We sat down with Adrian Rayner, Commercial Director, to talk about how the risk landscape for businesses has changed and why the role of a broker matters more than ever.
Q. Adrian, when people talk about a ‘more complex’ risk landscape for businesses, what do they actually mean?
Adrian: Most business owners expect uncertainty; that comes with the territory. What has changed is the sheer number of moving parts. Inflation has pushed up repair and replacement costs, cyber crime has gone mainstream, weather events are more volatile, and insurers are far more forensic about the risks they are prepared to take on. The problem is that many insurance programmes have not evolved at the same pace.
Insurance should be there to protect balance sheets and business continuity. It should never be a tick box exercise. When risks shift, your cover has to shift with them, otherwise gaps only become obvious at the point of claim, which is the worst possible time to find out.
Q. What are the biggest pressures you are seeing on policies at the moment?
Adrian: Underinsurance is a big one. If sums insured and limits have not kept pace with inflation, the settlement simply may not be enough to put the business back where it was. That catches people out far more often than they expect.
Cyber risk is another obvious pressure. Ransomware, invoice fraud and data breaches are no longer issues for ‘big corporates only’. We see them affecting businesses of all sizes. On top of that, you have supply chain disruption, more extreme weather events and rising liability exposures in an increasingly litigious environment. If you trade overseas, the complexity multiplies again with different legal systems, jurisdictions and contractual standards to consider.
All of this feeds into insurer appetite, the questions they ask and the exclusions and conditions that appear in policies.
Q. Many businesses now buy insurance online. Where do you see the risks in that approach?
Adrian: Online insurance looks efficient, and for very simple risks, it can be. The issue is that most online journeys are designed to be fast, not forensic. They rely on assumptions that do not always reflect how a business actually operates day to day.
The real danger is that you do not know what you do not know. A particular activity might need to be disclosed, a limit might be too low, or a single exclusion might completely change the value of the policy. Everything can look fine on paper until you try to claim.
Q. What sort of blind spots do you commonly see when policies are arranged this way?
Adrian: Misdescribing the business is very common. People understandably pick the closest-sounding trade description, but that does not always capture higher-risk activities, contracting work, or work away from the premises, including overseas.
We also see values and limits drifting out of date as turnover, wages and stock levels change. Business interruption is another big one. An indemnity period might look reasonable, but when you actually think through how long it would take to purchase replacement machinery, replenish stock levels, rebuild trading, customers and cash flow, it is often nowhere near long enough. Cyber and fraud gaps also crop up, particularly when businesses assume cover exists under a package policy when a standalone policy would be more appropriate.
Q. So where does a broker add real value in this environment?
Adrian Rayner: A good broker is not there simply to obtain a premium. Our role is to understand the business properly and design cover around exposures and liabilities. That means looking at activities, locations, contracts, overseas trading, and, crucially, what would genuinely stop the business from operating if something went wrong.
We help set realistic sums insured and limits that reflect current rebuild costs, stock values, turnover, and liability risks. We negotiate and tailor cover, explaining key terms, conditions and exclusions so there are no nasty surprises later. And when a claim happens, we are in the client’s corner, helping with notification, presentation, and negotiation to get the business back up and running as quickly as possible.
Q. Finally, what would you say to a business focused purely on price?
Adrian: In a market where wordings are evolving, and claims costs are rising, the cheapest policy is not always the best policy. If it leaves you exposed, it is not really cheap at all.
A broker does the hard work for you. That might mean understanding seasonal stock changes, managing the exposures that come with overseas expansion, or accessing niche insurers for specialist risks that are simply not available through standard online routes. Ultimately, it is about peace of mind and knowing that if you do need to make a claim, the cover will actually do what you expect it to.
