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Our expertise

Policy drafting and underwriter services

policy drafting and underwriter services

We understand that even a small oversight in a policy wording can result in substantial losses for insurers, poor client service and regulatory intervention.

Our experienced team drafts policy wordings in all categories of insurance business. In recent years we have drafted or redrafted several hundred policy wordings, from commercial combined policies to fine art, and have drafted in excess of 2,500 bespoke policy endorsements. We have also drafted a large number of bespoke wordings for a wide range of schemes including battle re-enactment societies, motor racing organisations, bee-keepers and music studios.

We understand the need for policies to be written in plain English and in keeping with your brand and house style as well as ensuring that your policies match your key fact statement, product literature and marketing materials.

We keep up to date with the latest developments in insurance and contract law, to ensure your wordings are as up to date as possible. We have already assisted with the drafting of a significant number of wordings to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Insurance Act 2015.

what we do...

Our clients - we act for London market insurers, Lloyd’s syndicates, niche and specialty insurers, MGAs brokers and broker networks.
Our experience – a team of policy drafting specialists who have drafted policies in all classes of insurance business. Our team have all advised in relation to complex coverage disputes and bring that experience to their policy drafting work. We have already assisted with the drafting of a significant number of wordings to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Insurance Act 2015.
Flexible pricing – where possible, we will agree fixed fees to give you peace of mind and costs certainty. For our outsourced policy drafting service, we can price on a fixed monthly cost or a ‘per endorsement’ basis.

Fully flexible service - we can provide everything from a simple policy health check to a fully project managed creation of a new product suite, including our outsourced endorsement drafting service. For large projects and outsourced services, we can allocate a dedicated administrator, e-mail address and telephone number for your sole use.
Guidance and support – we regularly provide training and legal updates to clients on all matters relating to policy drafting. We also meet with underwriters on a regular basis to discuss market and legal developments.
Industry membership– members of Forum of Insurance Lawyers, Lloyd’s Market Association and British Insurance Law Association.

related resources

Legal updates

How clear are your policy wordings?

The University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Browne Jacobson, have undertaken a detailed academic study into the readability of insurance policies, with some fascinating results.

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Legal updates

IPID update January 2018

The FCA has recently published a Policy Statement (PS17/27) entitled ‘Insurance Distribution Directive implementation – Feedback to CP17/23 and near-final rules’.

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Guides

Two minute guide to damages for late payment and the Enterprise Act

Section 13A Enterprise Act (‘damages for late payment’) has been in effect since 4 May 2017. The new provision applies to all insurance and reinsurance contracts entered into after that date.

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Legal updates

Enterprise Act 2016 and its impact on the insurance sector

We recently carried out a survey of insurance market participants to assess the likely impact of the Enterprise Act 2016 and to understand any concerns in relation to it. We are delighted to share the results.

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what our clients say....

recent experience

We recently drafted over 20 professional indemnity policies for assorted emerging professions, including inputting into proposal forms, associated product literature and marketing communications. We worked closely with underwriting managers and claims teams to ensure the wordings provided the specific cover needed for each profession.
Our lead partner for policy drafting has recently undertaken a secondment to the wordings committee of a major London market insurer.
We advised insurers in relation to their online pre-inception question sets and scripts used by their call-centre to ensure that customers were advised with clarity in relation to their rights and obligations under their policy.
We recently updated a suite of 30 policies for a London market insurer to ensure compliance with the Insurance Act 2015. We also reviewed and redrafted over 200 other documents, including Statements of Fact, schedules, precedent policyholder communications, sales scripts and standard policy endorsements.
We provide an outsourced endorsement drafting service for a London market insurer. On a delegated authority basis, we draft and sign-off over 1,000 endorsements per year. Endorsements are signed off within tightly agreed SLA deadlines. As part of the service, we also log a significant amount of MI, which is reported back to the client in an agreed format, identifying any trends to senior management.
We were recently instructed to review a range of bespoke scheme wordings that were drafted in house, prior to launch. We identified a number of legal issues and made suggestions as to how those issues could be resolved and how the wording could be made clearer. As a result of our review, a number of potential gaps were identified and closed.