{"id":10175,"date":"2025-09-29T08:30:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/?p=10175"},"modified":"2025-09-29T08:31:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:31:48","slug":"voi-podcast-with-leaders-from-fidelis-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/content\/voi-podcast-with-leaders-from-fidelis-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Brindle warns on complacency as Fidelis drives Pine Walk growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe title=\"Ep269 Richard Brindle &amp; John-Paul O'Hare The Fidelis Partnership: A Multi-Platform Risk Allocator\" allowtransparency=\"true\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);height:150px;\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?from=embed&amp;i=rq3g5-19711f1-pb&amp;share=1&amp;download=1&amp;fonts=Tahoma&amp;skin=3267a3&amp;font-color=auto&amp;rtl=0&amp;logo_link=episode_page&amp;btn-skin=1b1b1b&amp;size=150\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A reinsurance rendezvous episode of the Voice of Insurance podcast featured returning guest Richard Brindle and Fidelis\u2019s Underwriting Director John-Paul O\u2019Hare.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fidelis Partnership founder Richard Brindle used this year\u2019s 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\u2019s Pine Walk\u2019s MGA platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking on The Voice of Insurance podcast with host Mark Geoghegan, Brindle was joined by John-Paul O\u2019Hare, the Group\u2019s Director of Underwriting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brindle dismissed suggestions that the market was soft, pointing to real price index improvements for the portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are many areas where rates are up five or 10 percent, and as lead underwriters we\u2019re commanding a differential. We\u2019ve seen this verticalisation before \u2013 different pricing for the same risk \u2013 and it comes roaring back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re 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,\u201d Brindle added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pine Walk at the centre<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fidelis sees its MGA incubator as the primary engine of expansion. Pine&nbsp;Walk\u2019s gross written premium is expected to rise to over $1.2 billion in 2025, up from $0.9 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Founded in 2017,\u00a0as of September 2025 it supports 14 active MGAs, providing custom underwriting, operational and regulatory frameworks to support their specialist and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/products\/underwriting\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/products\/underwriting\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">innovative underwriting offerings<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>O\u2019Hare highlighted Pine Walk\u2019s integration with the wider Fidelis group. \u201cIt\u2019s about cross-selling and collaboration across our business units,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brindle described his role as \u201cjoiner up in chief\u201d, with O\u2019Hare as his deputy, presiding over weekly meetings of senior underwriters across Fidelis Partnership and Pine Walk cells, to \u201cjoin up the offering\u201d by discussing opportunities with colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEvery cell we\u2019ve brought into Pine Walk has been a roaring success,\u201d Brindle said. \u201cIt\u2019s not for everyone \u2013 you\u2019ve got to work bloody hard, but it\u2019s your business. We own the majority of the equity, but you do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Discipline and availability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pair also reflected on some major losses experienced across the industry in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;O\u2019Hare said the Los Angeles wildfires were \u201cfour times greater than any wildfire before\u201d and had reinforced the importance of faster claims payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brindle commended Fidelis\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both were critical of post-Covid work patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re 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,\u201d Brindle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He described how Fidelis was able to provide urgent cover on a Friday night for a Middle East construction risk when brokers \u201ccouldn\u2019t get hold of anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brindle also questioned the relevance of alternative capital, with insurance linked securities (ILS) in competition with traditional underwriting to attract investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cILS is much less of a force than in the past. They\u2019ve struggled to reload and still have pricing models stuck in the 20th century. That\u2019s why there\u2019s no new capital coming apart from retained earnings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both he and O\u2019Hare were sceptical about algorithmic underwriting, preferring instead to use AI to streamline submissions rather than to replace underwriters\u2019 judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAI is still a long way from being able to replicate the complexity of much of our portfolio,\u201d O\u2019Hare said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brindle ended on a note of confidence in Lloyd\u2019s and Fidelis\u2019s broader capital strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Lloyd\u2019s brand still has huge appeal worldwide. Brokers may not always like our price, but at least we\u2019re there. What they want is an answer, not a bunch of out-of-office emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: \u201cWe\u2019ll always be there when it matters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A reinsurance rendezvous episode of the Voice of Insurance podcast featured returning guest Richard Brindle and Fidelis\u2019s Underwriting Director John-Paul O\u2019Hare. Fidelis Partnership founder Richard Brindle used this year\u2019s 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\u2019s Pine Walk\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,26],"tags":[10,33,14],"line-of-business":[29,20],"class_list":["post-10175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts","category-latest-insights","tag-exposure","tag-ils","tag-underwriting-workbench","line-of-business-marine","line-of-business-property"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10175"},{"taxonomy":"line-of-business","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advantagego.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/line-of-business?post=10175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}