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Day in the life

With a renewal deadline of October 1, August and September are the busiest months of the year for Mark Shaw and the Solicitors' professional indemnity team, as they deal with the insurance needs of around 1,000 solicitor clients. Bryony Watson finds out.

Mark Shaw is responsible for Solicitors' professional indemnity (PI) underwriting at Hiscox. Together with underwriter Laura Day and admin support from Daniel Grand, the Solicitors' team underwrites the hectic Solicitors' PI Renewal season. This year, policy holders had the chance to renew early, providing the team with a good number of clients already lined up for the new policy year. Here, Mark discusses a typical day for him and the team.

08.30: First thing, I check my emails and sort out any urgent messages. I then meet with my colleague Laura to review any issues and plan the day ahead.

The business comes through in three main ways: email, our internal underwriting system, Magic, or through the online quote system, INScribe. INScribe is a web-based trading platform allowing brokers to obtain quotes and bind business without meeting with underwriters. It saves time for our brokers and reduces the workload for us.

10.00: We visit our main broker, Alexander Forbes, a couple of times a day. Their office is only five minutes from us in the city, so it's really convenient. These visits are an integral element of our relationship with them, helping to facilitate communication and ensuring that the process is efficient and proactive.

11.20: I usually spend an hour reviewing larger case renewals and during the quieter months of November to May, I visit our bigger clients. These meetings underpin our client relationships and are a successful way of retaining business. Alexander Forbes also organises an insurance road show for companies where I regularly present. This is an excellent way to meet clients and discuss business face-to-face. It enables us to tackle customer concerns and issues directly and we often adapt our policies to reflect their comments. The direct feedback is invaluable, for both us and our clients.

13.30: I try to have a full hour for lunch but it's not always possible when we're at our busiest.

14.45: I spend some time reviewing new business enquiries generated by our schemes. We've introduced some new schemes this year, for example we are working with Alexander Forbes to offer reduced terms to members of the Criminal Law Solicitors' Association which generates new leads.

16.00: We have another broker appointment in the afternoon and continue to service our non-London market brokers throughout the course of the day. We constantly liaise with our claims solicitors and reflect our discussions in changes to the underwriting criteria which improves our overall performance. It's a very successful approach.

18.00: In the peak season we tend to work longer hours but Laura and I take it in turns to come in early and stay late so we don't have too long a working day. The rest of the PI team also helps out - we have four people working on the renewals in the peak season. It's busy but rewarding, knowing that the hard work in August and September results in happy clients, happy brokers and premium income. Then there's October - that's when we get to take a holiday!

For more information email: mark.shaw@hiscox.com