Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from HB Underwriting!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at HB Underwriting!

In this blog, we inform you of our opening hours over the festive period and look back on 2022 (where did that year go, right?) while summarising a few key activities that have helped frame our year.

Christmas Opening Hours:

Friday 23rd December – 8:30am-12:30pm

Monday 26th December – Closed

Tuesday 27th December – Closed

Wednesday 28th December – 8:30am-5pm

Thursday 29th December – 8:30am-5pm

Friday 30th December – Closed

Monday 2nd January – Closed

Tuesday 3rd January – 8:30am-5pm

You can find rradar’s contact details, opening hours, access to digital services or crisis line here.

Remember, our quote and buy platform can be accessed 24/7, and although you are able to self-serve, there is always support available should you need it, just email enquiries@hbunderwriting.co.uk or call us during our opening hours on 01653 609090.

A Round Up of 2022 from HB Underwriting

We committed to a number of things at the end of 2021. Here, we remind you of what some of those things were and look at what we have achieved in 2022:

2021’s Rate Increases

Despite the Covid pandemic, where many businesses had seen a reduction in activity, the agricultural sector remained static and the volume of legal and regulatory matters that we assisted policyholders with remained constant. As such, the product base rates increased in April 2021, reflective of the volume and frequency of claims we were seeing, which you can read about here.

While it was tough selling in a hard market, it reemphasised the need to understand and highlight the value of the covers that are included as part of Rural Protect. April 2022 saw the end of rate and excess increases, despite inflation being a hot topic for 2022, and so we want to thank our brokers for sticking with Rural Protect and continuing to offer it to your clients by highlighting its benefits and value. We are pleased to say we can continue into 2023 with the current pricing and terms structure, which is good news considering the current economic climate!

Remember, if we can help improve your knowledge of Rural Protect, to ultimately enable you to have confident conversations with your clients about the value of Rural Protect to their business, simply get in touch with us on 01653 609090 or at enquiries@hbunderwriting.co.uk. We have numerous resources with some compelling reasons as to why a Management Liability Policy is a must-have, to aid your conversations. Our resources will also help remind you of the USPs that make Rural Protect such a highly recommended product for agricultural businesses.

Our New Resource Hub

It has been a while in the making but we’re pleased to say that our new Resource Hub will be coming in the new year. The new eLearning platform has been overhauled following feedback from our brokers and underpins our desire to ensure that you are provided with the tools and knowledge you need to promote Rural Protect to your clients. The hub will host all of our broker and client-facing literature as well as policy, sales and marketing content – all available to download, and contributory to your CPD hours.

Our New Quote and Buy Platform

Last year, we teamed up with software company – Total Systems – to bring you a new and improved quote and buy platform. Total Systems develop and supply computer software products and insurance systems for insurers, MGAs and brokers alike.

We officially launched our new quote and buy platform on the 1^st of November and introduced an array of new features, which you can read about here. Our flagship products, Rural Protect and Rural Protect Elements, were the first to launch on our new quote and buy platform, with more to follow.

Through our new quote and buy platform we are able to build future HB Underwriting products with efficiency and speed, allowing us to adapt to our brokers’ and your customers’ needs more quickly. Our plan is to continually update the platform to enhance the journey and ensure that it works for you.

Although we are still making adjustments to the new platform, we have received great feedback already – we would like to thank you for this as it really is invaluable to help us make things work better for you, so that you can spend more time serving your customers. If you administer Rural Protect policies, we would love to know your thoughts on our new quote and buy platform and would appreciate it if you could complete our short feedback survey here.

Not tried it yet? Take a look here and email us at enquiries@hbunderwriting.co.uk to get set up.

Rural Protect & Rural Protect Elements Policy Updates

As a result of a Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) oversight on Cyber Insurance cover, which would have required significant pricing and exposure modelling, we took the decision to remove the cover from our Rural Protect policy as we know Cyber Insurance can be purchased with other specialist policies that can provide clients with the appropriate tools and resources to help prevent, or deal with cyberattacks.

Whilst we know how important cyber cover is for businesses, we also understand that this must be comprehensive and provide the right level of not only cover but support when it comes to remedial action and so feel that your clients will be best served by a fully-fledged, purpose-built cyber cover from a specialist provider.

From the 1st of December, Rural Protect policyholders will have seen this notice here, and Rural Protect Elements policyholders will have seen this notice here, attached to their policy (when incepting on or after the 1st of December). The changes detailed within the notices also applied to new business from the same date.

Training & Resources

Over the year, we have delivered many broker training sessions and have created numerous resources to enable you to have robust conversations about the need for your clients to have a Management Liability Policy in place.

If you or your team, whether it be new or existing members, would like to have a training session on how you can offer Rural Protect to your clients, we would be more than happy to work with you on building a multi-channel marketing campaign, inclusive of branded content and materials to help you achieve your sales goals.

HomeSafely

As we know all too well, farming is an industry fraught with risks, with HSE reports continuously showing just how high a number of fatalities and injuries the agricultural industry experiences every year. This is where HomeSafely comes in. HomeSafely is an online tool that aims to help farmers become aware of and mitigate their business’s risks, which is available, for free, to all Rural Protect policyholders.

Take a look at HomeSafely and what it can do here.

Looking Ahead

2023 is just around the corner and our plans for next year include:

Cover updates to the Rural Protect policy as we respond to the changing needs of the agricultural sector
The turnover limit for Rural Protect Elements amended to £100,000, following feedback from our broker panel
Our quote and buy platform undergoing a review using your feedback, which will form part of the enhancements and changes that we make
A new product release – more on that next year!

And remember, we, at HB Underwriting, are known for our dependable efficiency in responding to brokers and listening to their needs. What’s more, we offer training and marketing support for all of the products and services we provide. We are currently taking new agency requests, so if you would like to request an agency with us, please contact us on 01653 609090 or at enquiries@hbunderwriting.co.uk.