143. How mother nature helps and hinders insurance

“Insurance is a get rich slow kind of an industry” says Nick Martin, manager of Polar Capital Global Insurance fund. But while my parents may have hidden from the door-to-door insurance salesman of the 1980s for fear of having to listen to an hour-long monologue, the industry is anything but boring for investors. Nick talks us through mother nature and the emergence of secondary perils, how coral reefs and mangroves are helping insurers and why inflation is more of threat for future pharmaceutical liabilities than our car insurance.
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There are few managers with a more intimate knowledge of their market than Nick Martin, the manager of Polar Capital Global Insurance. His many years of experience working in the risk and casualty insurance markets are fundamental to the success of this fund, which provides access to this specialist and often undervalued sector.

Read more about Polar Capital Global Insurance

What’s covered in this podcast:

  • Why insurance is usually thought of as a safe-haven investment [0:29]
  • Why the sector wasn’t a safe haven during the pandemic [1:26]
  • Why the underwriting market is so strong today [2:55]
  • The role the insurance industry has in tackling climate change [5:54]
  • Why insurance could become unaffordable in some places and government may need to partner with the private sector [7:57]
  • How nature-based solutions like coral reefs and mangroves are helping insurers [9:33]
  • Why inflation isn’t a problem for annual premiums but could be for pharmaceutical liabilities [11:48]
  • The outlook for the insurance sector [14:03]
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