Writing to express and not to impress

Event Overview: The need to use clear and transparent language is increasingly becoming an issue in the insurance industry. The FCA Thematic Reviews and the Insurance Act 2015 emphasise the need for information to be presented in a clear and appropriate way. Furthermore, the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 sets out the need for insurance professionals to use clear and specific language when dealing with consumers. Against this backdrop, there are also a number of government reports that have put plain language at the heart of the agenda for the growth of the insurance industry. This is a fun and interactive seminar that has been delivered to thousands of insurance professionals across the world.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:

• understand the benefits of plain English in modern business communications.
• 
  appreciate the need for clear and transparent language in the insurance industry in light of recent legislation and regulatory pronouncements.
• recognise typical jargon, cliché, legalese and archaic words and phrases and be able to use credible plain English alternatives.
• appreciate how style and layout can significantly impact on the readability of correspondence and documents.

Speaker profile

Jeff Heasman is a qualified English language trainer with many years of experience working in the legal and insurance industries. He is a former senior liability adjuster with Crawford and Company and former litigation executive.

Jeff has taught business English and the language of international negotiations to company directors and MBA students in Spain, as well as having been Dean of the Faculty of Law and a lecturer in the law of torts at Cavendish University in Zambia. He has provided training in insurance law and insurance English to some of the world's most prestigious organisations and has been a tutor in academic and legal English to undergraduate and postgraduate students at Swansea University in the UK.

Jeff has overseen the accreditation and operation of legal English testing centres across Europe, Scandinavia, South America, Asia and Africa. He has also provided in-house seminars to many of the world's leading insurers and brokers.

In addition to providing training services, Jeff has also been working with insurance organisations to carry out readability audits and edits to key documentation such as policy wordings, explanatory material and advertisements.