Is technology a silver bullet for MGAs?

Leveraging technology to secure growth and better profitability, and attract better people, is close to top of the agenda for many MGAs. They hope it can help them with today’s major challenges, including an ever-growing regulatory burden.

For the most part, the managing general agent (MGA) market is in bullish mood at the moment. Rates remain robust in many lines of business, capacity is abundant and there is ample disruption in the market to create new opportunities for shops willing to work hard and innovative.

But growing MGAs face some nasty headaches. The first of those is around talent: it is increasingly difficult to find and keep good people. The second, which some might characterise as more of a migraine, is around the regulatory burden. It is getting bigger and more costly to manage.                      

These challenges were clear to see in the results of a survey conducted by Intelligent Insurer in partnership with the Managing General Agents’ Association (MGAA). On the question of talent, some 70 percent of respondents said getting the talent required has been more difficult in the past 12 months, although this figure falls slightly when the data is examined for MGAs alone.