Ensurance CEO Stefan Hicks wants to get brokers engaged with insurance, through new technology and point-of-sale quotes
Ensurance CEO Stefan Hicks wants to get brokers engaged with insurance, through new technology and point-of-sale quotes from multiple insurers.
MPA: What is Ensurance, and how is it relevant to mortgage brokers?
Stefan Hicks: Ensurance is a multi-faceted product producer and servicer for general insurance products. What the company does is it allows our white label partners to have the infrastructure to sell general insurance at the point of sale.
MPA: What makes Ensurance different from other insurance companies brokers may have worked with?
SH: We have multiple quotes. You’re not going to have Insurer A sell Insurer B’s products, and you’re not going to have Insurer C sell Insurer D’s products. So the people who are licensed to give multiple quotes from multiple insurers are insurance brokers. One division of ours is an insurance brokerage that has been going for over 25 years and that allows us, with our IT platforms, to give a cross-section of multiple quotes and multiple insurers at the same time.
MPA: What products does Ensurance offer?
SH: Home and contents insurance is the one that we are [highlighting]. We have many products on our platforms, including commercial, SME, construction, trades, but the two that are most of interest to the mortgage broking industry are home and contents, and landlords insurance.
We have other products that are available. We have a double housing cost insurance – which is like bridging finance – which is a first in Australia. That will [mean that for] people who have bought a second home who haven’t yet sold their first home, if they haven’t sold in a period of time, the insurance will pay for the interest and the cost of that first home.
MPA: A lot of brokers deal with SME clients, and are trying to expand into that space. Would they be able to offer commercial insurance through this platform, or should they go through your insurance division?
SH: It depends on the complexity of the risk, but we design our platforms to allow the acceptance of most of the insurances and the risks out there. If they want commercial business, it really depends on what it is, but they can use us, or they can use our platform – they’ve got an option there. The platform is designed so something like house and contents and landlords insurance is easy for us to do because it fits through the box. It’s a lot easier for the platform to manage.
MPA: Could you walk brokers through the process of getting home and contents insurance through your platform?
SH: If they’ve already got the client’s information, they can get the quotes themselves. Or, if the client is sitting there, they can do it at the point of sale and give the client the quotes at that time.
If the client’s not ready, we email the quotes out, and then you can pick up the email and go back to the unique quote, or the client picks an insurer, follows through the steps, and pays for it by credit card. Then all the documentation and compliance documents are returned automatically through email, including the certificate of insurance, which is essential for a settlement.
MPA: Is it possible for brokers to ‘white label’ your products, or is it obvious that this is an Ensurance product coming from an Ensurance platform?
SH: What actually happens is that, as far as the customer journey is concerned, we can change our websites, we can include their logos and their colours, we can do everything like that, so the customer knows that it belongs to that company and the customer journey originates from that company. By the end of it though, the documentation, which is small anyway, has to come from our office because of our compliance and our Australian Financial Services License.
MPA: Will this platform be accessible and easy to implement for very small broking operations, including one-man operations?
SH: Absolutely, it’s just as simple. The platform doesn’t change, whether it’s an organisation with 1000 brokers or an individual one. It’s exactly the same.
MPA: Would you consider partnering with aggregators to give brokers access to your platform?
SH: We’re open to dealing with anyone who wants to use our platforms and service. Whether it’s a mortgage broker or aggregator doesn’t really matter to us, because it comes through in exactly the same manner.
MPA: How far can brokers go when explaining the products offered by your platform, whilst staying within regulations?
SH: Our platform is an advice-driven platform. On the actual quote, below the quote, we have a policy comparison. Not only is there a price, that the insurance policy costs, but below that is a policy comparison which tells the client what they’re covered for and what they’re not covered for and is across all the policies and all the quotes on the platform.
What we try and do is put as much information in there as possible for the client or the agent to make a decision, because of the information we’ve put into it. For anything outside of that they can give us a quick call or use the online chat system. So it’s very fast and comes through instantly.
MPA: How does Ensurance help make insurance a bigger part of brokers’ businesses?
SH: What Ensurance does, and what most insurers don’t offer at the moment, is renewal commission. So Ensurance is offering the mortgage broking industry renewal commission as well. We give them upfront plus renewal commission, which allows them to build a book of business over a period of time. They can wake up on the 1st of July and they have x amount of dollars already without having to do anything because of their general insurance book. We’re able to support that because of the ease with which we can manage our clients through the platform.
Secondly, if you use a single insurer, you’re going to get a strike rate of x. If you use a multi-insurer, your strike rate is going to be a lot higher because you’re offering more products. As for the ease of use, previously, if you wanted four quotes for home and contents insurance, you’d have to go to four different websites, which can take up to two hours, and we can get it out in 90 seconds.
So there are a number of reasons why brokers should take this up, probably the most important being that will increase their income margin on each client that they bring in.
MPA: How would you like Ensurance’s relationship with brokers to develop over the next 12 months, and how would you like to be perceived a year from now?
SH: We want to be perceived as the go-to company for general insurance. We’re making it as easy as possible for these guys to write general insurance and to widen their product offerings to their clients. With the ease and the success of it, we should be known as the company that delivered exactly what the industry was asking for.
MPA: What is Ensurance, and how is it relevant to mortgage brokers?
Stefan Hicks: Ensurance is a multi-faceted product producer and servicer for general insurance products. What the company does is it allows our white label partners to have the infrastructure to sell general insurance at the point of sale.
MPA: What makes Ensurance different from other insurance companies brokers may have worked with?
SH: We have multiple quotes. You’re not going to have Insurer A sell Insurer B’s products, and you’re not going to have Insurer C sell Insurer D’s products. So the people who are licensed to give multiple quotes from multiple insurers are insurance brokers. One division of ours is an insurance brokerage that has been going for over 25 years and that allows us, with our IT platforms, to give a cross-section of multiple quotes and multiple insurers at the same time.
MPA: What products does Ensurance offer?
SH: Home and contents insurance is the one that we are [highlighting]. We have many products on our platforms, including commercial, SME, construction, trades, but the two that are most of interest to the mortgage broking industry are home and contents, and landlords insurance.
We have other products that are available. We have a double housing cost insurance – which is like bridging finance – which is a first in Australia. That will [mean that for] people who have bought a second home who haven’t yet sold their first home, if they haven’t sold in a period of time, the insurance will pay for the interest and the cost of that first home.
MPA: A lot of brokers deal with SME clients, and are trying to expand into that space. Would they be able to offer commercial insurance through this platform, or should they go through your insurance division?
SH: It depends on the complexity of the risk, but we design our platforms to allow the acceptance of most of the insurances and the risks out there. If they want commercial business, it really depends on what it is, but they can use us, or they can use our platform – they’ve got an option there. The platform is designed so something like house and contents and landlords insurance is easy for us to do because it fits through the box. It’s a lot easier for the platform to manage.
MPA: Could you walk brokers through the process of getting home and contents insurance through your platform?
SH: If they’ve already got the client’s information, they can get the quotes themselves. Or, if the client is sitting there, they can do it at the point of sale and give the client the quotes at that time.
If the client’s not ready, we email the quotes out, and then you can pick up the email and go back to the unique quote, or the client picks an insurer, follows through the steps, and pays for it by credit card. Then all the documentation and compliance documents are returned automatically through email, including the certificate of insurance, which is essential for a settlement.
MPA: Is it possible for brokers to ‘white label’ your products, or is it obvious that this is an Ensurance product coming from an Ensurance platform?
SH: What actually happens is that, as far as the customer journey is concerned, we can change our websites, we can include their logos and their colours, we can do everything like that, so the customer knows that it belongs to that company and the customer journey originates from that company. By the end of it though, the documentation, which is small anyway, has to come from our office because of our compliance and our Australian Financial Services License.
MPA: Will this platform be accessible and easy to implement for very small broking operations, including one-man operations?
SH: Absolutely, it’s just as simple. The platform doesn’t change, whether it’s an organisation with 1000 brokers or an individual one. It’s exactly the same.
MPA: Would you consider partnering with aggregators to give brokers access to your platform?
SH: We’re open to dealing with anyone who wants to use our platforms and service. Whether it’s a mortgage broker or aggregator doesn’t really matter to us, because it comes through in exactly the same manner.
MPA: How far can brokers go when explaining the products offered by your platform, whilst staying within regulations?
SH: Our platform is an advice-driven platform. On the actual quote, below the quote, we have a policy comparison. Not only is there a price, that the insurance policy costs, but below that is a policy comparison which tells the client what they’re covered for and what they’re not covered for and is across all the policies and all the quotes on the platform.
What we try and do is put as much information in there as possible for the client or the agent to make a decision, because of the information we’ve put into it. For anything outside of that they can give us a quick call or use the online chat system. So it’s very fast and comes through instantly.
MPA: How does Ensurance help make insurance a bigger part of brokers’ businesses?
SH: What Ensurance does, and what most insurers don’t offer at the moment, is renewal commission. So Ensurance is offering the mortgage broking industry renewal commission as well. We give them upfront plus renewal commission, which allows them to build a book of business over a period of time. They can wake up on the 1st of July and they have x amount of dollars already without having to do anything because of their general insurance book. We’re able to support that because of the ease with which we can manage our clients through the platform.
Secondly, if you use a single insurer, you’re going to get a strike rate of x. If you use a multi-insurer, your strike rate is going to be a lot higher because you’re offering more products. As for the ease of use, previously, if you wanted four quotes for home and contents insurance, you’d have to go to four different websites, which can take up to two hours, and we can get it out in 90 seconds.
So there are a number of reasons why brokers should take this up, probably the most important being that will increase their income margin on each client that they bring in.
MPA: How would you like Ensurance’s relationship with brokers to develop over the next 12 months, and how would you like to be perceived a year from now?
SH: We want to be perceived as the go-to company for general insurance. We’re making it as easy as possible for these guys to write general insurance and to widen their product offerings to their clients. With the ease and the success of it, we should be known as the company that delivered exactly what the industry was asking for.
WHAT’S REQUIRED TO GET A QUOTE
MPA used Ensurance’s test site to try and get a quote for home and contents insurance. Here’s what was required:
-Email address
-Address
-Whether client is retired
-DOB of client
-Number of claims client has made in past five years
-Whether a financial institution has to be notified about the policy
Level of cover
-Building sum insured*
-Contents sum insured*
-Particular valuables to be insured
Building details
-Ownership-occupation statusof the home
-Type of building
-Year of building’s construction
-Exterior wall material
-Roof construction material
-More/less than two stories
-Whether there are underground parts of the house
-Whether building is on stilts
-Whether there is an inground swimming pool
-Whether building is connected to townswater
-Whether building has an alarm installed
-Type of security on doors
-Type of security on windows
-Whether plot of land is more than 20,000sq/m
MPA used Ensurance’s test site to try and get a quote for home and contents insurance. Here’s what was required:
-Email address
-Address
-Whether client is retired
-DOB of client
-Number of claims client has made in past five years
-Whether a financial institution has to be notified about the policy
Level of cover
-Building sum insured*
-Contents sum insured*
-Particular valuables to be insured
Building details
-Ownership-occupation statusof the home
-Type of building
-Year of building’s construction
-Exterior wall material
-Roof construction material
-More/less than two stories
-Whether there are underground parts of the house
-Whether building is on stilts
-Whether there is an inground swimming pool
-Whether building is connected to townswater
-Whether building has an alarm installed
-Type of security on doors
-Type of security on windows
-Whether plot of land is more than 20,000sq/m
