00:01:57 Mark Geoghegan
Tim, welcome back to the Voice of insurance.
00:02:00 Tim Turner
Well, thank you, Mark. It's a pleasure to be with you and thank you for the invitation.
00:02:04 Mark Geoghegan
I can't believe it was almost four years ago. I think when we last spoke on this podcast and lots of things have changed. Obviously my specialty has now become a public company and more recently you've taken up a new role.
00:02:16 Mark Geoghegan
Well, congratulations on that role. So first obvious question, I'm sure you can back this away very quickly. Should we expecting any change of emphasis or strategy from Ryan Specialty in going forward now that we've got you in charge?
00:02:29 Tim Turner
Well, I think the announcement is less about change and maybe more about continuity in our strategy. We plan to continue on the path that both PAT and I built and staged. It's been a privilege to work alongside Pat and learn from his leadership since Ryan Specialty was founded in 2010.
00:02:50 Tim Turner
As you know.
00:02:51 Tim Turner
That, as a true pioneer in the insurance industry and his commitment to innovation and execution and exceptional outcomes for our our customers and our trading partners has been unparalleled under his leadership, buying specialty has grown into an extraordinary company.
00:03:11 Tim Turner
With a dynamic and really a differentiated business model. So looking ahead, we'll continue to execute our strategy of course and it remains unchanged. We're really focused on a handful of things, maybe four that stick out and define us.
00:03:30 Tim Turner
Delivering innovative solutions to our client, the big one generating industry leading organic growth, executing our M and a strategy and then increasing profitability and delivering additional value to our shareholders. There's a lot of great chemistry.
00:03:50 Tim Turner
In our management team and it's always a team approach. When you're building a company and we're all founding members of the management team, which makes it very unique. We just really need to keep doing what's made us great.
00:04:05 Tim Turner
And I would say lastly as a whole, I can't remember a time when our people were more excited. We're winning at the highest level and we're delivering both organic and inorganic opportunities every day.
00:04:19 Mark Geoghegan
I certainly would have expected you to say that you want to change everything because the success has been so meaty or and and the strategy has been so clear, right?
00:04:26 Mark Geoghegan
Day one because I remember being there talking to pat at launch and actually nothing much has changed. And now of course it's actually even more transparent because of course you're a public company now and we can see the strategy. It's very clear. It's actually sort of in your shareholder documentation. So it's all there.
00:04:43 Mark Geoghegan
Not much has changed, but certainly one thing that's changed is the balance of the business. Is there anything strategic about the way that's changing? Obviously, wholesale broking has been the absolute mainstay of the business, but the revenue derived from underwriting or managing, underwriting and binding authorities has been increasing. Do you have in your mind any particular strategic?
00:05:03 Mark Geoghegan
The level at which one should be the other, or do you think these are things are often down to the way the market is at the moment you didn't have a particular design about what's an optimal percentage of your revenues to come from wholesale brokering and from MGA's MG use and binders?
00:05:18
Yeah.
00:05:18 Tim Turner
I would think that's accurate. We're really.
00:05:20 Tim Turner
Be not targeting a business mix based on a financial outcome.
00:05:26 Tim Turner
As you know, our overall M and a strategy is aligned around the evolving and growing needs of our clients and our trading partners. So our focus is to continue providing a dynamic value proposition with them and that's worked really well for us and and additional to that, I would say Patsy vision.
00:05:47 Tim Turner
From the very beginning was to align delegated underwriting authority with our wholesale brokerage specialty.
00:05:53 Tim Turner
These bringing much needed capacity to these industry classes that are highly technical.
00:06:00
Yep.
00:06:00 Tim Turner
Yeah, we believe.
00:06:01 Tim Turner
We have the best broking talent in RT specialty and we complement that with excellent underwriting talent across a niche and diversified product set that lies.
00:06:14 Tim Turner
Across all our MU.
00:06:16 Mark Geoghegan
So it's more like whatever's going to solve the problem for your client, it's the best way of doing it, and if that means you need to start an MGA in order to corral that capacity, that might not be there in the open market, then that sounds like that's what you'll do. But you won't say ohh I really want this to be 6040. So therefore I want to increase my underwriting revenue this year or whatever.
00:06:36 Mark Geoghegan
So it's basically client focused and it'll go and it'll fluctuate wherever the market and wherever that client need or solving that client need is gonna take.
00:06:44 Tim Turner
Yeah, I think that's very accurate. And you know we've always been client focused and our clients want to get the best solution for their client and we're very focused on that and our retail broker partners, they want to work with the biggest, deepest, broadest solution set. So our strategy is really around that.
00:07:04 Tim Turner
And they like it when it's housed in one platform.
00:07:08 Tim Turner
And that's really what we're trying to.
00:07:10 Mark Geoghegan
Build something that's going to really solve the problem, but also do it in the most convenient and cost effective way, precisely. Well in terms of that client base it's changed, but it's not really changed. It's something that's always been there that's really come back, particularly at the very high end within major US retail broking, of course, we've been talking about.
00:07:30 Mark Geoghegan
Consolidation probably ever since Pat really probably started it and that really major sense in the late 1980s.
00:07:37 Mark Geoghegan
But it seems to have stepped up a notch again in the last year, particularly when we're talking about deals by the major incumbents as we've seen there has been a huge amount of private equity fuel activity and other kind of consolidation type activity, but we hadn't seen the biggest to get involved as much in the last few years. But now that seems to have reawakened is this.
00:07:57 Mark Geoghegan
On the development of any concern for you, or is it already in your play?
00:08:00 Tim Turner
You know, I was. They were not concerned about it. They're terrific partners and customers. In fact, they're the level where we're excited for them. They have a very clear strategy and what they need to do, what they want to do. And we're very open in our dialogue together. So no worries there. It actually plays into our strengths.
00:08:21 Tim Turner
We know our role.
00:08:22 Tim Turner
People and as you know retail broker M&A is one of the many secular and structural changes and growth drivers of Ryan Specialty. Importantly both of our more recent deals have been in the middle of the market space. We work with over 20,000 brokers.
00:08:42 Tim Turner
From the globals through the top 100, which we refer to as tier one, maybe the next 4 or 500 retailers Tier 2 and then 10s of thousands of retail brokers and.
00:08:54 Tim Turner
Since that we would refer to as Tier 3, so we have a strategy for all three of those levels of retail brokers and agents, the middle market. He needs both our expertise in RT and more products through our GPU's and programmes and binding. So it's a multi.
00:09:14 Tim Turner
Faceted solution platform that we're building for these customers who really need.
00:09:21 Tim Turner
Our expertise and our creativity, they require more sophisticated services that we deliver through a high level of expertise in each and every one of these unique specialties. So we feel we're well positioned to continue delivering our services that.
00:09:40 Tim Turner
Most retail brokers value and we think we're delivering it at the highest level.
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00:10:49 Mark Geoghegan
And of course, I cast my mum back to that Ryan specialty kind of foundation point, and that was one of the original points of the thesis of why you're doing this was because, yeah, well, consolidation has meant within the retail community, even back then had meant that panels were being consolidated and were being rationalised and that you wanted to be one of those top panellists.
00:11:09 Mark Geoghegan
That no one would ever want to remove because you want to be the essential provider of wholesale insurance services.
00:11:15 Tim Turner
Absolutely. You know, it's always about elevating the deliverable itself, the solution and we're very, very focused on that at Ryan Specialty.
00:11:26 Mark Geoghegan
Other things you've been very busy with on the acquisition side is over here in.
00:11:30 Mark Geoghegan
Europe.
00:11:31 Mark Geoghegan
Done some big deals here, perhaps particularly is someone who's almost invented the idea of a global broker. So should we now be expecting to see around specialty globalising in the way that you and pat know how to do? We're expecting to see more activity around those global.
00:11:46 Mark Geoghegan
Wholesale insurance hubs.
00:11:48 Tim Turner
Well, you're right. Pat does have an incredible global vision that has made so much of this expansion easier for us, just tremendous leadership from PAT and along the way, we've made a strategic decision, number one, to avoid owning a London broker because of the potential channel.
00:12:08 Tim Turner
Conflict that we see with our retail customers. So we see Europe and the UK at the very fertile ground for delegated underwriting authority, actually more utility.
00:12:22 Tim Turner
For an MG U in Europe where the risk is solved by the local market or shifted to the Lloyds global market, if you will, the acquisition of Castell significantly enhanced our UK and European footprint. You know and set the stage for us to accelerate our international expansion.
00:12:42 Tim Turner
To sell ads over 10 different MG U's, most of which were new offerings for Ryan Specialty, and two that further strengthened and enhanced existing MG's for.
00:12:56 Tim Turner
There's a structural advantage of being there with boots on the ground. We have a very strong management team that has the local relationships and knowledge big advantage. We also expanded into Singapore. You might know two years ago with Ryan transactional risk and our reps and warranty.
00:13:16 Tim Turner
Gu and as we continue to say, the delegated authority space is mature there, but very fragmented. We continue to be excited about the international opportunity itself.
00:13:29 Mark Geoghegan
Are it sounds like that's a big yes and that we should be expecting to see activity at some speed from you. We'll be seeing press releases, I'm sure, coming in future months and years. Then we're talking about cash selling saying that's another 10MG's and it is almost astounding. Particularly, you know, I'm sitting as a journalist, the amount of NGA formation of the last decade.
00:13:50 Mark Geoghegan
Has been phenomenal and I thought perhaps when the market hardened four or five years ago, I thought that maybe this was gonna put a pause on this, but if it was the most brief pause, it was very hard to have noticed because there's still there's such a wave of growth in MGA Formation has still happen.
00:14:04 Mark Geoghegan
Opening do you think at some point that that will come to an end and that might turn into consolidation? And again, with you perhaps being one of the consolidators or a prime consolidator candidate?
00:14:15 Tim Turner
We expect that there'll be a lot more consolidation, but with M GPU's, there's a lot of new platforms out there that need more seasoning.
00:14:26 Tim Turner
So we see a lot of discipline on one hand in the MSU pricing environment right now there's many experienced acquirers who know what to look for, solid underwriting results, unique products and really high quality capital support for businesses that have.
00:14:46 Tim Turner
These attributes there's an attractive market.
00:14:49 Tim Turner
However, not all recent startups have this sort of track record yet.
00:14:55 Tim Turner
So there's again a lot of seasoning to take place in the delegated underwriting authority space and our view.
00:15:02 Mark Geoghegan
Well, specifically, you know more about it than most. And so yes, if you're going to buy some, you got to buy something that has a track record that something you can really kind of kick the tyres on.
00:15:10 Mark Geoghegan
Absolutely. If one thing we all know in our business is that it takes longer than you think to really get a track record and to know that you've done good cause things can look good for three or four years before they or perhaps they.
00:15:22 Tim Turner
Don't. Later. Yeah, that's so true.
00:15:24 Mark Geoghegan
What about wholesale broking itself? Again, another segment of the market, particularly in the US, where of course you have been one of the actors here consolidating that marketplace. Do you think that's largely done now or do you think there's still deals to be done or relatively big deals to?
00:15:40 Tim Turner
Be done well, I think there's some.
00:15:44 Tim Turner
That have said.
00:15:45 Tim Turner
That, but I would say look at our history. You know last year buying specialty at a record year for M&A, we acquired businesses that really fit into all three of our specialties with binding authority. We acquired Gryphon in the northwest.
00:16:00 Tim Turner
In underwriting managers with Castell and in wholesale with Socias tremendous acquisition and we did 3 deals that were the start of our benefits practise. So there are still deals to do in wholesale broking more than you would think.
00:16:16 Mark Geoghegan
Are they more likely to be bolt on type regional operations?
00:16:20 Mark Geoghegan
Certainly when people describe the market to me, particularly the US wholesale spaces, they said, well, mark, there are loads more regional players than you would ever know of because perhaps you're sitting in London, you can't see them the way we can.
00:16:32 Tim Turner
Yeah, I would say that's true. You know, there's dozens and dozens of what we would call super regional hybrids of combination of binding authorities and brokerage platforms. So we remain very ambitious on our outlook for M&A for certain.
00:16:49 Mark Geoghegan
Certainly you're one of the most likely buyers on any investment bankers list, I presume.
00:16:55 Tim Turner
Well, we like to think of it as a preferred destination, and so we do get a lot of looks and we're very proud of.
00:17:03 Mark Geoghegan
That let me get back to again some of those fantastic original premises Pat had with you when you were founding this business. Now that you're a public company is great to be able to read them all again in your investor presentations.
00:17:15 Mark Geoghegan
And something says I picked up again from having read some of your public investor presentations ahead of this interview. Just doing my preparation.
00:17:22 Mark Geoghegan
One of those theses was that the ENS share of US P&C market was going to increase and of course it's almost doubled since 2010. Now just under 22% of the marketplace. Where do you think it could get to? Do you think it's nearly done? And of course, we've had this discussion before I'm sure.
00:17:41 Mark Geoghegan
About how much of that is secular, a permanent change.
00:17:45 Mark Geoghegan
In the structure of the market and how much of it is cyclical, cause we know that some of it cyclical because it some of it ebbs and flows with the hardness and softness of the market. Again, how far do you think it could go because you've been absolutely right on that call and it's been a fantastic, obviously a great tailwind or a rising tide to lift everybody and you have risen with that tide magnificently.
00:18:05 Tim Turner
Well, thank you. What we see today is that, that ENFP flow remains very strong and we see the stamping result.
00:18:15 Tim Turner
And you don't make a whole lot out of the monthly numbers, or even the quarterly numbers, but these manual numbers are clearly a trend that we're seeing double digit growth of new non admitted property and casualty and with no signs of the admitted market coming back into these high hazard.
00:18:35 Tim Turner
Segments we feel there's a number of reasons to be positive about all of that. Obviously as you mentioned, specular and structural drivers of the risk, the big ones, climate change and.
00:18:49 Tim Turner
Social and economic inflation. So in these high hazard technical TNC practise group verticals where most of the business travels, the risks only continue to get larger frankly and more complex.
00:19:06 Tim Turner
And then on.
00:19:06 Tim Turner
Top of that, we have a more uncertain loss environment.
00:19:10 Tim Turner
Where ENS is just better suited to handle as you know, the big advantage we have is the freedom of rate and form.
00:19:19 Tim Turner
And the ability for our insurer partners and underwriters to adjust more quickly to the risk and now it feels like there's an increasing discipline in the underwriting community.
00:19:33 Tim Turner
So we think ENS growth should continue to outpace the growth in the admitted market. That's really the foundational change may not grow in the teens or the 20s every year, but we should continue to take market share. There's also been a shift in the commitment to the ENS market.
00:19:50 Tim Turner
You know, toward owning and acquiring dedicated and sophisticated ENS companies. That's been a big factor. You know, the companies just have a better understanding of what should remain on non admitted paper. In our opinion, it leads to less cyclical volatility. So difficult to put a number on it, but.
00:20:10 Tim Turner
Plenty of sustainable drivers in the EF growth picture.
00:20:15 Mark Geoghegan
But the ultimate thesis is it doesn't seem like the world's getting any simpler or less complicated. But if you're in the more complicated, more difficult hazard end of the market, then you're probably in the right place, given where things are.
00:20:28 Mark Geoghegan
Knowing.
00:20:29 Tim Turner
Yeah, that trend has clearly continued to expand and grow and we don't see any end to it.
00:20:37 Mark Geoghegan
Do you think also that perhaps clients who might have previously and in previous cycles dipped into the ENS market as a last resort, perhaps now because they're getting more sophisticated and better service, better responsive service?
00:20:53 Mark Geoghegan
They might stay. They're staying because actually they're thinking, oh, I didn't know, actually, that insurance could be this good or it could be this responsible, this bespoke. Do you think that's part of an element because you're actually just performing better and you're more likely to retain customers because you're better looking after than there used?
00:21:07 Mark Geoghegan
To be I.
00:21:08 Tim Turner
Definitely think there's an element of that you know the creativity and the ability to.
00:21:13 Tim Turner
Manuscript things like alternative risk structure. It's so attractive for more and more insurance, so that freedom of rate and form really gives us an advantage.
00:21:24 Tim Turner
That when creativity is needed and we just see more and.
00:21:29 Tim Turner
More of that for sure.
00:21:31 Mark Geoghegan
You've built this fantastic machine, this great net over the market, catching all the parts of it that are the difficult to do parts and a great problem solving machine for the insurance market to help retail brokers out when things that used to perhaps be easier to solve that were more vanilla, become more complicated. Because of that, you've got this fantastic.
00:21:51 Mark Geoghegan
Possibility over the market now, given your your market share and your position, or if you can tell me where the most pressure points are, where you're getting the most new enquiries from?
00:22:03 Tim Turner
Well, with the wholesale volume at the level that it's at, you really get a keen insight into changes and to migration of risk. And so there's a few that come to mind that would be I think good illustrations for our conversation today, high net worth and ultra.
00:22:23 Tim Turner
High net worth is a very, very hot segment right now and we've made tremendous progress in getting in front of this one.
00:22:32 Tim Turner
We've hired producers, built our own MG U and formed an exclusive with AIG's PCs. So we have proprietary product, we have broker expertise, we have all the elements of a real successful practise group vertical now in high net worth transportation.
00:22:53 Tim Turner
Maybe most likely the loss leader in the reinsurance world, it's the poster child for social inflation. Frankly, a lot of pressure, you know broadening into various areas of transportation. It's not just long haul trucking.
00:23:08 Tim Turner
More, but really, any commercial risk with a large fleet, thousands of extra heavy vehicles, those would risk need ENFP creativity. Whether it's a buffer attachment point, a unique risk transfer platform for them. But now it's extending to livery everything in livery.
00:23:29 Tim Turner
Shared Academy, those types of risks are absolutely coming into the non admitted market in droves. Just a major dumping and shedding by the admitted market.
00:23:42 Tim Turner
Healthcare. Healthcare is it's not just nursing homes anymore. You know, we're seeing a lot of movement in hospitals, hospital, professional liability really under tremendous duress and of course social and Human Services now is so much broader in the United States in terms of its need.
00:24:03 Tim Turner
For creativity in property and casualty solutions, so we do what we do in these practise groups that are loss leaders, we have several MG U's and social and Human Services and we have a very deep bench and professional liability for that space. And then?
00:24:22 Tim Turner
Maybe everyone's favourite sports and entertainment across every spectrum tied specifically to large venue anywhere there's crowds anywhere. There's large gatherings unfortunately here in the US you have active shooter exposure. Unfortunately, you have sexual molestation.
00:24:42 Tim Turner
Liability sensitive type of accounts. Those all need real expertise in structuring and and coverage issues. And so we're constantly working on enhancing our product offering and our Moat in these areas.
00:25:00 Tim Turner
So we're making a long term sustainable investment in these areas to strengthen our competitive edge.
00:25:08 Mark Geoghegan
In high net worth is that down to limit compression that kind of thing in the admitted carriers is just not opening up the sort of limits that someone who's got a high net worth property or series of properties and you know nice bits of artwork and other things just can't get the limits anymore. Is that probably 1?
00:25:23 Mark Geoghegan
Of the main drivers.
00:25:25 Tim Turner
Yeah, absolutely. Specifically though, it's where you see real discipline and limit deployment. And so there is a compression. The limits are available, the capacity is available. It's just in smaller increments, which lends itself to wholesalers and MU specialist.
00:25:45 Tim Turner
Who can weave this capacity together and have strong coverage continuity in a tower?
00:25:53 Mark Geoghegan
Yeah, especially. But sounds like that's almost across the board, isn't it? You're talking about property. You're talking about liabilities. You're talking about transportation. Like you've got opportunity almost everywhere that you can look.
00:26:07 Tim Turner
Well, there's certainly plenty to do and tremendous opportunities in the non admitted space these days. But these three or four that I mentioned are very acute and you know that's where the most non renewal notices. And as I said, dumping and shedding by the standard market is occurring.
00:26:27 Tim Turner
Today, as we speak.
00:26:29 Mark Geoghegan
This is going to be a discussion that could easily become obsolete given what happens with Hurricane Milton, but would it have been right to describe that the property cap market had on the insurance side on your side had probably stabilised. Would would that be right to say that that some of the more of the the greater demand was now away from property cat exposed?
00:26:50 Mark Geoghegan
Property because that capacity had reset and was now available, was able to meet demand. How big a caveat would be something like Milton. We don't know how big it's going to be. I presume that's going to again be something on your radar to say this could set this all off again.
00:27:06 Tim Turner
Well, I think that there was some rate deceleration in certain parts of cat, but the overall property market remains very strong. We expect it to be a a strong contributor to our success this year and certainly next year we're watching the estimates as many are.
00:27:26 Tim Turner
Hurricane Helene come in at 10 billion plus at a minimum.
00:27:30 Tim Turner
And of course, today, tomorrow, we're watching Hurricane Milton. We hope everyone in this path can safely navigate through the storm first and foremost. But we're very bullish on property. Actually, it's just too volatile and there's too many segments in that business that are difficult.
00:27:49 Tim Turner
Wildfire flood, convective storm. I mean the convective storm losses are staggering, so it definitely a rock solid flow of business and.
00:28:01 Tim Turner
And ask.
00:28:02 Tim Turner
And then we remain very confident that casualty will be a strong driver for us this year. The fourth quarter big casualty quarter and you know the higher loss trends as you know driven by economic and social inflation continue to drive business into our channel reserving issues.
00:28:23 Tim Turner
Due to the long tail nature and latency in claims and higher reinsurance costs all play a role in driving that high hazard business into our channel.
00:28:34 Tim Turner
So in our environment right now, it's just critical for these clients to get the specialisation, industry specialisation and product level knowledge that they need. So we pride ourselves in that. We pride ourselves in the breadth and the depth of that knowledge and technical expertise.
00:28:55 Tim Turner
So we're excited that we can bring more.
00:28:56 Tim Turner
Value to our customers.
00:28:58 Mark Geoghegan
It is amazing, isn't it, when we.
00:29:00 Mark Geoghegan
That we could have been at a conference 10 years ago and everyone saying, you know, we talk about PNC. Well, actually, we should start talking about it being CNP because you know, casualties where all the growth is going to be and property is going to stay static because it's tangible risk. There's only so many buildings in the world and we worked out how to insure them and of course loan builder. Soon someone said that property became dynamic because.
00:29:20 Mark Geoghegan
You know it's static. We know where it is, but it was the atmosphere around it became more dynamic. You know, there's severe convective storms and and all the other things that can happen, of course. And you can't move a building out of the way. And I completely concur with you on what you've just said about casualty.
00:29:34 Mark Geoghegan
I've just put out that my Monte Carlo documentary style podcasts after a huge amount of conversations with reinsurers and reinsurance broke us down there. And yes, catcher too, that took up more than half of my time talking about the nuances and worries. Obviously we've had those 218 years from last decade, but that creeping realisation, or at least the fear that some of the.
00:29:55 Mark Geoghegan
Post COVID years, although they're not mature, some of their early numbers aren't that great, and you know that certainly on frequency and potential severity, they don't look magnificent either. So again, there's a certain hesitancy there. So yeah, it sounds like there's jobs to be done all around for someone in your business.
00:30:13 Mark Geoghegan
One more question I want to ask you again because it ties into your wholesale globalisation in the whole cell world, we have one global institution which is Lloyds and Lloyds has changed a lot in the last few years. Certainly there's been a renaissance this and you found confidence. There's a new attitude to a broker and MGA backed syndicates.
00:30:33 Mark Geoghegan
And there's so many structures now available, there are alternative capital structures and other syndicates in boxes and other things available to.
00:30:40 Mark Geoghegan
The entrance could now be a good time for you to have another look at this old marketplace, particularly as your globalising.
00:30:47 Tim Turner
Well, Lloyd, they continue to be an incredibly constructive trading partner for Ryan Specialty in both delegated authority and broking. They're just a tremendous partner and they do so much.
00:31:00 Tim Turner
For us and others in the non admitted space traditionally, and even more so today, their ability to get into these niches.
00:31:09 Tim Turner
Whether it's binding authority programmes MG's and broking here directly in the US and certainly through our favourite London brokers, so in addition to the concerted efforts to digitise their platform and eliminate inefficiencies via the blueprint.
00:31:29 Tim Turner
They've done an even better job, in my opinion, in commercialising the platform through initiatives like the London Bridge.
00:31:37 Tim Turner
In a effort to bring new forms of capital to the market, I mean no one does it better in a global sense.
00:31:45 Mark Geoghegan
Do you think there might be any interest in? Obviously lots of MGA businesses have been able to start some of their own syndicates, perhaps sometimes taking a share across their portfolio, that kind of thing. Do you think any of those might?
00:31:57 Mark Geoghegan
Appeal to you.
00:31:58 Tim Turner
Well, I wouldn't rule it out, but it's certainly not a priority for us right now and a going forward basis. We continue to be avid supporters of that market, but we don't see ownership or launching of a syndicate as a key to our strategy at this time. The rationale.
00:32:19 Tim Turner
Being we have strategic trading partners with syndicate platforms already and the necessary infrastructure to bring alternative capital to the market. You know that's really what we're focusing on.
00:32:25
Yeah.
00:32:33 Mark Geoghegan
That's interesting because you already producing a huge amount of business into the Lloyds market one way or another anyway.
00:32:39 Tim Turner
Yes, they're just a tremendous partner for us, mark.
00:32:43 Mark Geoghegan
Well, we couldn't be sitting in 2024 and not talk about AI, I suppose. Ever since probably about 18 months ago, it's been something that I feel I have to talk to everyone about.
00:32:52 Mark Geoghegan
And I know.
00:32:53 Mark Geoghegan
Around specialties, you've been big investors in technology, certainly for trimming out any inefficiencies within the value chain, particularly as you're an extended part of that value chain.
00:33:03 Mark Geoghegan
Which historically used to add cost. And so you've always got that incentive to try to strip out any extra cost that is arising. Where are you seeing the best applications of AI within your organisation?
00:33:15 Tim Turner
You know the best way for me to answer the question is to really start with how we think about AI at Ryan Specialty. And I think the first step maybe in one of the most important is that we've made a strong foundational investment in our technology. As you said, electronic trading platforms, workflow solutions.
00:33:36 Tim Turner
Getting into the cloud, this will accelerate our ability.
00:33:40 Tim Turner
Harvest Insights and implement AI solutions across many of our segments and we've developed and plans and curated a one stop shop for data to feed various AI models and we're a company that's rich with proprietary data. We place well in excess of 25 billion.
00:34:02 Tim Turner
And premium into the market, we have historical risk and loss information back 10 years plus in many of our.
00:34:10 Tim Turner
MG U's.
00:34:11 Tim Turner
So I would say we're pursuing a few different areas right now, enhancing our underwriting profit is one of them, providing better advice to our clients based on market insight, we're definitely accelerating speed and efficiency and strengthening our ability more efficiently.
00:34:32 Tim Turner
Service growing and expanding number of submissions that we work on record-breaking submission flow.
00:34:39 Tim Turner
And of course, with that comes pretty strict compliance and regulatory monitoring. We're very proud of that.
00:34:46 Tim Turner
And we view AI as another tool in the toolbox, frankly, that supports the overall business strategy. So we're working hard to implement again various strategies. We think of the long term impact and they're really underappreciated. So we're excited to continue.
00:35:07 Tim Turner
To make progress in this area, we spend time on it every day at Ryan's specialty.
00:35:11 Mark Geoghegan
It sounds like you're interested in it on both sides of the fence in terms of an underwriting skill.
00:35:17 Mark Geoghegan
I ultimately to improve your loss ratio to make you better picker of risk of good risk versus bad, but also trying to improve processing speed and cost. And again unless you've got compliance costs as well. So out of those which you think is the most.
00:35:31 Tim Turner
Valuable. Well, I think they all play a role in the decision who really accelerate.
00:35:37 Tim Turner
To AI, business is so much about speed and efficiency. If everything else is.
00:35:43 Tim Turner
Equal.
00:35:44 Tim Turner
And so we see AI just making us so much more efficient and faster and more concise for our customers. So we're excited about advancing down this Ave and I think it'll make our entire industry more attractive.
00:36:01 Mark Geoghegan
The first time I met you face to face was in Chicago, and it was just before the market was turned. It was probably 2018-2019 just before that broad market turn that was beginning there. And I know you were very excited and it was an interesting time because I was sort of asking about your business and this was a a chat in a cafe in Chicago and you were most excited about how you were getting handle that.
00:36:21 Mark Geoghegan
Volume because you knew that volume of submissions was coming and it was going to be almost an administrative problem and also a personnel problem. Could you hire enough people to man the phones to deal with those queries quick enough so that you could seize on that opportunity? So again, it sounds like speed to market is still really important.
00:36:40 Tim Turner
Well, that's a great memory, mark. Thank you for bringing that up and.
00:36:43 Mark Geoghegan
No, I never forget that. Because you're the first person who actually told me that the market was turning and you had great conviction. And of course you were.
00:36:50 Tim Turner
Well, it's a fond memory and I would say that the volume of business that has moved into the ENS sector over the last decade, as you pointed out early on in our conversation has been historical. Looking back on it. And so we knew.
00:37:07 Tim Turner
As we have.
00:37:08 Tim Turner
For quite some time and we certainly.
00:37:10 Tim Turner
No. Today that breadth and depth is so important and high quality ability to handle these transactions at a high rate of speed.
00:37:22 Tim Turner
But not lose, you know the effectiveness and the accuracy of building these solutions and serving our clients. So you know the winners, there's several of us and there's many winners in our industry, but the real champions understand the constant challenge of recruiting, developing and building.
00:37:43 Tim Turner
Talent. That's what wins for our customers. They want the front end talent, but they want the depth and the breadth to be able to handle these transactions from top to bottom. It's a long term commitment.
00:37:59 Tim Turner
To service these practise group verticals.
00:38:03 Mark Geoghegan
So you gotta be quick, but it's gonna be really detailed and really good all at the same time.
00:38:08 Tim Turner
Hello.
00:38:08 Mark Geoghegan
And if you've got an artificial intelligence, indefatigable sort of assistant to assist you, you can be so much more productive, can't you? If if that assistant is going to read 150 inspection reports of a property programme, then so much the better if it can flag up things that you wouldn't necessarily have had time to do yourself. That can be really helpful. Kind of anything that can save time, and it can.
00:38:29 Mark Geoghegan
Pinpoint potential problems.
00:38:31 Tim Turner
Exactly. We're really excited about what it can do for us.
00:38:36 Mark Geoghegan
Well, Tim, thank you so much. I think I've come to the end of my question. So unless you've got something to add, I just want to thank you so much for giving up some time and coming on the show and checking back in after a few years. Everything's changed so much in the last few years. I'm sure by the next time we get to talk, you get another spare hour, things will have changed hugely again. So I'm really looking forward to that. And I wish you well along the way.
00:38:58 Tim Turner
Well, thank you so much, Mark. It's always a pleasure to be with you. And you really do have some great questions and it's been a fun engagement here this morning. So thank you.
00:39:09 Mark Geoghegan
Thanks so much. Yes, I can ask the questions, but if you don't answer them, Tim, then I don't have much of A show. So thank you so much for doing that with great candour and great thoughts and insights. So thank you very much and looking forward to having on the show next.
00:39:20 Tim Turner
Time well again. Thank you, Mark and all the best to you.