Brindle warns on complacency as Fidelis drives Pine Walk growth

A reinsurance rendezvous episode of the Voice of Insurance podcast featured returning guest Richard Brindle and Fidelis’s Underwriting Director John-Paul O’Hare.

Fidelis Partnership founder Richard Brindle used this year’s RVS 2025 in Monte Carlo to deliver an uncompromising message to the re/insurance market, warning against underwriting laxity and emphasising growth through the group’s Pine Walk’s MGA platform.

Speaking on The Voice of Insurance podcast with host Mark Geoghegan, Brindle was joined by John-Paul O’Hare, the Group’s Director of Underwriting.

Together, they offered a direct view on opportunities across lines of business, lessons from recent losses, and how Fidelis thinks it can stay ahead in a changing market.

Brindle dismissed suggestions that the market was soft, pointing to real price index improvements for the portfolio.

“There are many areas where rates are up five or 10 percent, and as lead underwriters we’re commanding a differential. We’ve seen this verticalisation before – different pricing for the same risk – and it comes roaring back,” he said.

“We’re seeing that now, with up to 40 percentage points of price difference for the same risk, and we want to be at the very top of that,” Brindle added.

Pine Walk at the centre

Fidelis sees its MGA incubator as the primary engine of expansion. Pine Walk’s gross written premium is expected to rise to over $1.2 billion in 2025, up from $0.9 billion in 2024.

Founded in 2017, as of September 2025 it supports 14 active MGAs, providing custom underwriting, operational and regulatory frameworks to support their specialist and innovative underwriting offerings. 

O’Hare highlighted Pine Walk’s integration with the wider Fidelis group. “It’s about cross-selling and collaboration across our business units,” he said.

The model has attracted seasoned market figures, Brindle singling out experienced marine underwriter Clive Washburn, who he said was drawn back to hands-on underwriting.

Brindle described his role as “joiner up in chief”, with O’Hare as his deputy, presiding over weekly meetings of senior underwriters across Fidelis Partnership and Pine Walk cells, to “join up the offering” by discussing opportunities with colleagues.

“Every cell we’ve brought into Pine Walk has been a roaring success,” Brindle said. “It’s not for everyone – you’ve got to work bloody hard, but it’s your business. We own the majority of the equity, but you do the work.”

Discipline and availability

The pair also reflected on some major losses experienced across the industry in 2025.

 O’Hare said the Los Angeles wildfires were “four times greater than any wildfire before” and had reinforced the importance of faster claims payments.

Brindle commended Fidelis’ handling of its Russia-Ukraine aviation war claims, noting the firm had reserved early and adopted shorter 48-hour notice periods on its aviation book.

Both were critical of post-Covid work patterns.

“We’re in an events-driven business. The fact that our industry as a whole is operating Tuesday to Thursday and forget about the weekends is not good enough,” Brindle said.

He described how Fidelis was able to provide urgent cover on a Friday night for a Middle East construction risk when brokers “couldn’t get hold of anybody else.”

Brindle also questioned the relevance of alternative capital, with insurance linked securities (ILS) in competition with traditional underwriting to attract investment.

“ILS is much less of a force than in the past. They’ve struggled to reload and still have pricing models stuck in the 20th century. That’s why there’s no new capital coming apart from retained earnings.”

Both he and O’Hare were sceptical about algorithmic underwriting, preferring instead to use AI to streamline submissions rather than to replace underwriters’ judgement.

“AI is still a long way from being able to replicate the complexity of much of our portfolio,” O’Hare said.

Brindle ended on a note of confidence in Lloyd’s and Fidelis’s broader capital strategy.

“The Lloyd’s brand still has huge appeal worldwide. Brokers may not always like our price, but at least we’re there. What they want is an answer, not a bunch of out-of-office emails.

He added: “We’ll always be there when it matters.”