Sarah Beatty
Commercial Director

I was quite surprised how many years it’s been! Prior to joining ICCI I worked for an actuarial company and did life assurance and pensions for them. As part of that job I started taking my CII exams. From those exams, underwriting really appealed to me, I found it really interesting. I had a good friend who worked here, that said there was an opportunity available so I applied for the role. Underwriting is a fascinating job, a lot of people believe that underwriting is just about calculating premiums and applying terms but actually it’s not, it’s a varied role. It requires attention to detail, strong analytical and investigation skills and you need to be a good negotiator as well. There is the ability to develop a lot of technical knowledge and expertise in the role. My first instincts on the role were correct, because 16½ years later I am still learning and it still really interests me.

I feel that I have been quite fortunate, I have had a very varied and rewarding career with ICCI. Since joining ICCI I have been given unwavering support at every step. Over the years, I have developed skills and technical knowledge for my roles and I have had a really clear career progression plan. That support has been outside of work as well as work related. I have been lucky enough to have a secondment to our parent company RSA, to do a sabbatical in Australia and then two periods of maternity leave. For me, that’s all part of your career, you don’t join a company to just work, there’s always opportunities to develop and ICCI have taken a longer-term view with my career which I will always be grateful for.

When I first joined, I started on the team as an Assistant Underwriter and dealt with both personal lines and commercial classes of business. I worked up to be a Senior Underwriter and then that was when I left ICCI to go work at our parent company, RSA, for a few years. When I was there, I was a Senior Trading Underwriter based in London focusing on new business development. Then I was lucky enough to have a sabbatical in Australia where I worked for MunichRe so I managed to gain some experience in the reinsurance industry as well and then I returned to Guernsey as the Underwriting Manager, which has now developed into Commercial Director on the Management Team.

The opportunity that it presented. I absolutely loved my time with RSA. Trading in the London market provided me with invaluable experience. It gave me the opportunity to be exposed to some large and complex insurance programmes and taught me some strong negotiation skills which I learnt along the way as well. It really helped challenge myself as an underwriter and really developed me and my technical knowledge. The other thing I got a lot from at RSA was working closely with some of the people within the group, they have some exceptional people within the RSA Group. It also allowed me to build up a really strong advice and support network, which I still utilise to this day. It goes without saying that I had a lot of laughs and a few drinks along the way and made the most of living in London whilst I was there!

My role forms part of the Management Team and I am responsible for the underwriting function of the business. The role involves providing leadership, support and guidance to the underwriting teams based in both Guernsey and Jersey. Performance of the underwriting team is critical to Insurance Corporation achieving its goals and objectives as a business. There are several factors involved, most important is developing our team in both technical competence and any other skills which they need to enable them to perform to their full potential. If we continue to have a market leading team who are passionate about finding solutions and delivering for our customers, then we will continue to be the success that we have been so far. The other key part of my role is helping to shape our future business strategy and culture, developing underwriting appetite, assessing our portfolio performance, building relationships with our valued Brokers and acting as a referral point for underwriting decisions.

I have two favourite parts! The first is the team as a whole – I love working with and being part of such a great team. Each individual person at ICCI makes a difference and contributes to our company. A business is only as good as it’s team, and we have an amazingly strong team which I am really proud to be part of. The second part I love, is how varied my role is. My days are never the same! I have a different day, every single day, and I absolutely love it. The fact that it is so varied keeps me really interested and definitely keeps me on my toes!

I think the most valuable lesson would be to find a career you enjoy. Everyone knows the saying that you spend most of your time at work, it’s actually true. I think if you find a job you enjoy and you find a company that brings out the best in you and plays to your strengths, it just makes things a lot easier and more enjoyable.

I have had a lot of advice given to me over the years, good and bad! The best career advice I have ever had is “to get comfortable with being uncomfortable”! For me, it was such a good piece of advice as if you are keen to develop, you have got to continually challenge yourself with new goals, new objectives and new skills, which inevitably leaves you to be being outside your comfort zone. When this happens, these are the real opportunities when you learn and develop, but it doesn’t feel particularly comfortable at the time you are going through the process! It doesn’t mean you have to know all the answers, it just means you have to learn from those experiences. I think in my role, it is an essential skill.

I think the importance of a healthy work life balance should never be underestimated. Insurance Corporation are really focussed on it and we have made it an important part of our culture. My three top tips are:-

Take a break – it’s really important to take a break, that’s both small breaks throughout the day and also holidays. Taking breaks has had a proven positive and direct impact on wellbeing of individuals.

Set yourself boundaries – set yourself clear boundaries of when you will and won’t be in full work mode basically. Allow yourself to switch off. Be honest and true to yourself and allow yourself some downtime.

Ask for support – everybody has periods when they are really busy and that’s the period when often the work life balance becomes a bit challenged and difficult for people. Just flag it and ask for support. The best part of working for a team is you work together to reach the end goal. The culture at ICCI is such that you can ask for help and it’s ok and we will find a way to help the team.

A key focus of ICCI’s business strategy is our exceptional local proposition. We are unique in the market as we are the only local insurer based in the Channel Islands. We have an abundance of local underwriting knowledge within our team, we have a market leading claims team that provide an amazing service to our customers and brokers and all of that allows us to provide a consistent and bespoke offering to our customers. Another really important part of our proposition is working in partnership with our strategic Brokers to help build our business alongside them and find comprehensive customer solutions. With the local proposition and the strong Broker support we have, we will achieve our aim of becoming the No 1 insurer in the Channel Islands.

There are a lot of continuously developing trends in our industry so it is probably difficult to pick an individual one that has more focus than others. Insurance protection develops in line with lifestyle changes, so as people and technology develop and life changes, insurance solution needs to be found to meet those needs. The challenges insurers face is trying to pre-empt what those changes might look like and whether we can offer a solution for people. If we look at how much our lifestyle, travel and technology has changed over the last 10 years, the industry has had to be massively dynamic to keep up with that.

Clearly the current challenge facing the industry is Covid. Covid has knocked the whole world and every industry has been impacted by it, insurance is no different. There are a lot of learnings in the industry off the back of Covid in how insurance responds and claims paid and clarity of cover. For me it was the biggest challenge as it was a completely unprecedented and unexpected impact to the industry. At ICCI we can be proud of our response, for our team to ensure they could work safely during the pandemic, our service levels to customers and brokers were maintained and we paid claims where we should have. This is all part of our local proposition.

On the flipside, the challenge’s faced during the pandemic has actually brought a number of opportunities. We have digitised a number of our processes to ensure we could continue trading and will keep these going forward. We have also taken the opportunity to clarify our cover for our customers. One of the most important principles we hold as a business is treating our customers fairly, it is always at the forefront of our mind with any decision we make.

Go for it! Insurance is really varied and interesting so definitely go for it. You might be surprised with the opportunities!

To become President of the IIG was a real privilege for me. I was really proud. Prior to being President I spent a number of years on the council, so to be appointed President was amazing. The local councils in both Guernsey & Jersey are great and work really hard for our local insurance industry, to make sure they represent us in a fair way and all members have access to the benefits and perks as a member. To have the privilege to lead them for a year was great. My biggest challenge – I had two actually. I had a personal challenge, which was being pregnant with twins and having them during my presidency. The council were so supportive and let me take time off to have them. The second challenge for me was continuing the hard work to raise the profile of the insurance industry with local schools. What we need to aim to do, in my view, is to get that profile high in Schools and colleges locally are really proactive with career advice, I would love to see insurance as part of the curriculum. That way, people coming up through the ranks in schools actually see insurance as a meaningful and potential career choice for them.

I have three young children, as you know, who keep me very busy outside of work. When I am not in the office, I am usually spending quality time with my family. The Channel Islands are such a great place to bring up a family, so I am often found enjoying the outdoors with them. On the rare occasion that I get a night off, I love nothing more than going out for dinner with my husband and friends.

I love this question! I think I would have a career focused on helping and working with people. A really important part of my role is working as part of a team, so I enjoy interacting with people, psychology is a really keen interest of mine and always has been. I find the human mind, emotions and behaviours fascinating and how people interact with each other, so I would probably be involved in some way in supporting that with people.

See more of the world! Travel is a real passion of mine. Before I had a family and was younger, I loved travelling and I fully intend to continue this when I’m able to. I have two countries at the top of my list: India – I really want to experience the culture of the country and I’d also like to revisit Argentina and do some exploration of Patagonia (without the kids!). It might be a few years off!!

Something people don’t know about me is that Russel Crowe used to be my next door neighbour when I lived in Sydney! When we lived in Sydney we lived in a place called Woolloomooloo, and we used to see him around quite a lot but I never plucked up the courage to invite him round for a ‘barbie’!!

My favourite inspirational quote that sums me up the most is “be happy with what you have, whilst working for what you want” by Helen Keller. I am naturally quite a positive person and this quote has always resonated with me. It is so important to enjoy where you are in life and be present in the moment. If you don’t take a moment to celebrate what you have got, it can often pass you by whilst you are aiming for something greater.