Articles by alastair walker

About alastair walker
20 years experience as a journalist and magazine editor. I'm your contact for press releases, events, news and commercial opportunities at Insurance-Edge.Net
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Insurance & Reinsurance

My top five headaches for the UK insurance industry

4 January 2012 alastair walker 1

FOR THOSE RUNNING brokers and insurance companies in the UK non-life market, 2012 promises to be a challenging year with reputation topping my list of worries for the industry.

Issues ranging from closure of a £500m tax loophole to how major property exposures can be managed once a decades-old pact to insure buildings at risk of flooding comes to an end; these and more will all vie for directors’ attention alongside the day to day running of businesses typically located at the grudge purchase end of the high street.

With concerns both legislative and market-driven requiring considerable thought, here’s my top five insurance industry headscratchers. […]

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Insurance & Reinsurance

Referral fees – cash in while you can

1 June 2011 alastair walker 1

Understandably the insurance industry reacted negatively to the news, but in the end cold, hard cash did the talking some days later. on 31st May, stock market analyst Collins Stewart was bullish about the prospects of FTSE 100 darling Admiral Insurance precisely because of the LSB’s protectionist stance. Referral fees are to continue and Admiral will carry on earning a tidy sum from them; a fact that won’t have gone unnoticed by the many pension funds with holdings in the motor insurer. […]

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Insurance & Reinsurance

#BIBA2011: Insurance industry joins social media age

13 May 2011 alastair walker 1

This week’s British Insurance Brokers’ Association conference may be the last of its kind, with the trade body announcing a proposed merger with the Institute of Insurance Brokers. But for me it will be remembered […]

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Insurance & Reinsurance

Something for personal injury lobbyists in 2011?

7 December 2010 alastair walker 1

It took the insurance trade media a couple of weeks to notice that the Discount Rate was officially under review but this certainly got the defendant lobby talking amongst themselves with the actuaries pulling out their calculators first off. […]

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Insurance & Reinsurance

Linkedin Groups; frustration over paid content links

6 December 2010 alastair walker 0

there’s been a bit of a backlash to the publication of links to subscriber only content on linkedin groups recently and it’s hard not to wonder if publishers should reconsider using them as a marketing medium. Is it worth the potential online aggro? […]

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Insurance & Reinsurance

Conference liveblogging; create drama and collect followers

9 November 2010 alastair walker 0

The essential truth about conferences is that unless you are watching them live, they will pass you by. The liveblogging approach gives readers a sense of what’s being said without any of the preamble of video, nor the long winded prose of a full blown article. Event organisers can maximise their content without giving away the crown jewels, and with the appropriate #hashtags, you’ll get retweets and replies that build the conversation around the conference brand. […]

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Insurance & Reinsurance

Insurance and legal roundup; fight over MOJ portal reignites

21 October 2010 alastair walker 0

“It’s great, and so are we” say the insurers. “The system’s being abused and they’re taking advantage of it,” say the lawyers. Well which is it? Two very different angles about the the MOJ portal appear in today’s Post Mag and Law Soc Gazette.

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Insurance & Reinsurance

On this day of cuts, I bring you memories of how nutty it got

20 October 2010 alastair walker 0

Back in the summer of 2006, England were about to head to the World Cup in Germany with high hopes of victory. Meanwhile, capitalists had finally worked out how to crack the counter culture marketing nut BBC NEWS | Business | Hedge fund hippies have trip out.
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