Zurich consolidates UK commercial and retail distribution teams
05/16/2024
From 20 May, Zurich UK will consolidate its commercial and retail distribution teams into one unit for brokers accessing the business, Insurance Post can reveal.
Published originally by Insurance Post | Written by Scott McGee | 16 May 2024
Speaking to Post at the Biba Conference in Manchester, David Nichols, Zurich UK’s head of retail, said: “We have historically had separate distribution teams to manage the commercial lines business, and another to manage the retail business. From May 20, we are bringing those together as one.”
The restructure means brokers working with Zurich, no matter the line of business in which they operate, will have one team to work with moving forward.
Zurich said it has structured the newly created team so that brokers have a “single point of contact” to help them navigate all aspects of the business. The concept is that a broker will have one account manager that will provide the broker access to the best retail opportunities as well as the best commercial opportunities.
The team will be led by Jacqui Kelly, head of sales and distribution, who will report to David Nichols, and Frank Streidl, head of UK commercial.
Kelly said: “The changes in the team will simplify and focus our sales and distribution community and ensure we have the right engagement while continuing to build our service and propositions.
“We remain focussed on understanding our share of wallet with broker partners. The new consolidated team will allow us to work closer with brokers across their whole portfolio and support both them and our mutual customers with the breath of Zurich expertise.”
Streidl added: “The consolidation of our commercial and retail distribution teams will build on our mission of delivering excellent service by streamlining the broker journey within Zurich, simplifying the process and helping us to build on our already strong relationships.”
Simplicity
Nichols said the aim of the restructure is to make things much more simple for brokers. “We have one business plan,” he said. “This simplifies things so much for the broker, and it means we can support the brokers in any part of their business growth.
“Just because an insurer splits the business in terms of an underwriting point of view, it doesn’t mean it should also be like that for the broker-facing team. There are different skillsets within the different underwriting parts of the business, absolutely. But there is no reason those differences need to come out from a broker engagement perspective. And this speaks to that.”
Changing market demands
Kelly added that it made sense to mirror the changing broker market and the way brokers are broadening their skillsets.
“The acquisitional nature of the market means that a broker book might look very different today to what it did before. You might have seen global brokers operating across the whole business, but some regional brokers staying very much in a retail space, or a commercial place. Where private equity is coming in and you are seeing mergers happening a lot and they are then looking at different avenues for growth, the complexities of the market change.
"This could lead to two account managers going into a broker, when really, why wouldn’t we join that up?” She continued: “We have definitely got a lot of crossover in the way we work both in commercial and retail, and we've got really strong teams to bring together into this one distribution team."
Nichols said: “We feel we are in a position to really start talking with one voice to market so we think it makes a lot of sense at this point in time.”
Phasing in
But it wont be a dramatic change overnight. Kelly said that from 20 May, Zurich will be working with its brokers to figure out how it looks for them, and what changes could be made.
“What we won't do is impact the market overnight and suddenly tell brokers that they have got one account manager, etc. We will work together as a team to phase it through properly and work out where the strengths of the relationship sits, and who is best to take that forward.”
She also revealed that the those that will sit within the newly combined team will need training in order to be able to speak for the entire business. “The next step is training. All members of the distribution team will now have to be trained to speak for either side of the business. There will be a period of change to do that, and we need to change the culture internally as well.
"There are some alignment and culture pieces that need to be worked on, and absolutely we are going to do that. We have got some great things in our personal lines business and we have got some fantastic things in our commercial lines business, so it about making sure we capture those and explore all possible opportunities within that.”
Read the article here.
