011: Risk Management and Value Adding - with Stuart Rootham

On today's episode, we chat with Aston Lark Group Managing Director, Stuart Rootham. Stuart discusses his 25 years’ experience within the insurance industry at senior management level and his advocacy of the client centric approach. Stuart also shares with us his thoughts on life in the industry during and after the covid-19 pandemic and how he thinks this will shape the insurance industry in the future. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: The most common areas that brokers look to add value is around risk management. Having a Business Continuity Plan ('BCP') is vital. A recovery plan should also be created as part of a BCP too. Communication is key. In tough times, keep your account executives talking to your clients – not just about their products but also about emerging risks. Cyber insurance is becoming increasingly popular – there are some exposures that many clients might not be covered for. Coronavirus is an opportunity to offer business support, rather than additional add-on products. Identifying issues for your clients is the key to ensuring best practice and customer service. Look for additional way to support your clients. Be proactive in offering temporary solutions to their problems, even if you aren’t sure of the definitive answers. BEST MOMENTS: ‘’As a business, we are seeing more and more data related issues where it feels like your network is coming under attack. We're a reasonably sized business but it just feels it's more and more out there and we should be aware.’’ ‘’Typically, I think the challenge of brokers is, can you make it into a profit stream? if you're going to invest heavily into people, this becomes really important.’’ ‘’Whether it's talking about cyber, whether it's talking about risk management services - it should be the front-end part of what we're talking about. It’s about that evaluation and identification of risks and what they're doing to mitigate and how we can help them control them.’’ ‘’Just because you haven't got those in-house services doesn't mean you can’t be a small broker and you can’t give your client really good advice on how they manage their health and safety exposures.’’ ‘’Coronavirus is a huge unknown at the moment. I guess it's that ‘is there going to be an economic shock’? There will undoubtably be a ripple effect.’’ ‘’Understanding what your clients issues are and being really sensitive to that as well be proactive about not going in with the mindset of ‘right, how can I protect my fee on that client?’.‘’ RESOURCES: Aston Lark Website: https://www.astonlark.com/stuart-rootham ABOUT THE HOST Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of marketing experience and a fresh perspective on marketing in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance brokers to offer solutions to business development ceilings, particularly in the rapidly developing fields of video marketing and thought leadership. If you would like Sarah to help you develop an integrated marketing strategy, using state of the art concepts, then please book a free 20 min call via Calendly    Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/ Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation   ABOUT THE GUEST Stuart Rootham is the Group Managing Director of insurance broker giant, Aston Lark. Stuart began his career within the insurance industry 25 years ago - the majority of his experience being at R K Harrison. Stuart is responsible for leading the group to ensure that they are providing a first-class broking service. Stuart is also the responsible head for the HR and Marketing as well as their operation in Ireland. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-rootham-acii-8b393410/?originalSubdomain=uk Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation