News @ TEn
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| Sep 2007 | Seven Up |
| Jul 2007 | A Starter 4 Ten |
| Mar 2007 | ... and another four! |
| Dec 2006 | End of Year Round-Up |
| Nov 2006 | TEn in the City |
| Aug 2006 | Plus Four (again) |
| Apr 2006 | Network Growth Continues |
| Feb 2006 | TEn Doubles Run-Rate |
| older... |
Seven Up
TEn broking services, the broker network for Commercial Insurance Appointed Representatives (ARs), is pleased to announce the addition of seven new network members during the second and third quarters of 2007. The seven new ARs are located in Scotland (1), Lancashire (1), Leicestershire (1), South Wales (1), Sussex (1) and Buckinghamshire (2).
Comments TEn director James Sharp, “We are very pleased with the recruitment of new members throughout the summer, although as in previous years, there is a definite trend that results in a whole tranche of applications arriving during the summer holidays. We see a similar manifestation of this phenomenon after Christmas, Easter and even the odd bank holiday.
We believe it is at these times when individuals consider their situation and make live changing decisions; more than at other times of the year. Whatever the reason, the TEn concept is now represented in an ever increasing proportion of the UK.”
Due to the surge in demand for admission to the TEn network, the company has announced plans to move into larger premises in Aylesbury before the end of 2007 and to open a northern office during the course of 2008.
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A Starter 4 Ten
TEn broking services, the broker network for Commercial Insurance Appointed Representatives (ARs), is pleased to announce a new initiative to assist start-up brokers in their first year of trading.
To date about 50% of the TEn membership has come as a result of consolidation, with senior account executives, managers and even junior directors of the firm that has been consolidated deciding to vote with their feet in reaction to the new regimes imposed upon them. Typically these people are ACII, have at least 10 years industry experience, are aged 32-48 and have employment contracts incorporating restrictive covenants of varying degrees of enforceability lasting up to a year.
A Starter 4 TEn is aimed at just this group of people, who at the end of their 12 months’ restriction are able to access their former commercial clients and build upon the new business that they were free to pursue in their first year.
Comments TEn director James Sharp, “Over the past two years we have had perhaps eight times as many enquiries from this target group of people as we have seen sign up, whilst in other segments the conversion ratio has been much more like one-in-three. The problem is that first year can be daunting for people who lack, either, substantial savings, an off-set mortgage with £20k sitting in the off-set and/or a second strong earner in the family.
Consequently, we came up with idea of A Starter 4 TEn based upon much the same principles as a Student Loan. Whilst it is probably quite good for the soul to endure a little bit of hardship in your first year as a new business, if you can’t pay the mortgage then you ain’t going to do it. Starter 4 TEn is designed to help people in that position.”
The membership of TEn is now approaching 30 ARs and the company expects to conclude its first Starter 4 TEn arrangement within the next couple of weeks.
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... and another four!
TEn broking services, the broker network for Commercial Insurance Appointed Representatives (ARs), is pleased to announce the addition of four new network members during the first quarter of 2007. The four new ARs are located in Hertfordshire (1), Lancashire (1) and Buckinghamshire (2).
Comments TEn director James Sharp, “We welcome the four new members this quarter; exactly the right number as per our targets and aspirations. Interestingly, they have all popped up within a few miles of one or more existing ARs, which clearly assists the economics of our account management and oversight role.
That said, one of our secondary targets for the year is to begin to fill in some of the gaps around the country where we have no representation at the moment. Consequently, we would be particularly interested to hear from applicants in South Wales, East Anglia and the West Midlands, although continued clustering has its advantages too. We do not perceive a problem of inter AR competition arising for some years yet; if ever.
TEn operates a centralised IT platform from CDL, which restricts AR access only to their own clients but gives TEn staff a full view and control of everything. The system identifies and highlights a second AR’s attempt to create a prospective client that already exists in the client database as a whole. To date, this has never happened.”
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End of Year Round-Up
TEn broking services, the broker network for Appointed Representatives (ARs), is pleased to announce the addition of two new members in the closing weeks of 2006. Both are start-up operations and they are based near Huntingdon and in Edinburgh respectively.
The year has seen a net increase in ARs from 11 to 25 and Gross Written Premiums rise by 900% as compared to the previous annual tally; although, admittedly, the income stream in 2005 did not really get going until half way through, this being the company’s first year of trading. That said, TEn achieved profitability (not counting inward investment) during and for the whole of the last quarter of 2006, after barely 18 months since operations began.
Comments TEn director James Sharp, “We’re really very content with how the business has developed over the last two years. Certainly our growth rate, which is organic and entirely devoid of acquisitions in the traditional sense, is completely without precedent in the market; and, I would suggest, doubly so in a soft market.
Whilst we are unlikely to achieve a 900% GWP growth rate within a 12 month period ever again, nevertheless our expectations for 2007 are for another 15 ARs and approaching a 300% increase in GWP. We would regard this as a relatively modest aspiration for the business model.”
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TEn in the City
TEn broking services, the broker network for Appointed Representatives (ARs), has held its inaugural Annual Broker Conference in the City of London over the weekend of the 3rd – 5th November; with 20 of its members and several other TEn business partners in attendance.
The weekend’s events kicked off on the Friday afternoon with a tour of the Lloyds building, followed by an evening reception in Steam Wine Bar; a favourite haunt of the insurance community of EC3.
The conference itself was held in Allianz Cornhill’s offices in Leadenhall Street on the Saturday morning, including presentations by TEn, Allianz, NU, aascent, Sterling and CDL.
Although not all of TEn’s members were able to attend, the group included two previously unannounced new members from Leicestershire and Hampshire respectively; both of whom are new start-ups.
The highlight of the weekend was certainly the Saturday evening, when the whole TEn family, including partners and guests, were treated to some fine dining for 57 people at Antony Worrall Thompson’s Notting Grill, courtesy of Sterling Insurance.
Comments TEn director James Sharp, “This conference was a significant milestone just half-way through our second year of trading and we are very grateful to all of our event sponsors, Allianz, NU, aascent and, in particular, to Sterling.
Now we have a real sense of community looking forward into the future. Certainly, the members’ reaction has been extremely positive and the whole event has reinforced their decision to ‘go it alone’ and the choice of TEn as a vehicle.”
In his summing up, Managing Director, Kedric Rhodes, stated that the entrepreneurial spirit and professionalism shown by our ARs gave him great confidence and excitement in the future of the network in 2007 and beyond.
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Plus Four (again)
TEn broking services, the broker network for ARs, has announced news of four more Appointed Representatives signed-up between May and July, bringing its tally up to 12 new members – so far – during 2006.
Spread geographically between the Home Counties, North London, North Wales and The North East, all of the new firms are just that; new start-ups. Over 80% of all TEn ARs have been start-ups, thereby confirming the original premise of the network; that plenty of people would want to break away and set up on their own, given half a chance.
Comments TEn director James Sharp; “coincidentally, all of our enquiries and applications went a bit quiet during the World Cup and we can probably count ourselves lucky that England managed to get no further than they did. Nonetheless, both May and June saw one new application per month and July bounced back to this year’s more normal count of two. We welcome them all.
The demographics of the enquiries are rapidly changing. Increasingly we are seeing more senior and seemingly secure individuals from within larger and larger brokers. There is a lot of disillusion with the process of industry consolidation and we anticipate the increasing numbers of experienced and professional people who will be voting with their feet.”
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Network Growth Continues
TEn broking services, the broker network for ARs, has announced four more Appointed Representatives signed during March and April. The new members are - again - widely dispersed around the country; in Scotland, Dorset and West London.
The four recent additions are three start-up operations and one established business transferring in. Equally, since its launch 14 months ago, TEn has declined to take-on, or politely directed toward other solutions, enquiries/applications at an average rate of about two per month.
James Sharp comments, “TEn has a responsibility, in the interests of all members, to take our regulatory role seriously and measure continuously our acceptance criteria of new ARs; as well as the compliance of all those already within the network. For the most part, our Appointed Representatives are ACII and/or have worked in the industry for between 15 and 25 years.”
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TEn Doubles Run-Rate
TEn broking services, the broker network for ARs, has announced the application of four new Appointed Representatives during the first two months of 2006. The new members are dispersed across the country in Devon, Middlesex, North Yorkshire and Cheshire.
Comments TEn director James Sharp, “this is an excellent start to the year. In 2005, we sought and achieved a recruitment rate of one AR per month. This year we are expecting to welcome an average of two new applicants every four weeks or so.
January and February have both realised these expectations and, at the very least, we are pretty confident about March and April continuing at the same rate”.
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