This article was produced in partnership with Solution Underwriting Agency
Over the last year, Solution Underwriting co-founder and director Anita Lane has completed an MBA, established two governance committees, created a workshop to give brokerages insight into the Lloyd’s of London market, and established a buddy program for senior underwriters to mentor less experienced underwriters.
She has also established a graduate program at Solution, introduced annual volunteer days, lifted the number of women in the firm’s leadership team to over 60% and, together with her team, rolled out a major rebrand of the specialist underwriting agency.
It’s not surprising that she is an Insurance Business Elite Women winner for 2024, an award that she has snagged an astounding five times now.
Lane is a familiar face on panels for industry groups such as National Insurance Brokers Association of Australia (NIBA), Young Insurance Professionals (YIPs) or Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF), a regular contributor to industry news outlets and mentor to an impressive list of industry leaders.
She not only leads other leaders in the industry but is also passionate about teaching skills to newcomers to the industry.
“One of the things I enjoy most about my work is developing underwriters and staff at Solution to ensure that they are educated, challenged and growing in their roles and careers,” she said.
Mentoring women and young people, both staff and externally, on matters such as people management issues, internal culture, conflict resolution, or planning and time management are other key drivers for Lane.
Despite this impressive commitment to her job, work is just one quarter of the mental framework that Lane uses to keep a balance in her life.
Also being a mother (as well as a sister, a daughter and friend of many), she often gets asked what her secret is – a question she struggled to answer until she came across the Four Burners Theory.
“Imagine it this way, your life is represented by a stove with four burners. Each burner represents a major quadrant of your life,” she explained.
“Burner one represents your family. Burner two is your friends. Burner three is your health. Burner four is your work.”
The idea behind the theory is that to achieve success, only three of the four burners can be on at one time, and that to be very successful, only two can be on.
Initially, Lane questioned why some burners needed to be cut off to find success. Health, for example, is one that most people would be reluctant to omit and, with Lane’s commitment to work, family and friends would need to be put aside in a rigid interpretation.
“I wondered why do I have to turn them OFF? Can I not just turn them down?”
This insight led to a breakthrough for Lane, and she has never looked back.
“It occurred to me that it’s all about trade-offs. I have to be prepared to trade some of my burners for others, but I get to choose which burners I have on high and which I can turn down.”
Each burner involves decisions, choices and sacrifice as life rarely allows people to keep all four burners going at once. While Lane may have to dial down on one portion of her life for a time, the trade-off is that she can maximise another in the interim.
For the upcoming year, Lane has a lot on her work burner plate – from navigating tough markets to introducing some of the tech advances that are reshaping the insurance industry worldwide.
Solution underwrites for financial lines, general liability and accident and health, complex areas that are being buffeted by economic headwinds in some sectors.
“Underwriting remains challenging with global issues that affect the economic landscape for insurers. The professional indemnity (PI) market is flattening with rates slowing or plateauing in Australia,” she said.
Finity analysis estimates that PI was one of only two classes of insurance to experience negative gross written premium growth in Australia in FY23. Many insurers are generating strong profit margin buffers to withstand future claims and reinsurance expense exposure, making specialist knowledge of these markets even more valuable.
Lane understands that trying to fight the market is not an option and a strong understanding of the risk being underwritten is even more important in such an environment.
“We’ve met these challenges by enhancing our service offering with improved technology, enhanced communications, education and events, and an emphasis on fostering our existing broker relationships whilst sustainably expanding our network.”
Looking ahead, she plans to focus on ramping up capacity at Solution’s newer Queensland and Western Australia offices in 2024. She will also continue contributing to broker development via professional product and risk education as well as build on technological innovation and efficiencies.
“This will allow our underwriters to focus on risk and relationships.”
And when she isn’t thinking about work, Lane may just be able to turn up the burners for some of the other areas in her very full schedule.
“I am comforted by the idea that we can do many things in a lifetime, but not all at the same time,” she said.
Solution Underwriting is a thriving and innovative agency committed to fostering a positive and diverse culture, service-driven attitude, and genuine relationships within the insurance industry. Solution prides itself on its flexibility and pace, tailored quality coverage and first-class local and London security. It provides a range of financial lines, general liability and accident and health products to brokers nationally, and with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth and over 50 employees, Solution has positioned itself as a leader in the SME space.
