Qlaims Limited has appointed Maisie Burwood (pictured) as senior partnerships success manager, a newly created role reporting to COO Simon Fenwick. The hire lands at a specific moment in the regulatory and market cycle: the FCA has said the claims experience is when a product's value and service are tested under the Consumer Duty, and it has separately widened its oversight of MGA and coverholder governance with claims handling and consumer outcomes as a central focus. For a claims specialist MGA whose entire proposition is built around improving the policyholder claims experience, a dedicated broker partnership role is a demonstration of Consumer Duty outcomes rather than simply a sales function - which is the analytical distinction that makes the appointment worth noting beyond the personnel change itself.
The market conditions give the timing its specific commercial weight. The ABI reported the average household claim reached £6,340 in Q1 2026, the highest on record and up 20% on the same period in 2025, while the average domestic subsidence claim rose 9% year on year to £17,820. That followed record £6.1 billion in UK property insurance payouts across 2025 driven by the UK's hottest summer on record and a run of severe storms. At claims of this scale and complexity, having an independent specialist manage the process on the policyholder's behalf is an increasingly material part of the customer experience insurers and brokers are judged on under the Consumer Duty - and broker relationships are the distribution channel through which that service reaches policyholders.
Burwood joins from Arc Legal Assistance, where she spent nine years in the commercial division building partner relationships and delivering client and customer outcomes. Arc Legal is a specialist MGA and one of the UK's leading providers of legal expenses insurance, managing more than 14 million policies across personal, motor, commercial, affinity, property, travel and leisure lines. Her background in commercial partnership development at an MGA of that scale gives the Qlaims role its specific professional rationale - broker relationship management at volume requires a different capability set from individual account management, and Burwood's Arc Legal experience spans both.
Burwood said creating meaningful, long-lasting partnerships built on trust and transparency, with the customer at the centre of every decision, has always been at the heart of her career and was a key reason for joining Qlaims. Fenwick described the appointment as bringing genuine expertise in partner success and a deep understanding of what brokers value, which will play an important role in delivering greater value to partners and customers as the business continues to expand.
Qlaims, based at the Leadenhall Building in London, provides loss recovery insurance that gives homeowners and businesses access to an independent, FCA-regulated claims specialist to prepare and negotiate property damage claims, distributed through UK brokers and intermediaries. The firm has expanded its broker distribution in recent years, including a partnership with Howden to support the group's commercial clients. As record claims values and regulatory scrutiny of claims handling converge, the Burwood appointment reflects a deliberate choice to treat broker partnership management as a governance and outcomes function rather than a growth and sales one.
