Wed 22 Apr. 2020
A Day in the Life of..... Richard Howlett
Whilst I had enjoyed school, the idea of sixth form and further education just didn’t appeal to me once I got there and my focus instead was on my two part time jobs, playing football 5 times a week and seeing my friends. Being based in Ipswich, I was surrounded by Insurers, Insurance Brokers and Loss Adjusters. I started an Apprenticeship at Ryan Insurance Group who would support me through my initial CII exams. Starting off at the bottom as the office junior, I did various basic tasks to help expand my very limited knowledge of the industry. I stayed at Ryan Insurance Group for just two years and progressed through the personal lines and enterprise divisions. Then, by chance at a CII education event, I got talking to an underwriting manager at what was formally Towergate Commercial Underwriting (Now Arch Insurance) who asked me whether I was interested in a career in underwriting. Like most people, I read the back of the CII journal monthly and always wished for one of those London Market Underwriter salaries! As a result I jumped at the opportunity.
Towergate was one of the best places I ever worked. I had the opportunity to immerse myself into the world of Commercial Underwriting, and I feel privileged to have met two people in particular who acted as mentors to me and without whose help, I wouldn’t still be working in the industry. Tony Silve is now the MD at Arch but was originally my trading team manager. Tony interviewed me, gave me my first underwriting licence and taught me the key fundamentals of trading. Aaron Crombie who is now an Underwriting Director at Pen Underwriting took things a step further a year later as my underwriting manager, giving me my first ever senior underwriting licence and one of the worst performing accounts in the business to run and turnaround. This was one of the most challenging, but rewarding experiences of my career and I absolutely loved it.
After three years at Towergate, I lived and worked in London for the next few years. I spent time at both China Taiping and Pen Underwriting (I wonder how I got there, hey Aaron?) and expanded on my regional underwriting skills to become a London Market Underwriter. However, I had one of those moments when I came back to Ipswich for Christmas in 2016 where I realised how much I missed my hometown and the people in it. I decided I wanted to move back locally in order to start spending time with the people who were important to me, get myself on the property ladder and start enjoying my sport again. I was given a fantastic opportunity to work at Willis Towers Watson and joined a small team to work on a binder for Insolvent business and Individuals. This worked perfectly as it gave me the opportunity to carry on working with big ticket risks. Two years after joining, the binder was sold to a competitor so I took an opportunity to move back into broking as an Account Executive in WTW’s Power and Utilities division.
I joined Hiscox in November 2019 and as I write this, am enjoying my one year anniversary with the company. Hiscox have that great predicament of being a small company with a fantastic set of values, that has grown organically over many years to become one of the most renowned specialist Insurers. One of the great things about Hiscox is that even though they’re now a FTSE 100 company, the most important thing is service. My role has changed quite a lot over the year I’ve been with Hiscox but as a current member of our pilot team to refine our service proposition, my role consists of:
- Servicing brokers on their existing business requirements, whether that is large renewals or complex changes. I currently help service most of the southern regions(bar the London market) and I deal with many of the brokers who will see this email
- Helping to ensure that we are trading as effectively as possible
- Providing training, mentoring, referrals and ongoing coaching to a variety of a trainee underwriters
- Managing key broker relationships from an Existing Business perspective
Alongside my role at Hiscox, I am currently studying for my ACII and am also a member of the local CII Council. I got involved after being shortlisted for the Gordon Warren award and winning the CII Council prize committee award in 2017. I currently sit on the Education, YPG and Communication committees and have a keen interest in trying to get more young people into our industry. I am also really looking forward to being the deputy president to our incoming president, Laura Blyth, in April 2020. I’ve made so many friends, contacts and had the opportunity to push myself outside of the norm through my work with the CII and would encourage anyone interested in what we do to come to one of our council meetings, to one of our Education/Social events or to drop me a line. Alternatively, if there is anyone reading this in the infancy of their careers who like I was, is considering moving out of our industry, please stick at it. Hard work and the support from the right people got me to where I am today and I’m sure there are various people inside and outside of your company who would love to mentor you.
Outside of work, I am currently wishing time would slow down as my 30th birthday looms in July. As anyone that has ever met me can attest to, I am ridiculously competitive so have set my set myself a list of 30 things to complete before my 30th birthday. I’m currently 10 challenges down and have events such as the Manchester Marathon and climbing mount Snowdon to look forward to. Thankfully, I have the best training partner in Milo, our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.