New Zurich guns aim for risk market

By Craig Phillips

Zurich Financial Services Australiahas boosted its risk insurance capabilities with the conclusion of a round of appointments including that of national underwriting manager and four state managers.

Former New South Wales underwriting manager for CommInsure, Warran Dewar has assumed the role of national underwriting manager, while formerAXAunderwriter, Simon Dent, joins the group this week as Queensland regional underwriting manager.

The group has also recently appointed four other staffers to various underwriting positions including state managers for Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania.

Brett Turner and Peter Blomfield have recently taken on underwriting management roles for Western Australia/South Australia and Victoria/Tasmania respectively while Fiona Limmer has shifted from her sales role within the group to become an underwriter for the Victoria and Tasmania regions.

Turner and Blomfield joined Zurich in 2000 and 2002 respectively, with the former joining as life risk business development manager and the latter as senior life underwriter NSW and SA.

The moves are in response to changing dynamics in the life insurance industry and Zurich will aggressively aim to expand its presence in the sector this year.

“There’s a real opportunity given the changing dynamics of the risk market. There’s been a polarisation of advisers only dealing with the banks and larger players and one of the key corporate strategies that Zurich has, given it only deals with through independent advisory channels, is to capture a bigger segment of this market,” Zurich head of life risk Chris Kirby says.

The group has, according to Kirby, tripled its staff numbers in its underwriting division following a number of recent appointments - pushing staff numbers out to 18.

“The launch of regional underwriting, reinforces our commitment to provide advisers with the tools and services needed to make doing business easier,” Kirby says.