Chris Rolland: ‘Doing the right thing’ as a competitive advantage

Travel insurance continues to be in the headlines, both in the past few years and more recently.

In July 2024, for example, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) reported that travel insurance complaints increased by 19% year-on-year for the period between March 2023 and March 2024.

Not counting the impact of Covid-19, when complaints surged due to travel disruptions, this meant that complaints for this line of business had reached their highest level across the last decade.

But of course, Covid-19’s impact cannot be discounted in the sector’s recent history – quite the opposite.

Brokers and insurers in the travel sector were impacted heavily by the pandemic in terms of complaint volume, but also by the simple fact that they were not able to sell anything to a population that was not travelling.

Tourism has now rebounded to pre-pandemic levels after that trying period, according to the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Development Index 2024, published in May 2024 – but travel insurers and brokers have also had to contend with the potential regulatory impact of the FCA wading into the sector.

The regulator has been keeping an eye on the complaints volumes generated by travel insurance, with consumer group Fairer Finance’s managing director, James Daley, telling Insurance Times that he believes “it’s a matter of time before the FCA turns [its] attention” to this line of business.

So, what can be done to steady the travel insurance ship?

Chris Rolland, chief executive at InsurEvo and its travel insurance brokers AllClear Travel Insurance and InsureandGo, says that the industry must focus on “just trying to do the right thing” for consumers, as this will alleviate any potential concerns from customers and the regulator.

Looking after people

Rolland’s career in insurance began with health insurer Bupa in 1998 and has included stints as managing director at Legal and General’s UKGI business, claims director at LV= and chief executive for Staysure.

The broker chief executive tells Insurance Times: “Most of my [prior] experience was on the insurer side, but it all made me realise that I really enjoy looking after people – working in an industry where I can do that helps me get up in the morning and that’s why it’s a worthy industry.”

Specifically, it was Rolland’s role as chief executive for American Express’ European and UK insurance services divisions that he says inspired how he runs his businesses today.

He explains: “I learned an awful lot about my moral compass at a company like that, which has now inspired me in running AllClear and InsureandGo, where we are genuinely really focused on customer service.”

This uncompromising focus on the customer is a key pillar of Rolland and his team’s management strategy, especially in a market that has seen as much disruption as travel insurance has.

Rolland continues: “Covid was one of those scenarios no one could really plan well for – who creates a scenario plan where you don’t sell anything for months on end?

“But, it was an opportunity for us to make a name for ourselves and create a reputation for our brands, so we saw it as a fabulous marketing opportunity.”

Rolland explains how AllClear gave refunds to its policyholders when travel was effectively shut down by global governments to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. The broker additionally increased the refunded amounts by 20% in a move to “help people remember you when we get to the other side of an event like [Covid]”.

He adds: “The pandemic was obviously tough for us as a business, but [after it ended], we were remembered as a good quality provider that really looked after people in times of need. Consumers remember when you do the right thing for them, so we’re now growing faster than ever before with far more customers.”

While building a brand for the future was obviously a concern for Rolland throughout the pandemic years, he says that this was a “by-product” of the customer service ethos his firms adopted when Covid-19 was at its peak.

Heading off complaints

Most firms in the insurance sector would say they were focused on customer outcomes, but InsurEvo has evidence to back up this attestation.

AllClear boasts a five star rating on consumer voted ranking system Trustpilot and has been awarded two Which? Best Buy awards so far this year, which were based on the consumer champion’s research into claims acceptance rates and complaints data, as well as key features of cover.

Rolland notes that he was slightly miffed by the FOS’ decision to focus its July report around the record amount of travel insurance complaints in the last year because this “tarred everyone in the industry with the same brush” and focused on the number of complaints rather than the vast majority of policies that were not complained about.

However, he also admits that the report was “positive for us [as] a brand because it creates a flight to quality”.

He explains: “When we came out of Covid, a lot of people started paying better attention to the quality of cover [they were buying] rather than focusing purely on price.

“We have our own budget products that may not have a five star rating, but those are still good quality products backed by the same professional team and standards that [are] designed to really look after people.”

Because of a focus on quality over volume, AllClear’s upheld complaint rate sits at around a quarter of the travel insurance industry’s average.

“That flight to quality that we’ve seen across the insurance industry in the past few years has become more important, especially in travel insurance, and we’re really happy with our position in the marketplace,” Rolland continues.

“The number one concern has to be consumers – you’ve got to make sure they’re getting the right product, the right cover and that they’re disclosing all their medical conditions, so that there’s no surprises when it comes to the claims experience.

“That’s about making sure we start with either a really good conversation with a broker or, when the consumer goes online, making sure that we are really clear on what the product is there to look after.”

International flight

While it would be easy to focus on the perceived negatives of the travel insurance market, the sector is undeniably providing a vital service that will not stop being needed any time soon.

As Rolland says, “we live on an island where it rains all the time, so people are always going to travel”.

However, he adds that there are other factors that should support the travel insurance sector’s growth.

“The demographics across the world are supportive [of our sector’s growth] because there are more people becoming older in developed markets,” he explains.

“Older people tend to travel more and our medical data supports that demographic, meaning we should have the right product at the right time in lots of different developed markets.”

InsurEvo and its brands currently sell policies to UK, Irish and Australian consumers, but the firm’s recent acquisition by American firm NSM Insurance Group, announced in May 2024, is something that Rolland hopes will allow it to expand even further internationally.

He says: “We’re looking to expand internationally and NSM helps enable that by giving us more firepower for the future. [It is] a much larger business nearer $2bn (£1.56bn) in premium and that, alongside our data, customer focus and capabilities is a really good recipe for success.”

Importantly for Rolland, however, he is convinced that InsurEvo’s new ownership is culturally aligned with his firm’s ethos.

He finishes: “NSM speaks exactly the same language as us and that was the most important thing for me – getting together with [a firm] that has the right values for where [it wants] to take the business in the future.

“These days, post-Covid, people are more interested in a product that’s actually going to pay out and that looks after you when things go wrong – that’s what leads to less complaints and, crucially, a better experience for customers.”