COVID-19, insurance affordability, major mergers, broker commissions and a possible Federal election will dominate the thoughts of insurance industry leaders this year, according to panellists on the Insurance News podcast.

INsight is hosted by Insurance News Managing Director Andrew Silcox and features the observations of Insurance News Publisher Terry McMullan, Managing Editor John Deex, our team of journalists, and occasional guests.

In the latest 15-minute episode, Mr McMullan looks ahead to 2021 and singles out the mergers of Aon and Willis Towers Watson, and Marsh and JLT, as key influences on the local industry.

“Just looking at the broking side, we’re now seeing the top four brokers globally becoming the top two brokers globally,” he says.

“I think that’s going to open up the market quite a bit. I think you’ll see some of the larger brokers in Australia, and possibly elsewhere, seeing opportunity in anything that falls out the bottom.

“One example of that is Howden, a large and significant international brokerage based in London, moving into the Australian market in collaboration with Steadfast.”

Mr McMullan also highlights “the commission issue”, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recommending the ban on conflicted remuneration be extended to general insurance brokers.

“I guess the question for me is, ‘is conflicted remuneration an evil, or is it in fact more a case of it ain’t broke so don’t fix it?’ We should be watching out for that.”

Mr Deex highlights insurance affordability in northern Australia as a key industry concern this year, with the Government expected to respond to the ACCC’s 38 recommendations contained in its final report following a three-year inquiry.

This could be heightened by a pending Federal election, Mr McMullan says.

“Those northern electorates in Australia are absolutely vital to the Coalition, in which case they may see themselves as having to get a lot more active. Rather than just examining the problems in northern Australia they might actually have to take a stand somewhere. That is going to be interesting.”

You can find a new episode of INsight published here every Wednesday.