The brokerage has maintained long-term relationships with clients and staff and continued to serve the core business whilst developing niche insurance expertise and business as the country and opportunities evolved. RSG’s  core-business is corporate and business insurance which the brokerage believes will remain a “people business”, where understanding a client’s business and giving professional advice and service will remain key to providing suitable risk management and insurance solutions. RSG’s main areas of expertise today are: industrial, corporate, construction and engineering insurance covering both non-life and life as well as surety and reinsurance.

Joining Brokerslink

 The ability to team up with like- minded brokers in different parts of the world enables RSG Chile to provide an international service to clients with interests abroad whist providing local service to network partner clients with interests in Chile. RSG sees Brokerslink as an active organisation intent on growing while remaining flexible and maintaining its members individual identities.

Challenges & opportunities for brokers

As the worldwide economy continues to reel from the after-effects of Covid and political discontent, many companies are concentrating their efforts on cost reduction and efficiency, with many investment and infrastructure projects also on hold due to escalating costs and long-term uncertainty. In this scenario client decision makers are naturally more price orientated. Insurers are prioritising underwriting profitability as seldom before, driving up prices, precisely the news that clients don’t want to receive.

As most Chilean companies do not have dedicated insurance or risk managers, insurance decisions in smaller companies are generally taken by the owners, whilst in larger companies this generally falls to the finance, purchasing or operations teams. Since these teams usually have little significant insurance or claims experience there is a tendency to over-simplify risk and insurance issues until there is a claim, at which stage sufficiency and scope of coverage rapidly become the main concern.

RSG Chile believes that as a broker it has to strike a delicate balance between empathising with clients’ needs and maintaining realistic expectations about what can be achieved in the market. Ultimately, RSG strives to maintain a professional approach and help its clients make informed decisions.

The Chilean insurance and broking market development

The Chilean insurance market has been competitive since the reinsurance monopoly was eliminated in the 1980s. Retail and bank insurance products have become commonplace over the last 20 years meaning that most of the population has access to consumer insurance through their financial providers rather than via conventional independent insurance brokers. Technological platforms have also evolved to compete with the bank and financial institution providers.

The non-life insurance market will remain driven by a need for insurance against natural catastrophes, in particular earthquake, due to the seismic nature of the country which impacts all significantly inhabited areas of Chile.

The employee benefit sector will need to evolve in Chile in order to complement new in-coming social security regulations and as access to private healthcare becomes more dependent on private or corporate benefit programmes. 

The insurance market will continue to be competitive, and the challenge will be to balance quality of coverage and price in a complex economic scenario.

Attracting and retaining talent

RSG is a company that has been operating in the market for 40 years. It has developed a style and corporate culture which is at its heart collaborative and team based rather than internally competitive. When recruiting RSG prioritises culture fit over immediate portfolio growth. It aims to attract people it believes will be a match with the teams’ values and style and who will contribute to the talent pool and thrive together. Over the years the broker has incorporated younger people as partners giving them ownership in the business and its results. The ultimate aim is to maintain the “people business” nature of broking.

Trends and challenges on the horizon for the industry

In RSG’s traditional portfolio of corporate and large client insurance, technology is considered to be a key tool, facilitating routine tasks and allowing work flexibility which only a few years ago would have been unimaginable. Whilst RSG does not see technology replacing professional service in areas of more complex insurance, it will increasingly dominate the sale of mass consumer products, particularly mandatory and standardised products. These types of insurance achieve cost efficiencies by reducing human intervention to a minimum. RSG strives to find ways of using technology which creates sustainable differentiation, adding genuine value to the client in a way consistent with the group’s philosophy.

RSG's Chile vision for the future

RSG has a team of highly qualified professionals supported by experienced people who together form the core of the brokerage’s staff. The team endeavours to reduce the number of contact points any client has to deal with, ensuring client-side interaction is focused on a relatively small number of people all of whom have a genuine knowledge of their business and current insurance and claims situation. The aim is to keep client relationships personal.

RSG’s strategy is to continue to grow its core business organically, by developing niche businesses as opportunities arise and by integrating other brokers which match or complement its portfolio.