IB Talk

[00:00:02] Daniel Wood: I can see the counter, so excellent.

[00:00:04] Jessica (Key Media): Yep, all good.

[00:00:06] Daniel Wood: Thanks, Jessica. Okay, off we go. Hello and welcome to IB Talk, where we’re looking at disruption across road and sea transport and what brokers can do about it. This episode is presented in partnership with NTI, Australia’s specialist transport and logistics insurance provider. Supply chains that once ran to a rhythm now shift on short notice. For brokers, the exposure isn’t necessarily in policy wordings. It can be in the question that never got asked at placement and the gap that only becomes visible when the claim lands. Joining us are Andrew Kidd, Chief Underwriting Officer at NTI, and Alicia Hill, the insurer’s Head of Platforms. Actually, sorry, I’m going to say that again because I’ve been specifically told to call you insurance providers. So I think I’ll say insurance providers, head of platforms, just to be safe. I’ll just give you 2 versions of that. Just, so just the last bit which they can cut in. My dog is growling. Sorry, hang on one second. Just hang on one second. I’m back. Okay. Joining us are Andrew Kidd, Chief Underwriting Officer at NTI, and Alicia Hill, the insurance provider’s Head of Platforms. Welcome to you both.

[00:01:37] Andrew Kidd: Thanks, Danny.

[00:01:37] Alisha Hill: Hi, Danny.

[00:01:40] Daniel Wood: Yeah, good to have you both on the show. Disruption is a word brokers hear a lot. What’s genuinely different about the risk environment underwriters are seeing in 2026 compared to, say, 2 or 3 years ago? Andrew, let’s kick off with you.

[00:01:56] Andrew Kidd: I think disruption is a word that the world has become more familiar with, particularly post-COVID, but certainly in the last few years. I think supply chains, both locally and globally, are subject to shocks that happen incredibly quickly now. So our underwriters are really becoming more aware about what a client’s full operation looks like. Who do they rely on? Who are their customers? And what are the shocks to those supply chains that the client could go through? I think more recently we’ve realized diesel impacts every part of our life as well, whether it’s a truck crossing the country, whether it’s an importation of goods from overseas, whether it’s the packaging that is developed from petrochemical components that come from the Middle East. All these things have all of a sudden become incredibly relevant from an underwriter’s perspective, and trying to piece that together to what a client’s risk profile looks like is becoming incredibly hard. Our own business, we rely on parts from around the world to keep trucks and plant and equipment, you know, operational. So we’re always ensuring what our own supply chain looks like. What the timeframes for replacement parts or engines look like, hedging of currencies, things that I think, you know, maybe 5 years ago were foreign to insurers is now absolutely front and center for us. And that just makes underwriters more aware of the impact on our customers. So I think it’s more dynamic than it was years ago, but small, you know, small changes in other parts of the world we’re realizing can have big effects And Alicia, how about you?

[00:03:43] Daniel Wood: How do you see the risk environment in 2026?

[00:03:46] Alisha Hill: Yeah, look, I think it’s certainly much more complex than it was 3 or 4 years ago, and not just because of the risk aspects that Andrew has touched on, but also because underwriters and insurance providers are also thinking about disruption within the risk environment, to Andrew’s point, but also within their own businesses. And so you’re trying to weigh up all of the disruption that AI workflows are going to bring to the table. are providing to us automation. The workflow management styles are different these days, and also what underwriters are expecting from workplaces and their customers’ buying behavior. There’s just so many more things to think about, I think, from an underwriter’s point of view and from an insurance provider’s point of view as well. It’s, it’s a whole new world, I think, than what we were seeing maybe at least 5 years ago.

[00:04:38] Daniel Wood: Let’s have a second question about this whole new world. And Alicia, let’s stick with you. NTI’s position is to support brokers so they can position themselves as experts in the customer’s eyes. Where do you see brokers currently falling short?

[00:04:54] Alisha Hill: Yeah, to be quite fair, we don’t really see them as falling short. The way we see brokers and their relationships with their customers is that they’re strong. They have strong relationships, and we believe that they’ll continue to be strong. strong relationships. Their customers are loyal where they have those good support systems around them from the broker. And the way that we see NTI in being involved in that relationship is, like you said, helping them and providing them with information so that they can continue to be a specialist and an information provider to their customers. So what we do is we make sure that we understand our industries really, really well. We’ve embedded that into our business practices. We are on boards and associations, and we look at the safety of our industries, and we just try and stay as connected as possible. And then we give that information to the broker to make sure that they are positioning themselves as the experts in the customer’s eyes. It’s all about being able to provide the broker with the support they need and the information that they need to be the person that the customer wants to turn to.

[00:06:07] Daniel Wood: And Andrew, how do you see things? Would you agree with Alicia’s, I guess, refashioning of the question? It’s not really about the brokers falling short.

[00:06:15] Andrew Kidd: I think throughout my career I’ve always been amazed at the breadth of expertise that brokers have. I’ve been fortunate to be in specialist lines my whole career, so my expertise has been quite niche. And I think from an MTI perspective, that’s where our niche industry knowledge, association, and expertise can complement that broad expertise that brokers have across their customers, across the market, and across risk. And I think that’s how both ourselves and the brokers position ourselves as experts, is it’s the complementing of expertise rather than one falling short. I think that’s where we really see the great outcomes happen is when those partnerships do come together.

[00:07:06] Daniel Wood: So I think we can all agree brokers generally do a good job, but when, when a broker does get it wrong, what does that look like in practice at your end? Can you walk us through a type of claim or dispute that traces back to a conversation that didn’t happen and probably should have happened at placement? Andrew, I think we will start with you here again.

[00:07:29] Andrew Kidd: I think rather than placement, I think where we see a key difference is in early involvement of the insurer where there is a loss. That’s when the differences can all happen so much more smoothly and the customer gets a better outcome. So involving the insurer as soon as a claim occurs, that’s when the outcome Looks far more positive than when we get involved later on in the equation, because usually other things have happened that have been out of people’s controls and for the right or wrong reasons. So it just smooths that process down. So I think, you know, if you go back to placement, I think the discussion that brokers should be having is making the customers aware that early notification of loss is key, because that’s the proof point where we all, you know, come together and give the customer what their expectations are. So that early notification is key to all that happening the way it should to give the customer the outcome that they expect.

[00:08:29] Daniel Wood: And Alicia, is there an example you can walk us through?

[00:08:33] Alisha Hill: Well, like Andrew, I do think that the involvement of the insurer at the first point is probably the most important for getting it right. But also, we Do try and make it as simple as possible to get it right at placement. So we do things like making our platforms really simple to use so that when the broker goes in to purchase a product, the questions are easy. They know what information they will need from their client. We know that they understand their clients. And so we just try to gather that information in the easiest way possible. And then we can make risk decisions based on what they’ve told us. And we can explore further if we need to, to try and, you know, minimise any gaps or any gaps in cover. And we do the same thing with our policy wordings. We try and make sure that they— we give broad cover because we are a specialist insurer. So for our specialisations, the COVID is broad. We have package policies that are designed so that there are very limited gaps in cover. So if you’re going to take a commercial motor and a liability policy, those 2 work together and we don’t see a lot of gaps in cover that we need to deal with when it does come to claim time.

[00:09:46] Daniel Wood: You’ve both got a lot of experience in this area. Andrew, you joined NTI in 2017 as its first Head of Marine, and you’ve chaired the Insurance Council of Australia’s Marine Working Group. You’ve also sat on the International Union of Marine Insurance Cargo Technical Committee. In the marine area, wordings do tend to move pretty slowly. When shipping patterns change as sharply as they have around the Strait of Hormuz, How far behind does the wording sit, and whose job is it to close that gap?

[00:10:20] Andrew Kidd: It’s an interesting question you raise there, Danny. I think marine wordings, by their nature, while the policy might be sold to someone in Australia who exports something, the buyer who might be in another part of the world that speaks another language needs to actually understand that wording, as do the financiers that are involved, as do the shipping companies that may be involved. So the marine wordings by nature are globally standard and globally accepted. The good thing is, is that they have been tested over time and they are refined over time. So when things such as we’re seeing in the Strait of Hormuz at the moment, the wordings have the ability to adapt to those changes that happen quite quickly. Things like deviation of shipments, which is probably the major impact we saw for Australian importers and exporters. The NTI wording straight away allowed for that deviation, that a ship may have been heading to a certain port in the area and deviated mid-voyage to go somewhere that was a safer harbour. The policies cover that voyage change without brokers needing to advise us of that. So I think the wordings will react the way they work, and brokers don’t need to be concerned about closing a gap. I think what this raises is a bigger challenge for brokers is being aware of clients. Again, those supply chains— where are clients importing or exporting from? And when things like the Strait of Hormuz happen, are they likely to be impacted in those areas? And then having those early conversations with underwriters So underwriters can be aware of the policy structure and make sure it is fit for purpose. I think the positive, if there is a positive out of all this for Australia, is we don’t trade an awful lot into the Strait of Hormuz. We rely on goods coming out of there, definitely, but our direct trade is not so prevalent in that area. So there hasn’t been gaps to close, but I think the wordings have stood the test of time and reacted the way that kept clients covered, and so there wasn’t gaps for brokers to close.

[00:12:36] Daniel Wood: Alicia, let’s turn to you a bit more closely. You’ve had 15+ years at NTI and you’ve taken new products from policy wordings all the way through to integration and launch. What are some of the ingredients that make a good product or platform for a broker?

[00:12:52] Alisha Hill: Yeah, I have done this 4 times now with 4 different NTI products, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. But the one word that comes to mind is simplicity. Simplicity in all of the pieces. So generally, when you’re thinking about a new product, you start with the policy wording, you think about the pricing of that product. The pricing is really important because it leads to what questions do you ask, and then you start to think about the platform. And so all of those key ingredients at their core They need to be as simple as they possibly can be. And they also need to provide a frictionless experience with the broker. You know, on the policy wording side, we want to make sure we’ve got the broadest coverage. We want to make sure that we’re hitting all the areas that our customers require. For pricing and acceptance, the platform needs to ask some questions. But how do we ask those questions in a way that is easy for the broker to understand, that generates more questions within the platform if we need more questions? Sometimes if we have a high risk presented to us, we’re going to need to ask, you know, 3 or 4 more questions, but we don’t need to ask all of those questions upfront. As we work through the question set, we’ve designed it so that you ask one question, and then if there’s more that we need to know, then we’ll ask another question. But if we don’t need to know any more because what you’ve presented to us is perfectly acceptable, then we just don’t ask those. And the other things we’ve been trying to do is pull through third-party data where we can, so less questions for brokers. Just trying to make the whole experience as quick as possible so that they can purchase insurance with us or understand the COVID that they’re getting. Having those plain language help features and a service experience from our underwriters as well, where they’ve given us all the information that we require and we can make a decision either instantly or go back and have a think about it and come back to the broker in a very quick manner. So in my experience, everything in simplicity, just build that in and try and aim for a frictionless experience with the broker and you should be able to get what you need out of a platform and the broker should have a good experience with it as well.

[00:15:08] Daniel Wood: Well, let’s take that simplicity advice. And for our final question, if each of you could put one question into every broker’s client conversation, the next one they have, what would it be and what information is it aiming to get back? Andrew, let’s start with you.

[00:15:25] Andrew Kidd: I think if I think about our customer base, they’re busy trucking, shipping, and digging. And I think all of our customers are always focused on their business and not considering that they need to tell their broker that something’s changed necessarily. So I think rather than a question, I think I hear great experience from brokers who just simply go and walk a client’s yard. Have they bought a new piece of mobile plant and equipment? Have they bought trucks that the broker doesn’t know about? Is there things that need to be added to schedules at renewal? Is the client importing or exporting a different type of commodity to a different country? Has their shipping changed? It’s— I think it comes back to that. What’s changed through the year that the customer just didn’t think to tell their insurer about? How the broker uncovers that, whether it’s walking the yard, Talking to the customer over a cup of coffee where they can relax and not just try and get a declaration completed, but that’s where the better outcomes come from at renewal time, is, is what’s changed to make sure there’s no gaps.

[00:16:30] Daniel Wood: Alicia, what about you? Is there a question you think every broker should be asking at their next conversation with the client?

[00:16:37] Alisha Hill: Well, on top of what Andrew has said, because that would probably be my first answer, but the other thing for our specialty area, heavy trucks is probably where my head goes. And you know that when you have an accident in a heavy truck, it can be quite large, quite traumatic. So I think brokers, I think a good question would be, what do you need at claims time? Who do I need to call? How do we know that we’re going to make this the most seamless experience for you? Because you’ve just had something that’s going to put pressure on your business. There may be trauma involved. There’s a lot of different things to consider. And so if NTI can understand what needs to happen at claim time, I think that that is just going to be— it’s going to enable NTI to do the absolute best we can in that claim situation and make sure that everybody knows where they need to be and everybody knows what needs to happen. So I think proof is in the pudding for claims from an insurance point of view.

[00:17:39] Daniel Wood: Thank you, Alicia. And Alicia Hill is NTI’s Head of Platforms. Also thanks to Chief Underwriting Officer Andrew Kidd. They were looking at disruption across road and sea transport and what brokers can do about it. Thanks for listening to IB Talk. Bye for now. Great. Thanks very much, both of you. That was— I felt that was very good. But yeah, that was great. Happy to redo anything you were worried about.

[00:18:08] Andrew Kidd: I was okay with it. Alicia, how did you think?

[00:18:11] Alisha Hill: Yep, I’m fine with it. I’m glad it’s over.

[00:18:16] Jessica (Key Media): Sounded great, Alicia. You sounded great.

[00:18:19] Daniel Wood: Possibly nervous. Yeah, no, it was all very good. Well, look, thanks everyone. I’ll let you get back to more serious matters. And thanks, Marilen and Jessica. And yeah, see you all around the traps and we’ll get a draft of this back to you, I imagine, in about a week. I think that’s usually about the timeline, but Does that sound right, Marilen?

[00:18:41] Jessica (Key Media): Yes, definitely. It’ll be on top of our list. And just for Jessica, we can go ahead and stop the recording just so we can get a clean cut. And for Andrew and Alicia, just sharing with you that after this podcast,

[Recording ends]