The finance provider promises new products for brokers and customers as MD, Sean Kemple, talks to Insurance Age.
Close Brothers Premium Finance MD Sean Kemple believes stability has once again returned to the finance provider as he talks to Insurance Age about the recent senior management changes and the organisation’s plans for the future.
Kemple became MD following a management reshuffle, prompted by Paul Trail stepping down from his role earlier this year. Trail had replaced Sharon Bishop, who exited in July 2020, but left after just eight months in post.
Kemple commented: “I’d like to think that the appointments we’ve made, the teams we have, and the depth of talent we have in place helps that stability.”
Kemple revealed that the company has appointed Andy Grieve to the newly-created role of chief commercial officer. He added that the company is recruiting for a director of personal lines and is also looking product specialists to join the commercial office.
Team
When talking about the leadership, Kemple detailed that there is a wealth of experience behind it.
He said: “Elliott Hayes is our director of commercial lines, and he’s been with our organisation for 22 years, so he has a depth of experience. We’re recruiting for a director of personal lines, however, we’ve appointed Shaylee Pagliaro as our director of key accounts in personal lines, and she’s been with us for 17 years.
“We’ve also implemented a new function which is our commercial office, so we’ve appointed a chief commercial office into retail, who is developing the product approach across premium as well. He’s recruiting right now for product specialists, which is something that we’re very focused on developing as the market starts to change in the coming years.”
Strategy
In terms of strategy, Kemple says that the core plan for the business, which focuses on service and expertise remains unchanged, but indicted that some of it had been enhanced following the team changes.
He explained: “The focus on insight has been significant, we have a roadmap of insight to help our brokers. The substance and depth of our strategy has been increased and enhancing our proposition will allow our brokers to have a richer experience with us.”
Kemple revealed the company is currently developing a product that will focus on cancellations, which he said would help brokers adjust rates or deal with customers that cancel.
He added that Close Brothers would also be focused on training and is currently looking into combining their product training and broker training to develop a new approach.
The focus on digitilisation is another one of Kemple’s priorities, and he highlighted that Close Brothers would offer brokers access to webinars and factsheets on the upcoming marketplace changes.
He said: “Some of the pieces we’ll work on from a top leadership perspective will be regulatory changes, we have an army of compliance and regulatory people in our organisation to support our brokers.”
The company currently looks after 1,600 brokers in the UK and Ireland, and Kemple has stressed that the latest proposition enhancements would support them with day to day needs and requirements.
This article has been taken from Insurance Age.
