BMS poaches Price Forbes trio for US marine expansion

Specialist re/insurance broker BMS Group has bolstered its US marine operations with three senior hires from Price Forbes, as it sees "exciting opportunities" for expansion amid the current hardening market.

Nick Hocking, Tony Cuthbertson and Josh Robertson have been appointed as directors of BMS’s marine subsidiary, BMS Harris & Dixon Marine, effective in February 2021. They will report to John Hoare, managing director of the unit, and will be based in London.

The appointments will contribute to BMS’s build-out of its US marine wholesale capability. The team will focus on developing its solutions for different marine specialty areas across the region, including but not limited to hull & machinery, P&I, charterers’ liability and other specialist covers.

Hocking re-joins BMS after spending over 11 years at Price Forbes & Partners. His most recent role was as an executive director in the marine division. Prior to that, he was a marine hull broker at BMS. Before joining BMS as a broker, he was an underwriting assistant at Brit Insurance, having started his insurance career there in 2005.

Cuthbertson has more than 29 years’ experience in the insurance market. He has been an executive director at Price Forbes & Partners since 2013, and served as director at Newman Martin and Buchan between 2002 and 2013. He started his career as a broker at SBJ Regis Low Insurance in 1991.

Robertson joins BMS with 10 years’ broking experience, specialising in US marine liability/P&I and hull & machinery risks. He first joined Price Forbes & Partners as an insurance broker in 2011 and later progressed through a series of senior roles, most recently serving as an executive director.

Ian Gormley, managing director of the BMS Global Risks division, said: “Our team of outstanding marine retail specialists has been developing tailored solutions for clients for decades, taking advantage of BMS’s access to both Lloyd’s and the international markets.

"The marine wholesale insurance situation is evolving rapidly. We have identified exciting opportunities due to the hardening market conditions, where we believe our reinsurance expertise will come into play. The expansion of the longstanding BMS H&D Marine brand dovetails perfectly with a core group strategic focus on our US intermediaries client base.”

Hoare added: “Nick, Tony and Josh have valuable expertise in wholesale marine insurance that will complement our growing team. Their experience in the US market in particular will help deliver effective and comprehensive advice to our growing client list. I am therefore looking forward to working with them in expanding our US portfolio and the H&D Marine team as a whole and would like to welcome them to the business.”