Insurance DataLab’s Performance Ratings under the spotlight at the ILC MGA Claims Conference

Dan took to the stage at ILC's MGA Claims Conference last month to present five key findings from our most recent set of MGA Ratings, based on research conducted in December last year.  

Insurance DataLab’s proprietary formula for calculating the scores is based on an analysis of three key financial pillars – growth, profitability, and productivity – using data sourced from annual company accounts. 

Five key findings 

1. Average revenues grew in each of the last three years, but the rate of growth has dramatically slowed – from 23.5% to 4.1%. 

2. Long-term performance remained relatively steady, with the three-year EBITDA margin staying at around the 12% mark. But we anticipate this will improve in the next round of research as we’ve already started to see increasing margins. 

3. Productivity has been improving, with lower staff costs as a percentage of turnover in each of the last three years – a good sign for future profitability.  

4. The bigger players tend to out-perform the rest of the market, but the highest rating was awarded to an MGA in the smallest annual revenue bracket (<£5m), MPR Underwriting.  

5. The other top performers were Q Underwriting, Volante International, Policyfast, and Ryan Specialty Group. 

MGAs v Brokers 

Insurance DataLab also rates broking firms using precisely the same methodology. They fare better with an average score of 52.2% compared to 49.5% for MGAs.  

Brokers out-score MGAs for profitability by quite some distance – though there’s a much smaller difference in the score for growth. MGAs are, however, performing better for productivity so perhaps next year they’ll be closing the gap for profitability and growth too. 

Bright future ahead 

MGAs play an increasingly significant role in UKGI, providing specialist expertise and underwriting capabilities, adopting new technology smartly to provide innovative solutions and bring new products to market quickly. 

So we expect to see strong revenue growth and increased profitability, and therefore improved performance scores when we start working on our next set of ratings. 

A full breakdown of our MGA Performance Ratings, on a company-by-company basis, is available in our latest MGA Report which can be downloaded here. 

The MGA and Broker Ratings are also available on our market intelligence platform, which additionally includes data on complaints handling and customer experience, and underwriting performance for insurers and Lloyd’s syndicates. Register for a free trial here.