Q&A with Emma Sansom, Head of Captive Services UK
05/26/2022
How did you get into the insurance sector?
When I finished my A-levels, I decided that I didn’t want to go to university, I wanted to go straight into work and potentially get a professional qualification. I ended up getting a job as a payroll clerk, but I didn't enjoy it. A friend told me that Zurich were recruiting, so I applied for an underwriting assistant role in what was the commercial trading team at the time. I got the job, and then quickly realised that the insurance industry was an exciting place work. It was very much chance that got me into the insurance sector.
What made you decide to work in the Captives market for Zurich?
It was a bit of a fluke to be honest. I was working in the Customer Distribution & Management team, after having had a few different roles the property team within Zurich. At that time, the team was being restructured, and I decided that I wanted to do something a little bit different to the role that was on offer. I was approached and asked if I wanted to do a secondment on the Captive team and decided to take the opportunity. I managed to secure a permanent role in the Captives teams as an underwriter and I haven’t looked back since.
What is the main focus of your role?
I head up the Captive team, the focus of my role is strategic and has moved away from day-to-day underwriting, although I do still relish the opportunity to get involved in now and then! As well as managing a credit risk portfolio, my role is about being in front of customers and brokers to articulate the Zurich proposition, but also, and probably even more importantly, having a three-way conversation to understand what our customer needs are not just in terms of the here and now, but also in the context of a changing risk landscape and what that means for future of their industry.
The other aspect of my role is developing my team which I’m passionate about. Sitting down with each team member to understand what their aspirations and ambitions are, and how I can support them achieve their goals is incredibly rewarding.
What are the benefits of a Captive for customers?
There are a couple of main reasons why you'd set up a Captive. One is part of your general risk management strategy to smooth the volatility of market fluctuations and cycles. A customer may have a claims experience that is below the industry average and may not want to be penalised for the poor risk management and the increasing cost of losses of others which may manifest in rate increases and restricted availability capacity.
The other benefit is around difficult to place risks, where there are certain pockets of the market where it's quite difficult to get cover at the moment. We can consider providing fronting capacity for those programs, and although we would typically want to retain some element of the exposure, we would reinsure large portions of the risk to the Captive, where a Captive can either retain this risk, or seek to pace reinsurance and potentially benefit from arbitrage opportunities, providing wider wordings compared to where there's no Captive involved. So, by using a Captive, the customer can make sure that can provide the broadest cover possible for its local operations.
The benefit that Zurich brings to the table for a Captive is the expertise and the infrastructure to ensure effective implementation of the insurance program at the front end, working directly with the customers local operations as well as the head office.
How do you keep ahead of market developments?
Well firstly it’s through the relationships that we have with our customers, having a constant dialogue with them to understand their needs and concerns, now and in the future. Talking to our customers is one of the key ways of staying ahead of what is happening in the market.
Another avenue is the market itself. In the Captive industry we have what I like to call the ‘Captive distribution universe’, as there are a lot of different stakeholders to consider. There is a need to have an understanding of the overall Captive value chain, and the different participants within it. There are also a number of industry resources and bodies which provide a wealth of information
Lastly, talking to colleagues in Zurich across the globe, whether they be within the Captive function, Line of business underwriters, other departments within Zurich such as Zurich Resilience solutions, to understand the conversations they are having with their customers about the challenges that they are facing.
What are the biggest challenges you are seeing in the Captives market?
The biggest development across the insurance industry is around sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance), and this of course impacts the Captive Industry as well. There are a lot of emerging risks out there that are difficult to quantify and therefore it can be difficult to get wordings and cover in place at the moment. That is where a Captive can be a key tool for a customer to put insurance solutions in place where there are currently limited options.
Where there may be no appetite for risk transfer on the part of insurance carriers, our customers may find it difficult to put risk into their Captive if they can’t establish a fronting partner. Because of this there is fronting capacity shortage in the market, so to get around these challenges we have been spending time talking to customers and brokers and are actively looking at how we can support our customers in this area as needs evolve, and how we can continue to provide relevant solutions.
What is the best piece of career advice you have been given?
I am going to give two answers here, because I am going to tell you the worst piece of advice I ever got first.
When I was just starting out in my career, I told my mentor I wanted to get involved in sustainability and the environmental aspects of insurance as it was something I felt very strongly about. They said to me ‘you shouldn’t get involved in something you are passionate about, as it will become a personal expedition.’ At the time, I remember not agreeing but just going along with what they said and not pursuing it too much further. Looking back, I completely disagree with this! It is important to follow your passions; one of my strengths is that I bring passion into the role I do because I enjoy what I do.
One piece of advice that sticks out to me, is to have an idea of what you want your next role plus 1 or 2 to be. If you have some sort of idea of what you want to achieve and the skills and experience that are required for that, it will help you to identify what areas of development you need to focus on, by backfilling your development plan from that end goal.
What do you love about working at Zurich?
I joined Zurich 21 years ago, which I think is indicative of what a fantastic company Zurich has been. I’ve had many different roles but always felt supported in everything that I do and have been encouraged to always pursue my own development and progress my career. There is a big focus within the senior leadership team to make sure everyone feels valued, and an example of this is how well we were all supported during the pandemic. It’s great to see this and I think the recent focus on improving diversity and inclusion within Zurich is fantastic. This is what makes working at Zurich such an enjoyable experience, and why I have been here for so long.
