InsTech - insurance & innovation with Matthew Grant

What does it take to rebuild after disaster as a business leader, a homeowner and a policyholder?

Garret Gray has spent his career trying to improve how insurers and property owners respond to damage. As President of Insurance Solutions at Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) and founder of Next Gear Solutions, he’s been at the centre of building tools for claims, risk assessment and recovery.

But this year, the conversation became personal. A wildfire tore through Garret’s neighbourhood in California, forcing an emergency evacuation and leaving his home heavily damaged. That experience has shaped the way he thinks about risk, resilience and the urgency of modernising the systems we rely on.

In this episode, Matthew Grant speaks with Garret about what he’s learning, not just from running a technology platform, but from living through the very risks his business is built to address.

Garret reflects on:

• What the industry often underestimates about “secondary” damage and long-tail claims
• Why speed not just coverage is critical in claims response
• How Cotality is using AI to streamline damage assessment, measurement and documentation
• Where underwriting still falls short on using granular property data effectively
• The potential for aerial imagery, building code data, and mitigation scoring to improve pricing
• The evolving role of regulators, particularly in high-risk states like California

He also shares what it takes to keep innovation alive inside a larger company and why so many of the original founders of acquired businesses are still working alongside him today.

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Garret Gray or Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Continuing Professional Development

This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:

• List the ways AI and automation are improving claims workflows, from measurement to estimate validation.
• Measure the impact of faster claims processing on overall loss severity and policyholder experience.
• Specify the data and tools required to assess property-level risk more accurately, including aerial imagery and local building codes.

If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 364 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.

To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

Why has claims innovation taken off in personal lines, but still lags behind in specialty?

It’s a question that many in the market have asked and in this episode, a panel of senior experts set out to answer it.

Hosted by Andrew Pedler, Vice President at Reserv, this special discussion brings together three experienced voices from across the claims and consulting landscape: Chris Payne (Partner, EY), Andy Stevenson (Consultant Director, PwC), and Patrick Hayward (Claims Lead, Altus Consulting).

Together, they examine why some of the biggest efficiency gains in motor and home claims haven’t yet translated into specialty and what needs to change to unlock that value.

In this conversation, the panel explores:

• Where personal lines have succeeded: distribution, automation,and data enrichment
• Why claims in specialty remain complex, fragmented and harder to automate
• The structural and cultural barriers to innovation including litigation risk and lack of direct customer engagement
• How changing expectations and regulatory pressures are creating momentum for transformation
• What a “claims workbench” might look like and how it mirrors trends in underwriting

The panel’s insight is clear: meaningful claims transformation in specialty is less about chasing point solutions and more about rethinking the role of claims within the wider enterprise from managing portfolios to improving capital efficiency.

Whether you're trying to improve claims operations, justify technology investment, or just understand what’s actually happening in the market, this is an honest and thought-provoking discussion with people who know the space inside out.

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Continuing Professional Development

This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:

• Describe the key differences between personal lines and specialty claims processes, including complexity, litigation exposure, and stakeholder roles
• List the technological advancements successfully implemented in personal lines claims and assess their relevance to specialty markets
• Measure the impact of improved data ingestion and automation on claims processing efficiency and decision-making

If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 363 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.

To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

What does it take to build an MGA that not only launches but lasts?

Tim Quayle has spent the past decade answering that question, not in theory, but in practice. As CEO of OneAdvent, a London-based MGA incubator and service platform, he’s helped launch and scale more than 15 underwriting businesses and seen plenty more that didn’t make it.

In this episode, Matthew Grant speaks to Tim about the real ingredients of MGA success. Not the glossy pitch-deck version, but the messy, pragmatic reality: why experience matters, what investors are really looking for, and how the market has matured in the last ten years since the “InsurTech” label first emerged.

In this conversation, Tim shares:

• Why most early-stage MGAs underestimate how long things take and how much they’ll cost
• What’s changed in capacity and investment appetite, and why “grown-up plans” are now a must
• The risk of pushing too hard, too fast and how to preserve credibility with stakeholders
• Why deep insurance experience still outweighs tech fluency in this market
• The myth of radical disruption and why incremental improvement is the better bet
• How OneAdvent is investing in AI and data to better support underwriting teams across its platform

We also explore broader themes: the shifting dynamics between MGAs and capacity providers, the evolution of embedded insurance, and why many promising innovations still struggle to gain traction in such a regulated, relationship-driven industry.

You can join Tim Quayle in person at our upcoming MGA Half Day event on July 15th. Tim will be moderating a panel on the key ingredients for a winning MGA, alongside Adam Kembrooke, Founder and Managing Director, Amiga Specialty, Jacqui Ferrier, CEO, Carbon Underwriting and Tomos Ashfield, Chief Development Officer, The Ardonagh Group. 

With only a few tickets left, sign up now to be able to join us for what is shaping up to be the biggest UK gathering focused entirely on the delegated authority market this year.

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Continuing Professional Development

This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:

• Explain why radical disruption often fails in insurance, and how incremental innovation leads to sustainable business growth.
• List the core capabilities MGAs need to present a “grown-up” proposition to capacity providers and investors.
• Identify the key components of a data-driven MGA operating model and how platforms like OneAdvent’s OneView can support underwriting performance.

If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 362 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.

To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

Enhanced underwriting has become one of the most talked-about shifts in the London Market, but it’s also one of the least clearly defined.

In this episode, we share a live panel discussion from our Enhanced Underwriting event, featuring:

• Colum D’Auria, Canopius
• Rob Jarvis, Tokio Marine Kiln
• Tessa Wardle, QBE

The conversation begins with a basic question what exactly are “portfolio solutions”? and opens up into a broader exploration of how insurers are adapting to new forms of delegated authority, rising data expectations and the growing influence of broker-led facilities.

Our speakers touched on:

• How different firms define and implement portfolio underwriting
• The emergence of tracker facilities and their potential to reshape market dynamics
• Why algorithmic platforms are gaining traction, and where they still fall short
• The role of live exposure data and the practical barriers to using it well
• How underwriters can maintain control and accountability in increasingly automated environments

What comes through clearly is that many of the most innovative teams are thinking beyond product and pricing and focusing instead on how underwriting structures, controls and data flows can support long-term performance.

If you want a clearer view of how underwriting is evolving beneath the surface and how leaders across the market are responding this episode offers a window into the practical realities behind the strategy.

You can also read our event write-up: “Enhanced Underwriting: How the London Market is Turning Theory into Practice”.

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn. 

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Continuing Professional Development

This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:

• Define what “portfolio solutions” means across different insurers in the London Market context.
• Describe how broker facilities and tracker portfolios are influencing underwriting practices and market concentration.
• List the key components that distinguish smart platforms and algorithmic underwriting from traditional models.

If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 361 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.

To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

At its core, insurance underwriting is about judgment: making sense of messy information, pricing for uncertainty and doing it at speed. Technology and AI should make that easier, but is it really the answer to underwriting’s most persistent challenges?

In this episode, Robin Merttens speaks to Guillaume Bonnissent, CEO and founder of Quotech, a platform built specifically for underwriting teams.

Guillaume brings a rare combination of perspectives: he’s a former underwriter who became a technologist and his company reflects that crossover. We begin by reflecting on the past 12 months: what’s changed since Guillaume was last on the podcast, and why Quotech’s strategy of building for niche underwriting teams has started to gain serious traction.

In this conversation, Guillaume talks about:

• Why underwriters still spend far too much time retyping data
• The real promise of AI in ingestion and why it’s finally deliverable
• The structural shift from generic platforms to class-specific solutions
• Why "build vs. buy" debates rarely make sense for MGAs
• How to build systems that record data usefully, not just store it
• Why AI can’t fix bad inputs, and what that means for underwriting teams

We also dig into broader trends: how emerging tech is shifting the role of underwriters, whether AI really is a disruptor or just another tool and why so many companies are still struggling to make basic data available for decision-making.

What emerges is a sharp portrait of a market in transition, one that’s slowly waking up to the need for class-specific tools, data-first workflows and AI that’s genuinely useful.

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. You can also contact Guillaume Bonnissent on LinkedIn to start a conversation!

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Continuing Professional Development

This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:

• Explain the limitations of building in-house technology solutions within MGA and insurer environments.
• Define the role of recorded underwriting data in enhancing future pricing and risk selection.
• Identify the ways AI is being realistically — and usefully — applied to solve practical problems in underwriting today.

If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 360 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.

To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

At its best, insurance is about clarity in uncertain times. Pricing that reflects reality. Promises that hold up when things go wrong. 

In this episode, I speak with Todd Rissel, CEO and co-founder of e2Value, an independent company that has spent the last 25 years helping insurers and homeowners understand the real cost of rebuilding property, and the wider economic forces shaping those numbers.

Todd brings both practical insight and long-term perspective. Our conversation begins with a simple observation: 2024 was a rare profitable year for home insurance in Florida. But Todd quickly places that in context, explaining why a single good year doesn’t undo a decade of structural challenges and why insurers need to think in five-year cycles, not one.

In this conversation Todd touches on:

• Why rising tariffs and global uncertainty haven’t yet impacted replacement costs but might soon
• What the “small losses” teach us about insurer performance, far more than catastrophic ones
• The challenges of modeling severe convective storms, and why not everything can, or should, be reduced to a model
• The limits of funding-driven innovation in InsurTech, and the long-term discipline it takes to survive without external capital
• The launch of e2Value’s new Structure Insurance Score, developed in partnership with WTW, and what it tells us about using AI responsibly in underwriting

Along the way, we talk about barnominiums, regulatory experiments in Louisiana and the difference between forward-looking valuation and backward-looking pricing.

Todd’s perspective is shaped not just by data, but by experience. He’s someone who believes in the purpose of insurance, but also understands the commercial pressures it faces. And he makes a compelling case that good data, applied thoughtfully, is still the foundation for everything this industry does well.

If you’re interested in where insurance pricing, risk and property data are heading next - or just want to hear from someone who’s spent decades building quietly essential infrastructure, this is a conversation worth your time.

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Continuing Professional Development

This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:

• Explain how the Structure Insurance Score, developed by e2Value and WTW, contributes to more granular underwriting of structural risk.
• Identify the regulatory challenges arising from policyholder-directed valuations in certain U.S. states, such as Louisiana.
• Specify the data considerations required to apply AI effectively in insurance valuation and pricing.

If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 359 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.

To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

Underwriting is undergoing a fundamental shift. As technology matures and data becomes more accessible, insurers and brokers are rethinking how they deploy capital, manage risk and respond to client needs in real time.

In this special episode of the InsTech podcast, recorded live at our event “The growth of Enhanced Underwriting — the opportunity and the role of technology in realising it”, Robin Merttens is joined by Clyde Bernstein from Aon, Hayley Spink from Chaucer and Ed Howkins from Artificial.

Together, they discuss how the market is embracing enhanced underwriting, why insurers are investing in digitisation at scale and how technology providers are helping unlock new levels of efficiency and accuracy across the value chain.

Key Talking Points

• Learn how Aon is rethinking broking strategy from the ground up through enterprise-wide transformation.
• Understand why legacy systems are holding back innovation and what it takes to modernise at scale.
• Explore how cross-functional teams and external partners like Artificial Labs are accelerating progress.
• Hear why both brokers and carriers moving in sync is key to realising enhanced underwriting at speed.
• Discover how Chaucer is building cloud-native infrastructure and data strategy to support smarter decisions.
• Find out how technology is shaping the future of underwriting roles and changing team structures.
• Understand the risks of fragmentation as broker portals multiply across the market.
• See why consistent data standards are essential to making digitisation stick.
• Learn how enhanced underwriting supports speed and accuracy—especially in softening market conditions.
• Get insight into why now is the moment for insurers to translate strategy into execution and long-term value.

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Continuing Professional Development

This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:

• Specify the role of consistent data standards in enabling seamless broker-carrier collaboration.
• Explain how digitisation helps insurers maintain underwriting discipline in soft market conditions.
• Define enhanced underwriting in the context of today’s capital deployment strategies.

If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 358 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.

To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

With generative AI, engineering excellence and legacy system resilience all under one remit, what does it take to lead digital transformation at one of the world’s largest reinsurers?

In this episode, Robin Merttens is joined by Pravina Ladva, Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Swiss Re, to explore what it means to drive impact through innovation at scale.

Pravina shares how Swiss Re is helping clients get more from their data, reduce underwriting time and prepare for a future shaped by new technologies. It’s a conversation about strategy, change and what it really takes to turn curiosity into impact – without losing sight of operational fundamentals.

Key Talking Points:

• Embracing GenAI responsibly – how Swiss Re encourages experimentation while prioritising outcomes
• From concept to scale – why small wins in underwriting can deliver real value for clients
• Beyond the hype – using traditional business cases to prioritise AI use cases
• Redefining talent – how today’s underwriters and technologists are becoming one and the same
• From ingestion to insight – why data infrastructure still matters in an AI-native world
• Making the business case – why AI productivity gains must go beyond speed
• Building co-pilot confidence – what it takes to upskill thousands of employees globally
• Thinking top-down – how Swiss Re balances experimentation with bold, disruptive thinking
• From engineering to impact – how core IP and differentiated services shape tech investment
• What insurers need to consider – why translating technology into strategic value is the real differentiator

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. You can also contact Pravina Ladva on LinkedIn to start a conversation!

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Continuing Professional Development

This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:

• Measure the early productivity gains seen from AI-assisted engineering and claims assessment processes.
• Specify the criteria used by Swiss Re to prioritise AI and digital transformation use cases.
• Explain the role of talent development and cross-functional collaboration in enabling successful technology adoption.

If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 356 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.

To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

What happens when one of the world’s largest brokers and a digital-first underwriting platform team up to rethink risk trading?

In this episode, Robin Merttens is joined by Sasa Brcerevic, Head of Portfolio and Delegated Strategy at Aon, and Ed Howkins, Chief Growth Officer at Artificial Labs. Together, they explore the evolving dynamics of wholesale broking, why now is the moment to digitise trading relationships and how insurers can stay competitive in a rapidly transforming landscape.

The conversation offers a timely lens on the market-wide shift toward digital trading – not as a future ambition, but as an active and necessary response to competitive pressure. From the rise of underwriting-as-a-service to brokers leading platform innovation, this episode unpacks what insurers and brokers should be doing now to stay relevant.

Key Talking Points

• Digitising the broker–underwriter interface: why transaction execution, not just placement admin, is the next frontier
• Strategic momentum: how digitisation moved from side project to boardroom priority across carriers and brokers
• Competitive catalysts: why fast movers are already capturing flow and shaping future adoption curves
• Platforms not portals: how Artificial is helping brokers remove friction while giving carriers underwriting optionality
• A new breed of carrier: exploring the shift from balance sheet-first models to digital risk transformation
• The data dividend: why data-rich submissions are changing how insurers allocate capital and differentiate themselves
• Incremental innovation: what makes today’s efforts different from past false starts and what good adoption looks like
• Reimagining broking: how Aon is investing in technology to build its future operating model
• Sustainable advantage: why the biggest long-term gains lie in improving service, not just margin
• Time to jump in: why delaying digitisation could leave carriers and brokers on the outside looking in

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. You can also contact Ed Howkins and Sasa Brcerevic on LinkedIn to start a conversation!

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Continuing Professional Development

This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:

• Describe how digitising wholesale broking can improve transactional efficiency and reduce operational friction.
• List the key challenges and opportunities in modernising risk trading processes between brokers and carriers.
• Explain how intentional digital adoption differs from previous waves of insurance market innovation.

If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 355 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.

To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.