In an industry built on managing the unknown, the biggest risk a broker can take is placing business with a partner who does not truly understand it. That is the view of Douglas Brown, managing director of Renovation Underwriting, the Cambridgeshire-based managing general agent (MGA) specialising in contract works and renovation insurance, and a gold medal winner in the 2026 IBUK Brokers on MGAs report.  

For Brown, the value of an experienced MGA comes down to something deceptively simple: certainty. “As humans, what we really hate is uncertainty,” he says. “Knowing that as a broker you have someone up your sleeve who really understands the subject is what your client is paying you for. This breathes confidence into your client and is the type of assurance that makes you look good as a broker.” 

That confidence, he argues, is not built overnight. It comes from years spent inside a specialist class of business, learning where the genuine complexity lies. “It’s good advice to be led by someone who has spent much of their working life immersed in construction insurance to help you decide what is complex and what isn’t,” Brown adds. “Details matter.” 

Why price shouldn’t outweigh MGA expertise 

Nowhere is that experience tested more directly than in the tension between price and quality. Brokers are under constant pressure to find the most competitive premium, but Brown warns that chasing the lowest bid can quietly multiply risk rather than reduce it, particularly against a backdrop of UK construction output that fell for a third consecutive month in the three months to June 2026, according to the Office for National Statistics.  

“Price is always a temptation, but balancing that against quality and value is a skill in itself,” he says. “Dealing with the lowest bidder all the time carries with it the risk that the promise you have bought may not work. You have then multiplied your risk factors rather than reduced them and achieved the opposite of what you set out to do in the first place.” 

He distils the point into a single, memorable line: “The price is what you pay, value is what you actually get. Knowing which is which is a matter of experience.” 

Turning risk into a story a client understands 

An experienced underwriter’s real job, Brown suggests, is translation, turning technical risk into something a broker’s client can genuinely grasp. “A really good underwriter will help a broker contextualise the risk, bringing the ‘why should I buy this’ to life,” he explains. Underpinning every policy sold, he adds, are three forces that never go away: “All insurance relies on three things: fear, uncertainty and doubt. An underwriter that can answer those questions for a broker and their client is the one you should place risks with.” 

That philosophy extends to how Renovation Underwriting approaches its own conduct. It echoes the Financial Conduct Authority’s own guidance urging brokers to carry out proper due diligence on the insurers and MGAs they place business with, rather than assuming the MGA is the insurer itself. Instead of hiding behind policy wording when something looks wrong, Brown says the firm’s role is to speak up. “You should worry when insurers don’t ask questions because it means that they are acting based on assumptions, and when you base on assumptions, that’s when the bigger problems occur and things go wrong.” 

Discipline over convenience 

Ultimately, Brown ties the case for experience back to accountability. “Having the discipline to get things right is the hallmark of a business that captures the weight of their commitment,” he says. It is a standard he is clear the firm intends to live up to when claims, not quotes, put that commitment to the test: “We won’t be looking for places to hide when the worst happens.” 

For brokers navigating an increasingly complex construction and renovation market, that message lands as both reassurance and a challenge to look past price alone. As Brown puts it, in an industry defined by fear, uncertainty and doubt, the MGA that has genuinely done the work to understand the risk is the one worth having in your corner.