Today’s guest is Miles Wuller, President and CEO of Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers, the underwriting arm of Ryan Specialty.
As such Miles is responsible for more than 20 MGUs, offering more than 150 lines of business and employing around 550 staff in 27 offices who wrote $2.4bn of Gross Premium in 2021.
This means he has a fantastic view of the market and where all its pressure points are to be found.
A listen to this podcast will definitely get you right up to speed with all the cut and thrust of US and international specialist lines.
But Miles is also a great business builder and manager and in our chat we really get to the heart of the Ryan Specialty modus operandi.
For instance, how does Miles keep an incredibly diverse business with multiple brands, housing a huge variety of underwriting entrepreneurs within a core strategic Ryan Specialty identity and culture?
Very few executives have to maintain and incentivise innovation and creativity on such a scale while at the same time keeping on top of all the compliance and reporting demands of a major unit of a fast-growing public company.
Miles exudes a calm competence at every turn and it is abundantly clear that he thinks really deeply about the industry.
For instance his thoughts on the effects of inflation on the sector, cyber insurance, his business’s relationship with technology, and the burgeoning hybrid carrier phenomenon are highly insightful. And that’s just to mention four topics among many more.
Suffice to say that I learnt an awful lot during this interview and I think that you will too.
NOTES:
A couple of property abbreviations:
TIV=Total Insured Values. SOV=Statement of Values
Also a request. If anyone can tell me any significant difference between a Managing General Agent (MGA) and a Managing General Underwriter (MGU), please let me know. After 30 years of head-scratching, I think they are completely interchangeable transatlantic versions of each other.
LINKS
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com/
We also thank this Episode’s advertising supporter Oxbow Partners
https://oxbowpartners.com/
Ep180 Craig Kingaby CEO Meridian & Mark Heath CEO Acies: Playing our own game
Special Ep Amrit Santhirasenan CEO hyperexponential: How to win at the team sport of underwriting
Ep179 Antony Erotocritou CEO Ardonagh Specialty: We’re not slowing down
Ep178 Tony Ursano of Insurance Advisory Partners: A ton of fun!
Special Ep Paul Templar and Sebastian Prosser of VIPR: Stop throwing people at the problem
Special Ep Warren Downey & Lee Anderson of Specialist Risk Group: Building a natural home for specialists
Ep177 Chris Killourhy QBE Re: Balance is critical
EP176 Lorraine Harfitt of Asta: People, Plan, Capital.
Ep175 Julian James, Sompo International: A Degree of Equilibrium
Ep174 James Drinkwater, Amwins: Time and Money
Ep173 Clive Washbourn of Navium: Welcome back, my friends
Ep172 Simon Lightbody CEO Rhodian: Making a home they’ll never want to leave
Ep171 Alex Powell of Aegis: Realistic, but with an added dose of niceness
Special Ep David Cabral: Thinking beyond ESG
Ep170 Simon Wilson, President Markel International: The market will dictate
Ep169 Keith Meier of Assurant: Listen to your customers
Ep168 Sean McGovern, Chair of the LMG: On the verge of achieving real change
Special Ep: James York of Peaccce - from inertia to outright hostility
Ep167 Steve McGill: A billion in revenues through organic growth
Ep166 James Boyce CEO Global Specialties Guy Carpenter: Retro pushing peak affordability
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
NABOR® TALKS
U.S Property Podcast
Aligned Money Show
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money