Ahead of CFG’s Annual Conference 2022, we talk to sponsors Stewart Archdale and Laurent Falter from PIB Insurance Brokers about what this year’s conference theme – Purposeful and Empowering – means to them.
Hi Stewart and Laurent, please could you tell us about your organisation and how you work with charities and social enterprises?
We act for some of the leading charities and healthcare providers in the UK and have a wealth of experience when it comes to ensuring appropriate protection for our not-for-profit clients. The clients we support include faith, homelessness, education, domestic violence, however we have a particular specialism in the healthcare and learning disability sectors too.
Providing excellent service to our clients is our upmost priority. We are agile and fast moving, pro-active and are able to leverage the scale of our business when it makes sense to do so to meet our clients’ needs.
We pride ourselves on working ‘differently’ to the stereotypical brokers.
- Market knowledge – We are proud of our insurer relationships. We spend time working with them to ensure that they have suitable and relevant experience of dealing with clients operating in the charitable sector and educate them where required. We also make sure insurers have a wide basis of cover to meet the insurance needs of charities who are often multi-faceted organisations. By monitoring insurers’ financial performance, we ensure they have the requisite funds to be able to meet the requirements for claims and are there to assist the client throughout the claims process.
- Service delivery – Our team works exclusively with clients who operate in the charitable or third sector. We provide regular learning and development opportunities to ensure that their knowledge is at the forefront of the market, which benefits our clients. This has resulted in a client retention rate of 98%, testament to the positive experiences our clients have through their interactions with our team. We always encourage prospective clients to seek references from our existing clients to hear about others' experience of working with us and using our services.
- Transparency – We work on a truly transparent basis. We operate a fee model, rather than working on the standard remuneration arrangement of commission, which is payable as part of a policy premium. We believe this builds a good foundation of trust between us and our clients.
- Collaboration - Our colleagues at PIB Risk Management comment on various aspects – be it risk improvements put forward by insurers following surveys, insurers’ views on the admission of liability in respect of claims, or informal risk management information and advice. We have also been on hand to support clients with regulatory enforcement where required.
PIB’s charity specialism is centred in the former D E Ford business in York, which has been acting for charities since its incorporation in 1976, joining PIB in 2017.
This year’s conference theme is ‘Purposeful and Empowering’. What do these words mean to you and your organisation?
Purposeful – determined to be the insurance broker of choice in the charity sector
Empowering – Our colleagues are all empowered to make the right decisions for their clients without layers of bureaucracy. Their close relationship with our clients also enables them to empower our clients to get on with the job in hand by providing peace of mind.
What’s PIB’s purpose when it comes to working with the charity sector?
To provide charities with expert advice on their insurance arrangements and risk management support to ensure they have the right protection in place to be able to focus on running their charity.
What have you identified as the biggest risks for charities in 2022? And how does PIB help to manage or mitigate those?
There are a number of risks charities face in 2022, these include Cyber incidents, trustee/management liability issues, inflation and managing/mitigating. Early engagement with us will help to mitigate the risks charities may face.
What do you believe will be the biggest risk management issues during the next year for charities?
More complex regulatory environment, and the pressure this will place on trustees/senior management teams, and digitalization, and the additional/new risks this brings!
What are you most looking forward to about CFG’s Annual Conference next month? What sort of issues can delegates chat with you about on the stand?
Catching up with our existing clients and getting to know new faces. You can speak to us about anything insurance and risk management related!
Many thanks for your time!
PIB Insurance Brokers are generously sponsoring CFG's Annual Conference 2022 along with HSBC Global Private Banking and HW Fisher.