What services do you and your team provide?

In terms of insurance placements we work on behalf of both retail and wholesale intermediaries based in North America to deliver competitive property solutions such as:

• Capacity boosters
• Carve-outs
• Deductible buydowns
• Location carve-outs
• MFL/PML bust covers
• Primary, excess of loss and occasionally quota-share placements
• Standalone quake and flood placements

All of the above can be transacted as either insurance or reinsurance.

Our placements are supported by a suite of in-house support services such as analytics, risk mapping and claims.

Insureds we work on behalf of are in a range of sectors and we have a particularly strong track-record in habitational, real-estate and retail. Increasingly we are looking at portfolio solutions where we look to place certain types of business with a selected panel of markets on a facility basis.

Can you please provide an example of where you’ve solved a particularly difficult problem for a client

Recently, we placed a location carve-out for a global manufacturing company specialising in organic products. They had a location which was throwing off their portfolio because they had suffered a few losses, partly to do with the build-quality. We worked with a wide range of markets to arrange a USD150m excess USD100m layer for the location in question which meant they did not have to significantly over-buy on cover. Additionally we were able to place a significant share of the global primary which when combined with the excess layer generated more attractive premium levels. We particularly like these sorts of challenges; they keep us nice and sharp!

Are there any risk areas that you are seeing an increase in demand for from North America?

The deductible buy-down facility we launched earlier this year is proving to be very popular and we are predicting this will increase in 2017. For certain types of insureds the ability to buy-down deductibles is key when mandated by lenders’ or shareholders’ requirements. Our facility is able to accommodate both all-other-perils and catastrophe deductible buy-downs and we can usually turn around indications within 24 to 48 hours.

What are your predictions for your market in 2017?

With the advent of yet more new capacity in 2017 conditions will continue to remain challenging for property brokers, so the onus remains on us to provide both excellent service and innovative solutions in a timely fashion.

What would you say is your team’s USP?

Miller operates a single profit-centre which means we can focus our time and energy 100% on client-first behaviour and obtaining the best placement solutions. If the intermediaries we work with and our end clients require various offerings from across our specialist areas, then so much the better for both them and in turn, Miller.

Most broking houses I have worked for operate in a ‘silo’ mentality environment where collaborative working and cross-selling is at best an alien concept; and at worst viewed as an internal threat to earnings. Working as one partnership wide team translates to speed and integration of service that overall is probably Miller’s strongest USP I believe.

We have a particularly strong track-record here in North American property of working with our terrorism and stock throughput colleagues and have helped deliver some collaborative results for clients that we’re really proud of.