Ecclesiastical’s unique ownership allows long-term planning

The unrelenting pressures on many insurers, especially those listed on a stock exchange, to secure growth are far less pronounced for charity-owned insurer Ecclesiastical compared with some of its UK peers, Mark O’Riordan, head of group reinsurance at the insurer, told Baden-Baden Today.

This allows it to focus on more important things. For Ecclesiastical, which specialises in heritage, charity, education, real estate and faith insurance, underwriting profitability and distributing those profits back to its charitable owner, Allchurches Trust, is its overriding concern.

Back in 2014, Ecclesiastical committed to giving £50 million ($61 million) to Allchurches Trust, a goal it achieved in just over two years. By 2020, it aims to raise this figure to £100 million.

Essential to achieving this will be the support of its reinsurers. O’Riordan stressed the importance of long-term stability—also due to the nature of its portfolio—and the need for enduring relationships with its reinsurers.

“At Ecclesiastical we’re a unique business. For the core niche areas we are actively involved in—faith, education, charity, and heritage—reinsurance is fairly fundamental to what we are doing,” he said.

As such, Ecclesiastical wants to cement long-term relationships with its reinsurance panels, making sure its reinsurers understand its portfolio and support it on a continuing basis.

“That evolves over a long period of time, it doesn’t happen overnight. We have a longstanding stable panel for whom I would like to think—certainly based on the discussions and conversations at Monte Carlo—that we are a key client. That is certainly the case for the vast majority, if not all, of our reinsurance panels.”

Despite its focus on profitability, Ecclesiastical has targeted growth in some areas including the heritage and charity sectors and some types of property business.

“Heritage is the key niche area for us. We see the heritage properties known throughout the UK and some of the bigger private residences as a key target for us. That builds on our expertise in some of our other core areas, and differentiates us based on the expertise we have in valuing risks in terms of risk management and also in terms of managing claims for these historic properties,” he said.

“For us it’s very much about focusing on profitability; expanding in core areas where we know we can achieve profitable growth.”