When an insurer receives a high net worth (HNW) home submission, the first thing many will do is not review the property schedule. They will search the client online.
That is the operational reality Darren Walsgrove, Personal Lines Director at specialist HNW insurance broker Everywhen, described when explaining how personal lines underwriting has quietly evolved in the social media era. The information contained in a standard broker presentation, property construction, year built, client profession, tells only part of the story. What a client posts publicly can reveal something else entirely.
"The presentation they receive will say it's a brick house, built in 1956, they're a chartered accountant," Walsgrove told Insurance Business UK. "But online you can see they're a surfer, they wear their Rolex when they're on their jet ski, they go on holiday every two weeks and they're constantly out of the country."
The social media check is not, he was quick to clarify, primarily about declining risks. It is about building a fuller picture of a client's attitude to risk, something a proposal form was never designed to capture.
Walsgrove drew a distinction between established wealth and new money when discussing digital awareness, one that he said has direct implications for how risks are assessed.
Clients who have grown up with significant assets often understand the behaviours that accompany wealth preservation: security protocols, discretion and risk management. Those who have acquired wealth more recently may not.
"They've got a flat overlooking the Thames, they've got all the jewellery, all the stuff, but they haven't grown up with it," he said. "So they don't have the same understanding of what goes with owning that wealth."
The practical implications can be significant. Clients who post travel plans publicly - airport departures, hotel check-ins or event appearances - may inadvertently advertise their absence. Walsgrove recalled instances where properties were burgled while teenagers were home alone, with parents' whereabouts effectively broadcast through social media activity.
He also pointed to a rise in occupancy burglaries, where properties are targeted specifically because security arrangements may be less stringent when a high-profile individual is away but family members remain in residence.
"If a burglar knows they've got all weekend, it doesn't matter what your physical security is, they can get around it," he said.
The process currently relies on manual review. Walsgrove expects technology to play a much larger role in future underwriting decisions.
"Very shortly, I would imagine, an insurance company will be able to say to AI: give me a risk profile for this client by looking at their social media activity," he said. "The system will go away, look at what they do, look at what they're showing the public, look at the images and the timings, and be able to come back and say: the chances of this causing an incident are this percentage."
Walsgrove believes the process could eventually evolve from a qualitative review into a more structured underwriting input, allowing insurers to assess online behaviours at greater scale.
The implications extend beyond physical security. He described cases where insurers had declined risks because of the public profile created by a client's views or online activity. Individuals who attract protest, harassment or other forms of unwanted attention can present a different risk profile from those who maintain a lower public profile.
"We've had clients be declined insurance based on their views on a particular subject," he said. "Strong opinions, on either end of the spectrum, can cause a problem."
The growing use of social media in underwriting creates a challenge for brokers. When insurers form a view of a client based on publicly available information, brokers increasingly find themselves providing context that may not appear in standard underwriting submissions.
"Because we know this is something insurers are looking at, we tend to ask the client for more information that is not on a standard question set," Walsgrove said. "That helps them understand the risk better and maybe mitigate some of the things they might see online."
A client who appears to leave a property unoccupied for long periods may in fact have a house sitter, live-in staff or additional security arrangements that are not immediately visible. Providing that context can influence how a risk is ultimately assessed.
Walsgrove also raised concerns about a growing willingness among some affluent clients to reduce cover or self-insure in response to economic pressures. While high net worth individuals may be better positioned to absorb smaller losses, he said some are underestimating the potential cost of a major claim involving an unoccupied or underinsured property.
"People's perception is that we need to cut something," he said. "We do have a lot of customers who nowadays will take the risk."
The picture Walsgrove described is of an underwriting process that extends well beyond the information contained in a proposal form. Publicly available information is already influencing how some insurers assess behaviour, security practices and exposure to loss.
"Everything is findable nowadays," he said.
