A carrier reaches out to a local network partner to issue a policy as part of a structured multinational program. The response stops them cold.
"They'll say, 'Why are you asking me for that? I've already got a local policy, I'm not part of a program.'"
That was the experience described by Phil McDowell (pictured), global sales and distribution lead for international programmes and captives at HDI Global.
Somewhere in the chain, the message never landed. The parent company believed it had a coordinated global program. The local subsidiary had bought its own cover, which may not have aligned with the needs of the global business. The broker on the ground was working from a different brief. Nobody flagged the gap until it became a problem.
"Communication can break down between the parent company and the subsidiary, between the global broker and the local broker, or between the insurers themselves," McDowell said.
For McDowell, this is the most common and most preventable failure mode in multinational insurance programs – and it has nothing to do with policy wording.
"We talk about a number of Cs – compliance, coverage, consistency – but for me the number one is always communication," McDowell said.
By the time the head office discovers a gap of this kind, it is often renewal season or, worse, after a loss. Limits, conditions and deductibles no longer line up. The difference-in-conditions and difference-in-limits structures on the master policy suddenly have to bridge to a local contract nobody accounted for.
The mechanics of multinational programs amplify those failures. A large Canadian corporate might run dozens of local policies across multiple lines and continents. Each local office has its own finance processes, its own broker relationships, and its own pressure to just get the cover placed.
On the carrier side, global programs depend on a web of owned offices and network partners. McDowell is blunt that neither model is automatically smoother. He recalls underwriters calling him frustrated that a policy could not get issued out of Venezuela.
"My first question back is, have you read the news?" he said.
At that point, Venezuela was dealing with political unrest, blackouts and transport disruption. Staff could not get to the office. The problem was market-wide.
For McDowell, that incident captures two skills he sees as essential in global program management: curiosity and empathy.
"The best skill you can have is curiosity – wanting to find out what is actually going on so you can ask the questions that others aren't asking," McDowell said.
Empathy follows. Different cultures, different market practices and different regulatory environments shape what good service looks like in each territory. A Canadian underwriter expecting same-day turnarounds from a cash-before-cover market during social upheaval is setting themselves up for frustration.
"A lot of it is about having that knowledge and understanding, but then it's about managing expectations," McDowell said.
Multinational programs are administration-heavy: premium allocation, local policy issuance, regulatory filings, tax. For some large clients, managing that process annually is a full-time job. In that environment, silence is dangerous. If local issuance is going to be delayed, the risk manager and broker need to know before they discover the gap themselves.
Good programs start that work early.
"Good looks like you're ahead of the game," McDowell said. "You're talking to your broker and your client, getting all the information you need, asking the hard questions early – and that's all before you even get to the policy issuance."
The same discipline applies at claims stage, where McDowell said one of the fastest ways to erode the value of a program is to respond to a local claim without checking how the master policy interacts.
"Just because a claim isn't covered under the local policy doesn't mean you rush in and tell the customer it isn't covered," McDowell said. "It's understanding how that dovetails with the master policy. Get a holistic view."
That joined-up view also requires a clear single route into the insurer for risk managers and brokers.
"As a client or a broker, if I've got a problem, I need to know who to talk to," McDowell said. "Knowing there's somebody who understands your business, can react and can solve your problem – I think that's really important."
Get communication wrong, and you end up with orphaned local policies, confused partners and angry regulators. Get it right, and a complex global program feels, to the client, like dealing with one informed team.
