Arch UK’s Product Liability Insurance – Stuart Danskin, Director of Underwriting Transcript

Hello, my name is Jonathan Swift. I’m delighted to welcome you to this latest insurance age video, which is part of a series highlighting Archie’s expertise in specialist lines, specifically product liability. Now for episode two, I’m delighted to welcome to the studio Stuart Danskin, the director of underwriting at Arch UK. Hello Stuart.

Hello Jonathan.

So Stuart can you start off by outlining the opportunities for UK regional brokers in selling product liability and how Arch UK can help them grow in this class of business?

Absolutely, I think the main thing is the world has changed. When I first started underwriting I remember looking up safes an awful lot to see how much money they could stock. And of course, we don’t have money really in that way anymore. And in the same way, the economy in the UK has changed completely as well. There’s a lot more investment in science and technology and medical.

And all the businesses have had to adapt to that. They’re now making parts and pieces for all of those industries and some of that’s really complex.

No longer are we just a company or a country making nuts and bolts, it’s dangerous stuff. So actually in Arch we’ve got a huge background as a global company in products liability and we really welcome it and we’ve got branches across the country with fully experienced underwriters who are there to listen to the customers out there.

Stuart, what do you describe as Arch UK’s sweet spot in terms of premium size and risk profile here?

I don’t think so much about premium size, I mean we can write as little or as big as we need to and a lot of these companies do start ups so they need help in that way. I think I’ve always said the sweet spot is really about risks that we need to discuss. So I’ve always had this, I like to be broke, like people to talk to me about a risk. And all of my underwriters are exactly the same.

We can always go gunning for those simple risks that are out of the packet and are the same as every other risk out there, but actually what we really like as a sweet spot is the one where the broker is scratching his head a little bit and actually they need to pick up the phone, they need talk to someone who can work with them and understand it. That’s our sweet spot.

And what challenges do you see this specialist business facing and how can Arch help them?

I think the biggest challenges that companies have got now is how quickly it’s all changing. So we’ve gone from selling things in the UK and Europe to now just even small businesses are transacting globally now. Now that has pressure from the amount of US exports, which a lot of companies shy away from. We don’t at Arch, in fact we welcome, we want US exports.

But there’s supply chains and everything else that goes with it. There’s a lot of stuff that just changes very quickly. Even the insurers themselves, I mean, the pace of technology and advancement now means they could write a risk with, or place a risk with us this year, next year they might be making a very different product. The year after that they’ve diversified into something else. They need an underwriter that can actually work them that process.

Sure, finally, how can Arch UK assist brokers who have prospective product liability clients?

Well, think the main thing is we’re here. So we’ve got nine branches across the UK, we’ve got a huge amount of expertise across the UK and our underwriters, and we want to listen. So we encourage people to pick up the phone, talk to the underwriters and work with us. But we’ve also got that backed up with surveyors who are also very product led. They understand these products, they can talk to clients and really help them. I think the last thing we have what we call the arch arm, arch risk management.

These people are busy. Want to get their products right. We had a great example of essentially a bulletproof vest. They want to make sure bullets don’t go through it.

We can actually help them deal with all the other things. Have they got their risk assessments in place, their training in place? We can help them with that so that they can just focus on their business. That’s how we can help brokers helping their clients.

Well Stuart, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much.