Aon is relentlessly advocating for its client base in early renewal discussions in Monte Carlo, Aon group CEO Greg Case told Insurance Insider, as reinsurer public messaging signals the need for further rate rises following a year of hard pricing.
Responding to suggestions that markets naturally find their level on pricing and terms and conditions, Case rejected the idea that “the market will be the market, and the price will be the price” as “ridiculous.”
“We’re here to make the market, not take the market,” he said. “We always go to battle [for our clients].”
Speaking in an interview at the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, the long-serving Aon CEO stressed that it was Aon’s job to deploy its content and capability to ensure that individual clients do not get a market outcome.
“That’s unacceptable from our perspective,” he argued.
Aon has become embroiled in the recent Vesttoo crisis, and is engaged in a lawsuit against the failing InsurTech relating to fraudulent collateral on $2.35bn of letters of credit relating to intellectual property (IP) transactions.
IP has been one of Aon’s big bets in terms of efforts to create net new markets in insurance, with the broker repeatedly emphasizing that the industry must find new solutions to address client need around protecting and leveraging intangible assets.
Questioned on whether the Vesttoo scandal changed Aon’s perspective on its work to foster new markets, Case reiterated the broker’s commitment to a broader drive on innovation, and specifically to its IP financing product.
The Aon CEO said: “Are we fundamentally interested in innovation and all that comes with it, the highs and the lows? One hundred percent – absolutely focused on it because our clients require it. And our mission is to deliver on behalf of clients.”
Case went on to say that the IP product – which offers companies another source of growth capital base tied to their intangible assets – had provided clients with $2.6bn of limit, with around $500mn of premium placed with 25 insurers.
He acknowledged that there are “continuous lessons to be learned in development”, but said that this was true historically of other areas that are now core P&C products, like D&O.
Case stressed that the IP product was seeing continued growth in demand, and that it was meeting a pressing client need, while arguing that there were far more applications of insurance within intangible assets.
The executive also touched on the importance of Aon’s May reorganisation, which saw the firm align its structure around two primary categories of client need: risk capital, and human capital. At that point a single leader was appointed for both, with reinsurance solutions CEO Andy Marcell promoted to become CEO of risk capital, and then-CEO of commercial risk solutions Lambros Lambrou moving to become CEO of human capital.
Case explained that in the new structure its analytics capabilities would be leveraged across commercial risk solutions and reinsurance solutions.
“It basically applies 1,000 data analytics specialists in the context of what we’re doing across Aon – all connected, bringing integrated solutions to clients.”
