Insurers’ communicators the worst in financial services, claims Catlin

The insurance industry has the worst communicators in the financial services sector and the industry risks becoming irrelevant if it continues to look to the past instead of the future, Stephen Catlin, the  founder and former CEO of Catlin Group, has claimed in a new book.

Risk & Reward, which has been co-written with James Burcke, details Catlin’s journey from forming a small, two-employee Lloyd's of London underwriting agency to a global insurer that employed 2,500 people in and underwrote $6 billion in annual premium volume.

In it, he also offers a number of unique insights into the inner workings of the commercial property/casualty insurance industry and makes some inflammatory claims around the industry’s ability to communicate its value and remain relevant.

He says that while the property/casualty insurance is fundamentally important to the worldwide economy, insurers and brokers do a particularly poor job of communicating the value of their products.

“One of my theories is that the insurance industry has been poor – really, really poor – at communicating what it does, how it does it, and how insurance can add value for people and businesses,” he said.

“In my view, we have probably been the worst communicators and lobbyists in the financial services sector.”

He adds that the way in which insurers have traditionally operated could impede their ability to face future challenges.

“If the insurance industry is to remain relevant to society over the next 20 or 25 years, it must embrace the new risks to which society will be exposed. We must be at the forefront of understanding those risks and finding solutions to mitigate them,” Catlin said.

“The big obstacle, however, is that insurers’ thinking tends to focus on what has happened in the past rather than on what might happen in the future.” Individuals who work in the insurance industry – and even those who know little about insurance – will benefit from.”

Risk & Reward, which includes a foreword by Nikolaus von Bomhard, the recently retired chairman of the board of management of Munich Re, and an afterword by Mike McGavick, chief executive officer of XL Group, will be available to purchase on July 14, 2017.

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