The Underwriting Agencies Council (UAC) Sydney Market Exchange saw hundreds of brokers weaving through a sea of stands, hopping between quick-fire meetings and deeper technical conversations across more than 170 agency desks. Organisers pointed to the strongest agency turnout the event has ever hosted.
UAC chair Mike Edmonds (pictured right) — there in what he called his “UAC office” for the day — said the scale of the gathering is a signal of how far the agency sector has come and how central it has become to the broking ecosystem. “It would be our biggest one on record, I would think,” he said.
Behind that headline number, he suggested that two forces are moving at once: continued growth in specialist capacity and the early shape of consolidation as agencies mature and the market sorts winners from also-rans.
For brokers, the issues they are here to help solve are familiar: a soft market that’s keeping pricing sharp, while household and business budgets are under strain. But on the floor at this Sydney event, the more urgent subtext could be what softness does to behaviour and how it changes conversations, expectations and the pressure to justify product choices when premiums look attractive but risks are not standing still.
Edmonds’ message to brokers was practical: in a price-competitive market, the easiest mistake is to let price drown out coverage and clarity. He framed it from the broker’s perspective because the reputational and client consequences land there first.
“I think number one is you’ve got to get the understanding of the value of your product and the cover you’re actually providing for their clients, because the worst thing that can happen in a broker’s sense is if one of their clients suddenly isn’t covered for something," he said.
That theme of value before headline price ran through many conversations as brokers moved between specialists who were pitching not just rates, but problem-solving: niche appetite, bespoke wordings and claims capability matched to specific industries. Edmonds argued that specialist agencies can sometimes be less exposed to pure price-driven churn than broad-market products, precisely because clients and brokers tend to understand what those specialist covers are doing. The soft market still bites, he said, but agencies that manage their businesses tightly can ride it out.
Deputy chair Colin Fagen (pictured left), a long-cycle observer of the market, took the same proposition and widened it: brokers have more choice than ever, but the winning move isn’t simply switching for a cheaper line.
“It is not always just pricing," he said. In his view, agencies’ competitive edge in this cycle comes from the combination of specialist expertise, speed and the ability to have a direct conversation when a risk doesn’t fit a template. Major insurers, he suggested, have stepped back from some bespoke terrain because it is operationally inefficient at scale, leaving underwriting agencies to fill that gap, particularly where risks need tailored solutions and real-time decisions.
Fagen’s broader caution was behavioural: soft markets tempt buyers to treat insurance like a commodity, even though the pain of that approach is usually delayed until a claim or a dispute over coverage. That is why, he said, brokers should keep interrogating claims service and product strength, not just the initial premium outcome, especially while clients are feeling cost-of-living pressure and demanding visible savings.
One big question at the Exchange is how long the market can stay soft and what could trigger a turn.
“Unfortunately, I think it probably will stay around for a little while," he said.
He pointed to the tension that every underwriter and broker on the floor is now managing: input costs are moving in the wrong direction for a market built on cheap renewal outcomes. “Costs of repair are going up, costs of labour are going up, and there’s no mistaking that," said Edmonds.
That cost pressure, Edmonds suggested, is the gravity beneath the market’s current pricing. Capacity might be ample, but no capacity provider can ignore claims inflation forever. Agencies, he said, have to stay disciplined on profitability because that is ultimately what sustains appetite and keeps capacity committed through the cycle.
Fagen put a timeframe on the soft phase and suggested brokers should be wary of the habits and expectations it could instill in clients when premiums must inevitably swing up again.
“I think this market may stay soft for another year or two, is my personal read on it,” he said, tying that outlook to fundamentals he does not yet see shifting decisively. He also flagged challenges impacting the insurance market: interest rates rising in Australia and recruitment challenges.
But Fagen’s sharpest warning was about what happens at the end of the cycle when the market tries to correct quickly and the public reaction turns hostile. “You prefer smooth transitions at both stages of the cycle, going down and going up, not step jumps in average prices or different covers or the ability to get different covers," he said.
Today’s relief on premiums can become tomorrow’s political and reputational headache if the rebound is sudden and poorly explained. That reality could be the drama beneath the chatter: brokers hunting value for clients under cost pressure, agencies selling expertise as much as price, and an entire market trying to enjoy softness without creating the conditions for an ugly headache later.
