Professional partnerships

Since then, the market has changed dramatically. Solicitors rightly want more from their ATE provider as they become ever more sophisticated buyers of insurance. So it’s now modern practice for insurers to provide:

• Better deals on pricing that reflect a solicitor’s buying power and scale of cases
• Insurance for portfolios, including both attractive and less attractive underwriting risks
• Insight and perspective as an outsider looking at a solicitor’s business
• Help beyond strict interpretations of rules or wordings
• Loyalty and longer term deals. Solicitors are generally very reluctant to change ATE provider, even if it’s a case of ‘better the devil you know’.
  

For the solicitor:

• Who’s the insurer?
• How successful have they been?
• What financial security do they have? (…for when the solicitor claims in five years’ time)
• What sort of insight can the insurer provide?

For the ATE provider, as well as all the data and risk assessment methodology:

• What makes the solicitor’s business work?
• What is its mid to long-term strategy?
• How do policies meet the end customer’s needs?

In our experience, a longer ‘courtship’ period benefits everyone. It gives time to get to know each other’s organisations and people. At Allianz we believe it’s important for both parties to complete a thorough due diligence process, rather than it being a one way process.

Ultimately, partnerships need to think beyond ATE and look at what the joint needs are. The key to longer term success is active dialogue to help anticipate future needs and avoid any unnecessary surprises. Sometimes there are difficult decisions to be made but if aligned, these will be easier to convey through appreciation and understanding.