Perth-based Centrewest Insurance Brokers’ Candice Pratt says she learns something new every day since pivoting plans for a PE teaching career to take over her father’s client book.

Your family is something of an industry dynasty?

My mum and dad have been in the industry for about 40 years, and my brother is too. Mum is a claims consultant and dad used to own a portion of Centrewest but sold out a few years ago.

I wanted to be a physical education teacher and I was half way through my course when I was about 18 and dad called and said ‘Do you want a receptionist role?’, and it all started from there.

I just gave it all up. At that age I wanted to buy a car and those sorts of things. I didn’t really understand what broking entails and the rewarding experience you can actually have.

I was doing reception and claims. I then progressed to QBE for about a year and did accounts, but the real passion was the broking so I was trying to look for another position. I assisted in a couple of other brokerages and I moved to Centrewest in 2013 as an assistant to my dad.

In 2018 I was promoted to broker with my own book as a lady retired so they needed somebody to look after her book, so I managed that for a couple of years.

As time went on the intent was for me to take on dad’s book going forward and in 2020 I secured my dad‘s book which I had assisted on for eight years. So all of those clients are now all of my clients, along with the other one, so there’s almost $1 million income on my book.

How have you coped with the challenge?

It was always that thing of ‘Oh, I hope I am going to be as good as dad’.

He was the mentor – there were hours upon hours of sitting in his office, learning things, understanding things to get to that stage to make those hard decisions yourself and not having to rely on anyone else.

It was a big confidence builder, being able to do that. I have learnt so much so quickly – even just as an assistant he sent me off to do the client reviews by myself so it was a good learning curve. I didn’t really know anything different.

It is hectic but I love it. As much as it is a challenge and how hard the market is, we work for the client and make sure that they are the ones getting looked after. It is personal to me.

It is forever changing, and I really want to pass what I have learnt on to the next up and comers. That’s something I really strive to do because I know how hard I have worked and I really want others to get to that stage as well.

I am always looking for a challenge and I don’t just go with the first thing, I am constantly on the ball, looking out for things. Risk mitigation, all that sort of thing. We are in a changing world and the impact of the global economy, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine -- all those things take effect.

I’m trying to really reiterate that to clients as we’re part of the global insurance industry. It is difficult but they do you understand, and that is what I am there for, to reiterate that to them.

How are your clients faring?

The majority of my clients are in the construction industry, earthmoving and civil. I am pretty lucky, my clients have actually flourished tremendously. One of my biggest clients installs all the fuel stations. Everyone needs fuel, so those ones have really, really flourished.

It is more the hospitality that has suffered a fair bit – trying to explain to them your premium is going up even though you have made no money, that is one of the hard things.

Clients trust that one person to be able to do the right thing by them and when you have built up that much knowledge and experience and that relationship, they won’t trust anyone else. If you do not have anything to back it up they will just think they are going to be ripped off. They’re always going to want that one person, that broker, to do it all for them, and I think I have got to that stage now. If you have trust I don’t think you will ever have a problem.

They just want that somebody to be there to talk to and to leave it in your hands. One of my clients’ buildings burnt down on Easter Sunday last year. I was out there straight away and she was just so grateful. She said ‘I just don’t know what to do’ and I said ‘You don’t need to do anything, just leave it with me. I can handle it’.

I haven’t lost any clients, retention is very, very important, a vital part of the broking industry. I think I have built relationships with other brokers as well. As much as they are your competitors, they are still your friends as well, we don’t take things off each other.

How are market conditions?

At the moment every market is extremely tough regardless but that is when the broker kicks in. You have to find other markets, you have to find alternatives.

As long as you can present that to the client and explain it to them, they tend to understand a little bit more and they are not jumping down your throat straight away.

The tradies and SMEs are being hit really hard, struggling with price hikes. They need insurance and we have just got to do the best we possibly can to make sure they have the right cover and the best price possible we can get for them.

It is more about the coverage – I won’t do things by halves. I prefer to do it correctly and not cut corners. I wouldn’t do anything less, I never have – it is just looking at the recommendations and seeing where the risks lie so they can make those choices and understand what cover they actually do need.

I set high standards for myself and in 2018 my managing director actually nominated me for Young Broker of the Year. So I became a finalist, that was one of my biggest accomplishments of being acknowledged and I just felt so humbled and thankful that people in the industry for so many years could see that I was doing a good job. That is what made it more special.

You are forever learning, you will learn something new every day until you retire. I don’t know how much more I can take in but it is interesting!