Gallagher’s Pen secures £100m capacity deal in ‘challenging’ market
London-based managing general agent (MGA) Pen Underwriting, a subsidiary of re/insurance broker Gallagher, has secured a new £100 million capacity deal for solicitors’ professional indemnity (PI), which it says “at times has been a turbulent market”.
The new multi-year capacity deal will enable Pen to write in excess of £100 million over the next three years.
Backed by A-rated security and existing capacity partners, the new binder agreement will take Pen beyond the 25-year milestone of continuous market commitment through to 2026. Pen’s launched the offering back in September 2000, when the profession first switched to the open market and the mutual Solicitors’ Indemnity Fund (SIF) stopped providing primary PI cover.
Pen will use the new capacity to continue providing primary cover of up to £3 million across the full spectrum of its diverse underwriting footprint for forthcoming 2023 renewals.
Its broad underwriting appetite covers both high street firms undertaking a mix of work and specialist firms, focusing on a wide range of areas from personal injury and criminal law to family law and intellectual property.
Paul Crilly, head of Solicitors’ PI at Pen Underwriting, said: “With the UK solicitors’ PI market having stabilised, the focus of brokers on quality of service, proposal turnaround time and ability to access complementary covers is greater than ever, and rightly so. We know how much brokers value our long-term commitment to providing protection to UK law firms but the speed, accessibility and willingness of our skilled underwriters to trade, as well as our claims specialists to respond, will always be the daily deliverables by which we judge ourselves.
“Recent research by the Law Society found that the average time it takes brokers from submitting a renewal proposal to receiving a quote is approximately one month, and that seven in 10 law firms (72%) still don’t have cyber cover in place. Our underwriters will always work closely with brokers to ensure we turnaround quotes as promptly as possible while ensuring they have the tools at their disposal to outline and convey the very real benefits of cyber insurance to their clients. Such low take-up levels demonstrate solicitors may well be leaving themselves exposed to this growing area of risk. That said, it’s important they can access specialist, standalone cyber insurance tailored to their needs to avoid gaps in coverage.”
Richard Webb, managing director of UK financial lines & specialist liability, added: “Securing such a significant multi-year capacity deal is testament not only to the quality and technical capabilities of our specialists in solicitors’ PI but the wider Pen team in delivering all the data, distribution and actuarial expertise our capacity partners demand and value. And that means we can keep providing our brokers with the reassurance they look for in terms of long-term support for their clients, even in the most specialist and challenging markets.”
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