FEATURE / PRIVATE PERFECTION
TAKING THE REINS The departure of Shawn DeSantis from RSA meant the dual promotion of Donna Ince and Martin Thompson to senior VP roles
RSA’s Donna Ince and Martin Thompson have each moved up the ranks since the departure of Shawn DeSantis, former executive vice president, RSA Insurance, this summer. Ince was appointed senior vice president of Personal Insurance and Commercial Insurance in July, while Martin Thompson took the reins as senior vice president of Global Specialty Lines in August. They each sat down with Insurance Business Magazine to discuss what their visions are for these lines of insurance.
IB: Donna, P&C is arguably Canada’s most hotly-contested segment. What is on your agenda in terms of strengthening the hands of brokers within your network as they compete with consumer directs? DI: We’re committed to supporting brokers in building a differentiated value proposition so they can compete effectively against direct players. This includes investments in tools to drive efficiencies; to-date we have invested over $30 million in eBusiness initiatives to deliver ease of doing business for brokers (including EZ Docs, ePolicy, BRAVO, WebBusiness). To RSA, the differentiated value proposition also means a greater focus on the Advice Based Customer: working with brokers to attract and retain clients who place a high value on the expert advice of a broker. Education is another important piece of our broker investment. This includes valuable opportunities such as our flagship Making Partner program with Queen’s University as well as ongoing broker bootcamps and deeper technical training. 52 | OCTOBER 2013
IB: Your responsibilities are in P&C. How have you seen the product offer evolve in P&C over the last 10 years? Where would you like to take it? DI: In line with the industry, RSA has continued to evolve towards very comprehensive offerings as well as higher end offerings for our Personal Insurance customers. However, with the strong emergence of non-fire perils, we need to examine how we move forward with these propositions in light of changing weather patterns and sensitivities to certain exposures. For example, how should we view guaranteed replacement costs when it comes to earthquake coverage? Or how can we continue to protect our customers on water losses, but also manage the volatility within our performance? A second consideration for us is to further focus our Personal Insurance offering increasingly towards the specific needs of our target customer segments, as opposed to using the traditional “mass appeal” approach. As new loss trends continue to emerge, we will need to be more conscious and selective in our offering enhancements. This will help ensure our propositions add value to the customer but are also sustainable for us as an insurer. In Commercial Insurance (small-to-medium sized business), we’ve seen that an ease of doing business approach to service has become table stakes for insurance in this space. The Commercial Insurance product is becoming increasingly commoditized and direct insurance is on the rise for this business segment. We recognize the importance of the broker in this space. IB: Martin, your responsibilities are in global specialty lines. How important is this product for RSA today? How has it grown as a product in the industry? MT: Global Specialty Lines (GSL) is a segment defined as upper mid-market, large, complex domestic and multinational risks, with premiums of more than $25,000. GSL is a major strategic priority for RSA globally. We’ve seen high double digit growth over the last three to four years and the business has delivered strong profitability. We will continue to focus on specialization in areas where we are experts, including energy, marine, cargo, E&O/D&O and excess casualty, and on our core strengths in general P&C business. GSL is headed in a great direction; we’re a leading player