1. Getting Started. MGA Zen – The art of building a well-run intermediary.
Updated: Aug 27
By David Plummer, Group CEO, Bluefriars Group
1. Getting Started.
Perhaps one of the most important lessons I have learned running Bluefriars, the MGA and broker incubator, for over a dozen years is that a broker or underwriter, no matter how successful or how well-qualified, is not, or at least not yet, an entrepreneur.
Firms build their governance, support structures and controls over decades, ensuring layers of risk management permeate daily business activity. This can be a problem as well as a solution, particularly when legacy systems and scalability issues interfere with sensible commercial practice. However, properly implemented structures allow producing brokers and underwriters to focus fully on repeatable income growth within their firm’s risk appetite.
Put simply, good business practices work. Even better, they naturally keep firms’ activity inside the regulatory perimeter. If you like a soundbite, proper preparation promotes profit.
The days when an application to UK or European regulators could be regarded as simple to complete, subject to a good business plan and sufficient resources, have passed. The FCA places much more emphasis on the requirement for firms to demonstrate that they are “ready, willing and organised” from day one of their activity. This includes a full understanding of all rules applying to them and all behaviours expected of them expressed in finalised documents that meet regulators expectations. In our experience, the depth of expectation has also shifted in favour of significant detail.
As such, many brokers and underwriters with a big idea simply lack the scope of expertise and the resources to meet the FCA’s tests for authorisation. This is where incubation comes in, either as a stop-gap solution, or a permanent answer that allows production expertise to be focused on profitable growth whilst commercial activity is managed through well-governed, pre-existing structures.
At Bluefriars, we can help risk assess, plan, and launch your big idea. Contact us at principal@bluefriars.co.uk for access to our free pre-planning resources and our free risk assessment of your big idea.
Visit our website: https://www.bluefriars.co.uk
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