Local General Insurance Broker wins Irish SME Insurance Expert Broker of the Year

Paul O’Brien from Fair View Insurance discusses how his business can help your business

Who are Fair View Insurance?

Fair View Insurance are a chartered insurance brokerage set up in Athlone in 2018. We deal exclusively with business enterprises. We have tried to marry the skills sets that we have learned over the years and customise these to our target client base. Using the corporate standards and the local touch we feel that we offer the best of both worlds to our clients.

Tell me something about yourself

I graduated from the University of Limerick in the early 2000’s with a degree in business insurance. After a brief spell working as a district manager for a major retailer, I have had a long and varied career in the Insurance Industry working in a number of insurance brokerages before I founded Fair View Insurance in 2018. To win a national award has confirmed that we are definitely on the right path.

Tell us something about the rest of the team?

The team have been handpicked and trained to work to our very exacting standards and I feel that we have a very strong core team. There is a mixture of age and experience combined with youth and enthusiasm. To augment this, we also have a few ex-colleagues who work with us as required on a consultancy basis. They would have huge experience in certain industry sectors and are a great asset to the business.

What makes you different than other brokers?

We have a business objective to be a “World Class Insurance Brokerage” this has nothing to do with our financial status but everything to do with our clients who are at the core of everything that we do. To achieve this, we run a Programme of Continual Improvement to ensure that we are always offering the best possible service to our customers. We have a number of key pillars that support these aims

· Customers Focus

· Team Work

· Operational Excellence

· Community / Environment

· Financial Awareness

· Risk / Compliance

So, who are your customers?

This is one of the key strengths of our operation. We tend to target very specific Industry sectors. In doing this we learn a lot about the risks associated with those industries and are therefore very well placed to advise, on their very specific Insurance needs.

We have particular expertise in Wholesale, Retail, Manufacturing, Logistics, Technology and Financial.

We work generally with Top Tier insurers so we can always provide a quality product and with a well-trained team augment this with great service. We go much further and also provide quality advice. Our ultimate aim for our customers is to take this a stage further and become more than a broker but a trusted adviser.

You mention team work-is that not a given?

This is an important part of what we do as it not just about our internal relationships but also about our relations with insurers. We only deal with Insurers that meet our very strict criteria. It is not just about their central bank approval but we take into account a number of key factors, including;

· Their commitment and understanding of the Irish market

· Their understanding and experience of the trade sector

· The underwriting and claims handling ability

· Their additional services including risks management

What is different about your operational model?

Our operational model is all about the customer. We take a standardised and consistent approach with the client’s interests at the centre of everything that we do. Central to this approach is the client review. This is a very detailed process and ensure that we understand fully the client’s needs. This enables us to customise a programme and chose the most suitable insurer

Does this really make a difference?

We genuinely feel that the review we carry out is very important and in virtually every new case that we review we find some inadequacy in the insurance programme. This may be down to issues such as inadequate sums insureds or limits and inadequate indemnity periods or even issues like gaps in cover or unrealistic warranties, all of which can render the insurance programme ineffective of which can impact greatly on the cover.

We feel that many businesses place far too much emphasis on the price rather than on the value of the programmes and particularly the level of service provided by the broker.

It is also interesting that many businesses pick their broker based on the price put forward by the insurer rather than based on the value of the broker services

So, why did Fair View Insurance win such a prestigious award?

At Fair View Insurance, we have come to the conclusion that many of the Principals and Practices of Insurance Broking are in danger of being lost in the globalisation and consolidation of the market. We aim to go back to basics, return to the traditional way of being a broker, where the broker is known and trusted by their clients and we share in their journey.

In setting out our plan, we see the customer as the focus of everything we do. We provide a market beating – world class service to our customers. This has nothing to do with size or income but everything to do with the service that we provide to our customers. This is why we won such a prestigious award.

Summary

In short, we see ourselves as a world class broker in regards to the products we sell, the service we provide and the advice that we give. We aim to have the standard of a corporate Broker but the friendly service of a local broker.

By going back to our roots and adhering to sound broker traditions, we feel that we can excel in a market that is struggling to remain relevant in a world of globalisation

Fair View Insurance / 3 Fairview Terrace / Athlone / Co Westmeath - N37 F2A3 09066 17111 / 085 7649353 / paul@fairviewinsurance.ie For more information please visit : www.fairviewinsurance.ie

Fair View Insurance is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland