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Brokers – win a trip to Bali with Catlin International insurer Catlin is offering brokers a chance to win a trip to Bali to see the latest stage in its global marine science project. The winner will travel to Bali next month to dive or snorkel with the Catlin Seaview Survey team, which is studying the health of coral reefs worldwide. The competition is being run by Catlin in partnership with Insurance News. Contest entrants have until August 31 to answer five questions online. It’s the second time Catlin and Insurance News have partnered for this competition. In 2012 two brokers were flown to Cairns and helicoptered offshore to spend a day with the Catlin Seaview Survey team on the Great Barrier Reef. Last year the team moved to the Caribbean, and now it is examining the tropical waters of the Coral Triangle around the Philippines, Timor-Leste and Indonesia.
PUBLISHER/EDITOR: TERRY McMULLAN McMullan Conway Communications Pty Ltd Tel: + 61 3 9499 5538 Fax: +61 3 9499 5535 Email: publisher@insurancenews.com.au ADVERTISING: NAOMI CONWAY McMullan Conway Communications Pty Ltd Tel: +61 3 9499 5538 Fax: +61 3 9499 5535 Email: naomi@mccmedia.com.au ARTWORK DELIVERY TO: McMullan Conway Communications Pty Ltd PO Box 116, Ivanhoe VIC 3079 Australia or Level 1, 120 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe VIC 3079 (COURIERS ONLY) Email: naomi@mccmedia.com.au
Catlin Australia Director Andrew Case says the company is “really excited to be partnering with Insurance News for this competition, because it will provide one lucky person with a deep insight into the workings of the Catlin Seaview Survey and how it’s making a difference to the scientific community. “The Catlin Seaview Survey aims to enable scientists to monitor changes on the Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea and now the Coral Triangle for decades to come,” Mr Case said. The winner will receive a three-day trip to Bali, with two nights’ accommodation, return economy airfares, transfers, main meals and a visit to the Catlin Seaview Survey dive site. Brokers can enter the competition at http://www.catlin.com/en/asiapacific/ australia
Terry McMullan
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A McMullan Conway production
ISSN 1837-4972
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The picture of Aleksandr the meerkat on the cover of our last edition drew a lot of comment, not least from British readers whose enthusiasm for the little guy has made insurance comparator comparethemarket.co.uk an amazing success. While the accompanying article explained why Australian insurers are snubbing comparison sites, the trend for consumers to do their own insurance research online is unstoppable. The problem is not the sites; it’s consumers’ fixation on price to the exclusion of the product’s fitness for purpose. In this edition we have news of a business comparator starting up with a bold plan to help people do their online research while giving them access to a broker at any point. That’s one solution worthy of success. Innovation is relatively rare in this industry, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear insurance leaders at the International Insurance Society’s seminar in London in June welcome the massive influx of capital into the reinsurance sector. A report on the discussion is on page 10. Rather than worry about its impact on the established reinsurers, the insurers see the capital windfall as an opportunity to expand into new markets, develop new products or get involved in the hocus-pocus of insurance-linked securities. So while Australian insurers are quite right to worry about personal lines consumers’ emphasis on price – let’s face it, it’s hardly a new phenomenon – they would be unwise to leave the comparators hosting only smaller “challenger” brands. We don’t know what the final answer to the growing presence of the comparators should be, but like the disruptive inflow of investor capital into reinsurance, opportunities will inevitably arise from such a popular distribution channel. Rejection isn’t the answer, so maybe innovation is.
insuranceNEWS
August/September 2014
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