The Broker’s Role in Helping Integrate
Risk Management & Treasury
BY WILLIAM ATKINSON
Brokers fully understand the important supporting role they play in helping risk managers prepare reports and presentations to seniorfinancial management.
George Haitsch, executive vice president
and North American practice leader for
Willis risk solutions, knows it from
firsthand experience: He was a risk manager
for 10 years before coming to Willis.
As Haitsch sees it, with his decade-long perspective on the corporate side,
brokers need to understand what the risk
manager is trying to achieve and how best
to support that effort—both in terms of
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Navigators ............................................. 21
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Philadelphia Insurance Companies....... 9
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short-term and long-term goals.
“some risk managers like to introduce
brokers as thought leaders or subject-matter
experts,” he says. “others want to handle
this on their own but may
seek input from their broker
in preparing for the high-
level conversations.”
Haitsch believes his
responsibility in this area is
threefold: first, understand
what the risk is. second, be
able to communicate the
solution. And third, identify the value of
that solution in a financial capacity.
“Whenever we provide information
or input, we speak from a financial
perspective, not an insurance perspective,
because that is the kind of information that
risk managers are required to provide to
their senior financial executives,” he states.
“We also deliver all information crisply,
because Cfos don’t have a lot of time.”
According to rick Miller, managing
director for Aon, one of the most important
roles of brokers is to help manage
expectations by keeping clients aware of
what is going on in the marketplace—to
avoid surprises for them and their bosses.
“for example, we do a lot of
benchmarking and analytics and provide
these to risk managers to help them explain
rate changes to financial executives,” he
says. “We also provide information on how
that particular client compares with its
peers—better or worse, and why.”
providing information. “We are intimately
involved in the process,” he says.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE
As Terry Campbell, managing director of
the global-risk-management practice for
Arthur J. Gallagher, sees it, brokers should
try to become even more involved than just
