Earlier this month, ABICO Insurance Brokers acquired the Western Sydney general insurance brokerage, Ausure Macarthur. Both firms are part of the Ausure network of authorized representatives (ARs). Ausure is one of Australia’s largest insurance broking companies with more than 330 ARs and more than 100 offices nationally.
“The ABICO Insurance Brokers acquisition of Ausure Macarthur is an excellent example of how Ausure can assist authorised representatives with succession planning as well as provide acquisition opportunities for other ARs within the Ausure network,” said Steve Sloan (pictured above), Ausure’s general manager of digital and communications.
Sloan said deals like this within the network are often a direct result of the relationships between the senior executives and the principals.
“So we tend to hear the early whispers of someone wanting a change or someone looking to grow and where possible we facilitate that - especially if there’s some local connections or some complementary businesses,” he said.
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That facilitation process, said Sloan, could be as simple as an introductory lunch between the CEOs or managing directors.
“Or it might be a little more complex with the CFO having a look through the numbers and assisting with agreements and talking through previous deals to use those as a good metric,” he said.
Sloan described these network changes as part of the lifecycle of a brokerage, and they are quite a regular event.
“From memory, Troy Brown, our managing director, has been involved in about 50 of these since 2012,” he said.
In 2012, Sloan himself founded Insure247, an insurance comparison and advice website on the Ausure network in both Australia and New Zealand. The website is now run by his son Adam and, said Sloan, plays an important role bringing new customers into the network.
“It’s part of a bigger group that internally we call blended broking. Insure247 is still really important for bringing on new clients into the Ausure network and that’s done digitally,” said Sloan.
He explained that once the customer is onboarded Ausure can decide what level of service is best and, if necessary, move the customer to senior brokers who specialize in handling more complex risks.
“It helps us to compete with the direct insurers by giving the client a similar customer experience to begin with but then, once they’re onboarded as a customer, we take our Code requirements seriously, so they’re offered full advice and full risk assessment,” said Sloan.
He said in terms of digital offerings in the insurance world much has changed in just a few short years.
“When we launched in New Zealand about three and a half years ago, we went to the insurers,” he explained. “We said to them we were keen on some interconnectivity around quoting and speeding up the processes around the transactions and paperwork. They looked at us like we’d just landed from Mars,” he said.
However, on a recent trip to New Zealand it was clear the insurers and underwriters had joined the Martians.
“There were insurers and underwriting agencies queued up with their suggestions as to how our API and connectivity for digital could be improved - which is fantastic!” said Sloan.
The Ausure general manager sees this change as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think it’s expedited a lot of insurers, underwriting agencies, claims services and brokerages by pushing them more to find quicker digital solutions to solve all those common problems that we all have: shortage of staff, extra paperwork and a lot of wasted energy,” he said.
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Ausure was established in 1996 with founding offices in NSW, Victoria and the ACT. The brokerage firm acts as the licensee for its AR group. Apart from being one of Australia’s largest insurance broking companies , Ausure is also a network within a network as part of Steadfast.
“We’re 50% owned by Steadfast so we take our lead a little bit from them,” said Sloan. “We distribute Steadfast’s branded products as part of that Steadfast network.”
ABICO was established in 1981 and operates out of Wollongong and Oran Park in NSW. According to a media release about the acquisition of Ausure Macarthur, the firm was looking to expand and the owner of Ausure Macarthur was seeking to leave the insurance industry “and explore other opportunities.”
