PROFILE
High Street Underwriting Agency High Street Underwriting Agency is a truly independent Lloyd’s agency bringing underwriting and broking into the technological age. We are fiercely loyal and strive to offer brokers a seamless underwriting experience through service and online capabilities.
1800 096 829
www.hsua.com.au
HIGH STREET Underwriting Agency is a market-facing, truly independent Lloyd’s coverholder with the capability to underwrite hard-to-place risks alongside straightforward day-to-day exposures. High Street excels in the liability space but, in recent years, has found a firm footing writing contractors’ plant and equipment, financial lines (professional indemnity and cyber), personal accident, property, and motorsport lines of business. Through smart yet keen underwriting over the past few years, High Street has seen enviable growth in terms of both written premium and staff numbers. We have dedicated underwriting teams who look after all facets
of their portfolios. From new business quoting to renewal automation and mid-term changes, brokers will have comfort in getting to know who they are dealing with. The underwriters are specialists in their respective fields, undertaking ongoing training to better themselves through professional development. Aside from traditional underwriting, we are committed to helping brokers adapt to the technological age. We offer an online portal that allows brokers to get an immediate quote value, as well as process and complete a policy with minimal work. This online portal is a constant work in progress, with new products and features being added on an almost weekly basis.
We also offer bespoke website integrations to our brokers, allowing their clients to do all the input work for them, while we do all the output work, creating and sending insurance documents at no cost to the broker. This is all achieved by running an in-house tech team of seven full-stack developers, overseen by our chief technology officer. High Street has the London relationships in place and feet on the ground locally to implement scheme arrangements and develop new products. With a strong track record in promptly turning around complex insurance placements and facilities, High Street really is the go-to agency for many Australian brokers.
KYLA WOOD, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGER DECEMBER 2021 will mark Kyla Wood’s 34th anniversary in the insurance industry. The expertise she brings as national development manager at High Street Underwriting was honed during her years spent at Federation/WFI, CU/CGU, Allianz, Austagencies/SURA Commercial and 360 Underwriting, with roles in administration, claims management, underwriting and business development. Wood played an integral part in the rollout of the 360 product nationally, including product and system training for brokers. As national development manager, Wood’s focus is on building connections and helping High Street gain market share. She works with the support of High Street’s
underwriters to evaluate risks and ultimately place business. With a keen focus on relationship-building, Wood closely supports brokers to ensure they understand High Street’s appetite regarding binders, line slips and open market placements. She also helps brokers increase efficiency by providing them with training for the products available on the High Street online portal so they have the capability to receive quotes in real time, process applications and complete a policy with minimal work. With insurer appetites changing and underwriting capacity issues emerging, brokers are needing to remarket risks more than ever. But gone are the days where all risks were able to be homed at a price. Wood’s
personalised approach to broker relationships helps to keep connections strong. With her sights set on improving user experience and efficiency, Wood is working to improve the High Street portal with a focus on making brokers’ experience as streamlined, relevant and user-friendly as possible. While accommodating hard-to-place risks such as motorsport, asbestos and underground mining, Wood is also actively working to change the perception that High Street is just a hard-to-place market. Reinforcing the agency’s ability to offer vanilla liability, mining, property, financial lines and accident & health insurance will serve to expand business and ensure High Street’s continued success.
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