How Applied Riskhandler Creates a Competitive Edge for MGAs

What Do MGAs Need to Compete in Today’s Marketplace?

Despite strong headwinds in the UK market from pricing pressures and regulatory changes, there has been a rapid increase in MGA operations offering innovative products in niche markets to compete with mainstream insurers.

However, the surge in new products has intensified market competition, increasing pricing and underwriting pressure. MGAs must be agile, adapt quickly to market needs, and differentiate themselves through specialised insurance products and improved customer experiences to compete effectively.

Why Should MGAs Utilise Technology to Stay Ahead?

Utilising technology is vital for MGAs wanting to stay ahead in this competitive environment. Leveraging new platforms and integrations can provide access to niche markets and new opportunities that traditional insurers might overlook or be slower to address.

Industry reports highlight how technology and new data sources enable MGAs to offer more customised and flexible products, especially in speciality lines. This strategy allows them to win business from mainstream insurers by addressing the specific needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), retail customers, and other targeted and underserved market segments.

Technology can provide MGAs with a springboard to build and test products faster, get them to market quicker, control distribution more effectively and make changes to adapt to customer needs. This tech-driven approach includes enhanced underwriting capabilities and embedded insurance distribution strategies, positioning MGAs as agile competitors in the insurance landscape.

How Can Technology Make Product Development Easier for MGAs?

Getting new insurance products to market can be time-consuming and complex. Keeping those products relevant to an evolving market and controlling distribution is also tricky. Speed-to-market alone isn't enough; MGAs need flexibility and control.

The right technology needs to be:

• Simple: Low-code and easy-to-use, limiting the number of tools needed to build, maintain and distribute products.
• Accessible: Empowers MGAs with direct access to their own rating and rules, putting them in control and avoiding the common pitfalls of supplier-controlled maintenance models.
• Flexible: Reduces process bottlenecks in tasks such as manual compliance, allowing MGAs to scale without losing operational efficiency.
• Compliant: Supports insurer confidence with strong audit trails and a robust underwriting-led system ensuring delegated authority rules are properly adhered to.

MGAs, Meet Applied Riskhandler

Applied Riskhandler™ is the ideal tool for MGAs who want to adopt an agile approach and sustain growth through new product development.

Applied Riskhandler is an all-in-one solution that enables rapid insurance product innovation and underwriting controls for full-cycle rating, bind, referral, document generation and full-cycle policy management. This short video sums up the key capabilities and benefits.

• Put simply, Applied Riskhandler provides low-code, low-risk product build and implementation support, control and agility for personal lines, commercial lines, and niche product distribution services. With an efficient and powerful referral solution for onboarding non-standard business.
• Leverage connectivity with a pre-built integration with Applied Broker applications for full-cycle trading of Applied Riskhandler-hosted products and directly manage pricing and risk selection with self-service control.
• Self-service product building and maintenance offers the ultimate flexibility, alongside dramatically reduced build times, easier product changes, and greatly reduced potential for engineering faults.
• Utilise key quality assurance and security tools to ensure compliance, insurer system access and rules-based rating. Maintain your own data capture, rating, underwriting rules, endorsement library and documents over time.
• Applied Riskhandler gives you the confidence to get new products to market quickly, attract new customers and serve them with the most up-to-date products that generate the best revenue.

For more detailed information, view our on-demand Applied Riskhandler webinar.

Applied Is an Indispensable Technology Partner for Ambitious MGAs

Applied is committed to empowering MGAs on their journey to success and to creating positive disruption and diversification within the insurance industry.

Technology provides the foundation for MGAs to sustain growth and adapt to market changes. Those that adopt flexible platforms will be able to differentiate themselves in a crowded, competitive market.

We are confident that allowing MGAs to be agile and flexible will ensure that the sector remains an important challenger to mainstream insurers, pushing the broader market toward innovation and client-centric solutions.