Delta Insurance Australia has appointed Jane Mason (pictured) as head of underwriting, managing director Hamish MacLean announced on LinkedIn this week.
Mason joins from Probitas 1492, the Lloyd's syndicate's Australian service company, where she has served as head of commercial business since September 2025, having previously served as underwriting manager for financial lines there from September 2024. Probitas 1492 in Australia underwrites financial lines, including professional indemnity and cyber, through its Pacific service company.
Before Probitas, Mason spent more than four years at BizCover, rising from head of product, Channels & Risk to head of intermediated business between 2020 and 2024, according to her LinkedIn profile. She was a senior underwriter in AXA XL's financial lines team from 2019 to 2020, specialising in professional indemnity and cyber.
Her insurance career includes an unusual interlude: for almost eight years, from 2012 to 2019, Mason founded and ran Mason & Co Chocolate, a bean-to-bar chocolate company and organic farmer cooperative based in Auroville, India. She returned to underwriting at AXA XL in 2019.
The appointment follows MacLean's arrival as managing director in February, when he was tasked with leading the build-out of Delta's Australian portfolio, with an emphasis on SME specialty lines distributed through intermediaries. Delta listed its cyber and management liability products on Ebix Australia's Sunrise Exchange in June, and introduced a new Australian claims lead in July, according to the company.
Mason takes the underwriting role as Australia's professional indemnity market continues to soften, with expanding local and Lloyd's capacity supporting flat to modestly lower rates for in-appetite professions, according to EBM Insurance & Risk. Claims-free firms can still secure premium reductions of around 5% to 10% into the second half of 2026, although the pace of declines has moderated since the start of the year. Increased underwriting capacity has intensified competition among insurers.
Announcing Mason's arrival, MacLean said: “With Jane's underwriting leadership, we will continue to work closely with our broker partners, strengthening our relationships with brokers to deliver better outcomes for the clients we serve together. With Jane's wealth of knowledge and experience we know she will be instrumental in Delta's ongoing growth in Australia.”
Delta Insurance Group, headquartered in Auckland, holds an AM Best PA-2 (Excellent) Performance Assessment, reaffirmed with a stable outlook in late 2025.
