Indemnity Insurer Actively Seeks To Reward Well Managed Firms

Indemnity Insurer Actively Seeks To Reward Well Managed Firms

Firms who maintain a claims-free record may be able to benefit from a financial rebate provided it meets certain conditions.

New professional indemnity insurer New Eden is claiming to be the first to offer firms “direct financial rewards”.

Richard Brown, Chairman of New Eden, said in an interview with Legal Futures that rewards could take the form of a full annual rebate of the premium in a firm’s fourth year if it remained claims-free.

“If you can prove the firm is well run, there is no good reason why premiums should increase just because a hardening market dictates that they should,” he said.

“If you run your business well and provide a good, profitable business to the underwriter, why would he not want to share some of it with you?

“There should be more of a partnership between insurer and insured, where they both share in the firm doing well.”

Mr Brown said he had seen a rewards-based approach applied to firms with “particularly bad claims experiences” which later improved, but never to good firms.

He said law firms which were not totally claims-free, but kept their claims within limits could benefit from a rebate worth part of the premium.

“We recognise that a firm cannot always be totally claims-free because they have customers who make allegations, but at the outset they should know what their goals and rewards are.”

Mr Brown said New Eden was backed by two A+ rated insurers, which he did not want to name.

He has worked in the PII sector for 30 years, specialising in work for law firms for 20 years in roles at the likes of brokers Prime Professions and Miller.

He said the insurer wanted to move away from insuring firms based on type of work.

“There are good conveyancing firms which are very well run and risk averse and should not be put together with other ones,” he said. “It should be more about how they do the work and how they run the firm.”

He added that New Eden was particularly aimed at firms with one to 10 partners, paying premiums of £10,000 to £100,000, but was available to firms of all sizes.

Legal Eye Director Jody Evans said:

“This could be an interesting avenue for firms to explore and supports our view that having a demonstrably robust approach to risk management can deliver tangible commercial benefits to a firm. At a time when firms will need to closely review their options for PI insurance it’s encouraging to know that there are insurers who actively recognise the advantages that well-run firms have in the market irrespective of the type of work they carry out.”

This article was submitted to be published by Legal Eye as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.

Legal Eye

https://www.legal-eye.co.uk/

Legal Eye works with law firms to ensure compliance and optimise performance. Their extensive and thorough knowledge of the law and regulations will ensure your law firm is compliant and your processes sound. Files are audited to ensure you are not only complying with the service level agreements you have in place, but very importantly, also the code of conduct. They provide a documented audit trail which is firstly, a requirement of the code of conduct and secondly, essential for PI Insurance purposes and very often for CQS, Lexcel and other quality accreditations. This provides documented evidence of a proactive approach towards risk management. The advice they offer is clear and practical, and they pride themselves on exceptional customer service and unbeatable work quality.

Services include:

  • Specialist expertise across the full range of regulatory, risk and compliance issues to inform your internal decision making.
  • Additional qualified resource where you simply do not have the time to review your regulatory position or to carry out essential ongoing tasks such as file reviews.
  • An online risk hub –  an online resource centre for law firms. The hub provides a comprehensive bank of resources to help COLPs, COFAs, partners, directors and managers to manage risk. It includes precedent policy and procedure documents and templates, access to online training on a range of risk and compliance topics, and a range of useful materials such as ‘how to’ guides, short videos and articles.
  • Drafting and review of key policies and procedures including the supply of ‘document packs’ to save you time researching and writing documentation.
  • Expert advice on how to comply with up-to-date regulation including the very latest requirements complete with a written set of recommendations.
  • Specialist outsourced complaints  handling service provided by former SRA and LeO officers.
  • Gap analysis of your firm’s policies, processes and procedures as they relate to the Solicitors Accounts Rules (SAR) including the production of a written report summarising the strengths and weaknesses of the current arrangements and detailing recommended next steps and actions to put your firm in an even stronger position.
  • Training on SAR and on anti money laundering (AML) as well as other finance-related training which can be delivered virtually for your firm, face-to-face (subject to government guidance) or online via Legal Eye’s Training Academy.
  • A Standard Procedures Manual to provide a practical and comprehensive roadmap for firms to follow when looking to double check whether the current operating procedures are fit for purpose, setting up a new firm – or arm of a firm – or starting a new finance function from scratch.
  • Experienced advice and support for one-off projects such as achieving quality accreditations or switching regulators.
  • Proven high quality training for fee earners and staff held at your office/s covering essential risk topics such as  Anti Money Laundering, data  protection, cybercrime, conflict of  interest and more.
  • Online training from The Legal Eye Academy – core modules available to all staff at their convenience. Includes built-in auto reminder functionality so that you no longer have to chase staff indi-vidually to complete important training. Your package includes free updates to ensure knowledge is always up to date.
  • Added value updates by email to all your key people covering all the latest updates on risk and compliance.
  • The Legal Eye team includes former solicitors, partners and directors in law firms; former case handlers at regulators such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman and experienced risk and compliance professionals.
Contact: Paul Saunder Tel: 0203 0512 049 Email:  bestpractice@legal-eye.co.uk Address The Old Grammar School Church Road Thame Oxfordshire OX9 3AJ

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *