London’s leading underwriter for 2024 revealed…

MAP’s Richard Trubshaw has been named London’s leading reinsurance underwriter for a record-breaking fifth consecutive year, as well as topping this year’s ranking for the market’s overall leading underwriter.

In the reinsurance class, Chaucer’s US casualty treaty duo Mike Clifton and Ryan Ward were joint runners-up, with the China Re-owned insurer surpassing MAP as the reinsurance bench strength leader for 2024.

This marks the fourth time that Chaucer has placed top in the reinsurance bench strength ranking over the past five years.

MS Amlin was ranked third, with the rest of the shortlist comprising Dale Underwriting, Arch and Axa XL.

Ascot executive underwriter Amanda Jeffrey placed fourth in the individual reinsurance underwriter table, with fifth position shared between Hamilton’s Neil Lee Amies and Rick Haak of Dale Underwriting.

The peer nomination-based survey was conducted by Insurindex – a joint venture between insurance research consultancy Gracechurch and Brandex – between March 2023 and May 2024.

Top individual reinsurance underwriter Richard Trubshaw was also named as this year’s leading overall underwriter, up two places from the 2023 survey.

This marks Trubshaw’s fourth top nomination since the survey began, with his winning run broken in 2022. He is also the only name to retain a top 10 overall ranking from 2023.

The aviation class featured strongly in the overall London underwriter shortlist, with new entrant Bassel Matta from Atrium – who placed as this year’s leading aviation underwriter – coming second.

His Atrium colleague Alex Cullen – who was runner-up in the aviation ranking – took third position overall, with Ark senior aviation underwriter Robert Kemp coming in eighth in the overall ranking.

Fourth place saw a tie between Arch’s Andrew Bauckham (who topped the individual ranking for war and geopolitical risk) and Probitas’ James Grainger (marking his return to the overall ranking after placing top in the energy class).

Canopius’ head of US general liability Nicola Wood placed sixth in the overall London underwriter list, having topped the casualty class as well as being named London’s leading female underwriter for 2024.

The top 10 overall ranking was completed with Ascot casualty underwriter Ben Galloway in seventh, with a tie for ninth between Aegis’ James Hyett (a new entrant who led in marine this year) and MS Amlin’s Guillaume Watkins (runner-up in war and geopolitical risk).

Gracechurch noted that the 2024 survey highlights that while brokers and underwriters have somewhat differing opinions on the market’s leading underwriters, general shared traits include knowledge, leadership, technical expertise, client focus, strong service and experience.

“We see these qualities reflected in the new entrants in 2024: for example, James Thomas of Antares, Chris Warrior of Berkshire Hathaway and Jennifer Wilson of Liberty in professional indemnity. Brokers and underwriters single out their outstanding experience, technical expertise and leadership,” said Ben Bolton, CEO of Gracechurch.

“At the same time there is continuity, with veteran underwriters continuing to lead in key categories. Richard Trubshaw of MAP, surely now the most iconic underwriter of his generation, comes back to lead for the fifth time in reinsurance.”

Bolton added that the age dynamics of the London market’s underwriting cohort has changed year on year, with a “large drop” in the over 50s and an emerging younger generation.

“In the mid-career segment, the 35-50 age group is static following a significant drop between 2017 and 2022: this implies there will be a squeeze on the availability of future leaders combined with a drain on experience from the Great Retirement,” said Bolton.

“My view is that the London market will need to back-fill and fast-track to generate experience and leadership over the next few years.”

To register to receive the full report, click here. The Insurer is media partner for the annual nomination-based survey – conducted by Insurindex, a joint venture between Gracechurch and Brandex – alongside Slipcase as digital content partner. Slipcase distributes a curated selection of content to the world’s (re)insurance industry professionals and businesses.