MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS
“ I want us to be known as the disruptors in the insurance space . The company that ' s entrepreneurial , nimble , able to move quickly , and reacts to new market signals quickly ”
CHRIS JONES CHIEF PRODUCT AND STRATEGY OFFICER , MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS
“ Over the last couple years , to our benefit , there have been several of these other carriers that have started up and people truly understand what we ' re trying to do ,” Jones continues . “ Their business model is fully aligned with our business model .
“ One of the big fears of a programme administrator used to be that you would wake up one day and your programme ' s performing fine , but your carrier partner , who isn ' t a programme carrier , just decides they don ' t like programmes anymore . That would happen , and then you ' re sitting there trying to find new carriers for it .”
Jones explains that it ’ s still not simple to go and find a carrier to support your business , but that more people are beginning to understand what Mission is doing and how it operates .
Providing a step-up on technology As daunting as it may seem for entrepreneurs , there are many underwriters and MGAs that would love to start again from the ground up . Many are held back by systems that have been in place for decades , and that now have such a strong stranglehold over their data it ’ s almost impossible for them to migrate away .
The process of cleansing that data alone is a time consuming one . If not done properly , it can lead to the legacy platform being recreated in a newer system and mistakes being repeated . For some , even the cultural shift required to bring management onboard is too great a hurdle .
So with the support that Mission provides , the entrepreneurs who join the programme are able to get a major step-up on the incumbents . The person responsible for ensuring they realise that technical advantage is Mission ’ s Chief Digital Officer Alex Williams .
“ I would say the major technical challenge for our underwriting teams is how we can get them up and running quickly without sacrificing quality ,” Williams says . “ It ' s not just getting them up to where they are producing and writing business and premium , but how we continue to evolve their product and make sure that technology is a block-step in enabling that .
56 August 2022