Underwritten Weekly
The risk behind the headline: A blog about the genuinely exciting world of global insurance. I write these 'Sunday Nonsense' emails for my team.
Category: Uncategorized
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On Thursday night, stranded on a platform at Stratford International with no trains running and no particular sense of when that might change, I found myself standing next to a man reading Richard Branson’s autobiography. I have read it. It is, as you might expect, a book in which Richard Branson features quite heavily and…
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Last week I locked myself out of my house. Not a complicated one. One door. One lock. One set of keys that were, at the critical moment, absolutely definitely somewhere else. I stood on my own doorstep performing a little ritual of disbelief – checking the same four pockets in rotation, as though the keys…
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On Tuesday evening I watched Kevin McCloud present a documentary about iconic buildings. The Lloyd’s building was one of them, so of course I tuned in avidly. He mentioned Edward Lloyd’s coffee house. He mentioned the Lutine Bell. He mentioned Richard Rogers and the pipes and the glass lifts. Fine. Standard. Anyone could have done…
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I know nothing about football; and for once I promise this isn’t misdirection. I mean this sincerely. I know it involves a ball. I know there are two teams. I know someone blows a whistle at some point and then everyone either celebrates or argues, sometimes simultaneously. Beyond that, I am at sea. I know…
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You remember reading it, don’t you?I’m sure I wrote it. Hang on, I’ll check. Yes, we were right – here it is in black and white: “There will be no Sunday Nonsense for the next two weeks”. Clear as day. Yet with the celestial inevitably of Edward Lloyd opening a coffee shop, this email certainly seems to…
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This week, we welcomed three new starters to the team. Each one joined a Teams call with me. Each one noticed the photograph of the Room on my living room wall. Each one asked what it was. Each one received an answer that was considerably longer than the question deserved. By the end of the…
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Last week, I got my Lloyd’s pass back. Twelve years. Twelve years of standing at the front desk while someone with a phone, called someone with a lanyard, who called someone with a pass, who eventually appeared looking faintly irritated that a person who was here only last week wanted to enter the building. Again.…
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Every week; I write my team a (hopefully) motivational email. Some people suggested I turn it into a blog. Here is this week’s (company and product name removed due to a tiresome online stalker) As you read this, the MV Hondius is sitting off the coast of Tenerife. You’ve probably seen it on the news.…
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Every weekend, I write my team an email, trying to explain how our work relates to the wider insurance market. Here is this weeks: Subject: Sunday Nonsense: Read your emails Some weeks, this email writes itself. A study by PYMNTS says that the average underwriter only gets to 40% of the submissions that land on…
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Every Sunday, I write my team a (hopefully) motivational email. Here’s this weeks: Subject: Mind your own business If Cuthbert Heath had just minded his own damn business like everyone else, <Product Name> would have just one class to onboard and I’d have my Sundays back. But no. He had to bloody well go and…
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Gina and Andrew made a point in the town hall on Tuesday that I want to pick up on, because it’s one I care about. I was sat about 4ft from Andrew’s face, pretending I was completely relaxed about it. At least, being American, he didn’t have the cultural reference to think “Hang on, why…
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Right now, as you read this, there are roughly 400 commercial aircraft flying passengers around Russia that, legally speaking, no longer exist. They take off from Sheremetyevo. They land at Pulkovo. Families board them for holidays to Sochi. Business travellers sleep through the Novosibirsk redeye. The planes are real. The seats are real. The turbulence…
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How the US government tried to replace the insurance market, but ended up proving why it can’t A few weeks ago, the United States government tried to do the insurance industry’s job. When the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down after the US-Israel conflict with Iran began in late February, and war risk insurers issued…
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A World Without Our Market: An Awful Dream In which we remove one building from Lime Street and watch civilisation slowly unravel. It’s Monday morning. You wake up. You make your coffee. Everything feels normal. Except overnight, something has changed. Lloyd’s of London – your market, our market, the building, the concept, the whole bloody…
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I was at the box on Monday, and things move quickly. 10:00 – a broker shops a risk.10:15 – a few markets start asking questions.10:30 – someone writes a line. Who has the broker’s ear now? Not the market still reading the slip.Not the one waiting for perfect information.The one who engaged early, formed a…
Underwritten Weekly 