Karen Jackson is a private client broker who has worked at Momentum since 2010. She is one of a team of four who look after personal lines. In particular, Karen deals with high-net-worth clients. She also works on standard household, motor and caravan. When she’s not in the office, she loves the great outdoors and walking her dog.
Most of my work involves speaking to our broker partners to find out what their clients’ requirements are, then sending quotes out to market and liaising with insurers. I’m not usually client-facing, but I’ll occasionally take over from one of our broking partners if they’re on holiday, for example.
With non-standard personal lines, you need to make sure you understand the needs of the client, so the broker partner will evaluate their circumstances and maybe visit their homes to make sure they get the right policy. I might do some research, such as looking at their properties online and then check which product I think will suit the client.
I attend management meetings on behalf of the department. We have a department leader meeting every six weeks with the Operations and Broking Directors, and there’s a separate management meeting to go over company results, too.
8am: We have a central system that quotes come into, known as the Zen desk. First thing, I’ll spend some time loading the risks from there into our IT system, Acturis. Technical knowledge is a must in this job – you need to be able to place the risks with the right insurer and answer any questions about the policies the broker partners may have.
9am: At 9am, I might prepare some presentations to be sent out to market. Insurers will review these and come back with suitable products for the risk. When you’re broking for private clients, it’s not just a case of filling in a form and sending it off – they need bespoke policies for their particular assets. We’ll often put together a portfolio for them that covers a few different insurance policies, such as home, motor and travel.
10am: I’ll review what the insurers are offering, and if necessary, negotiate terms with them – for example, if I think the excess is a little high for that particular risk. If there’s anything really complex or I think could cause an issue, I’ll refer it to my manager to look at.
11am: Some standard risks will come in via email, so I’ll put them into our system. I might also spend time rekeying quotes if our broker partners have asked for any amendments to be made to the existing quote.
1pm: After lunch, I spend some time dealing with mid-term adjustments to existing policies — things like a change of address, a new car or an addition to an art collection.
2pm: Every week we have a meeting with a different insurer to discuss their products. It’s nice to build up a relationship with them, because if there are problems, we know who to go to get them sorted.
3pm: Personal development is a big thing at Momentum. I might do some training through our online portal or attend an on-site training session with an insurer to keep our knowledge up to date.
4pm: Every month or six weeks I have a one-to-one with my manager to go through my performance for the previous month and talk about anything that might crop up. We’ll chat about any broker partners who need help, or I might go to a team meeting. During these, we talk about the business strategies, preferred markets and non-standard markets. They keep us up to date about what’s going on in the company and anything coming up that we need to know about.
My favourite part of my role is dealing with high-net-worth households. They are usually quite complex cases that need specialist advice because their lifestyles differ from most people’s – it’s interesting to see how the other half live! There are quite a few celebs on the books, and it’s fascinating when you learn about their properties to get a feel of their lifestyles. They might have high-value individual items that need insuring like prestige cars or paintings.
