continued enhancements continue to be implemented to SME Packages on VeroEdge with improved system speed, phone number and postal address capture requirements as well as the rectification of broader data format issues and easier functionality to bind and complete a quote.

We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve the higher than expected quote volumes and resulting turnaround times as our top priority.

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