Two experienced insurance brokers have formed a new firm that plans to target the top end corporate market in Western Australia.
Two experienced insurance brokers have formed a new firm that plans to target the top end corporate market in Western Australia.
CKA Risk Solutions has been established by John Carrigg, formerly managing principal in Perth with global broking firm Marsh, and Naser Kerimi, formerly an account director in Perth with another big global player, Aon Risk Services.
Mr Carrigg said the insurance broking market in WA had become increasingly dominated by a small number of international brokers.
He said this has resulted in less choice for local companies and a growing gap between international brokers and local firms.
“Most non-international brokers do not have the expertise to assist large or high hazard corporations in Western Australia,” Mr Carrigg told WA Business News.
The largest insurance brokers in Western Australia (ranked by staff) are international firms Aon Risk Services, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Marsh, according to the WA Business News Book of Lists.
CKA is not the only local firm to target the large corporate market.
Specialised Broking Associates, established in July last year, has a policy of only having 50 clients.
Steve Robertson, one of four directors, said he and his partners saw “a niche for a smaller company with strong market knowledge but able to deliver it on a more personal principal-to-principal level”.
Another firm chasing the corporate market is Strathearn Insurance Brokers, which started from scratch 11 years ago and now has 25 staff.
“What we like are the difficult bits in insurance,” director Ian Winter said.
“We don’t seek to be all things to all people. What we deliver is senior people with good knowledge.”
CKA’s launch follows three particularly difficult years in the insurance market, triggered by the collapse of HIH Insurance and the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 in the US.
Mr Kerimi said insurance risks were now dealt with at the highest levels in Australian companies.
“Gone are the days when insurance was just a standard expense managed by the finance manager,” he told WA Business News.
Mr Kerimi said many companies now recognised the benefits of proactively managing their risks so insurance premiums were lower than would otherwise apply.
CKA is planning to tap in to this trend by offering to act as an outsourced risk manager for its clients.
Messrs Carrigg and Karimi worked together in London with Sedgwick in the early 1990s before transferring to Melbourne to work with some of Australia’s top 20 companies.
“We have particular expertise in the mining, resources and construction sectors that have traditionally represented the greatest insurance challenges,” Mr Karimi said.
