Managing risk in an uncertain world
These are uncertain times for business, amid global political and economic volatility, so finding partners that are reliable and that can take away some of that uncertainty is vital. These partners must be innovative, flexible, agile and passionate about finding the right solution for their clients.
'The world is getting increasingly complex, and our clients' needs are getting more complicated,' said Jonathan Brown, Chief Commercial Officer at Arachas Corporate Brokers. 'We're dealing with uncertainty in areas such as tariffs, and geopolitical instability to list a couple. These issues affect every part of business, for example, global supply chains, whereby the cost of rebuilding structures or repairing a motor vehicle could very well increase on the back of tariffs.'
Arachas is Ireland's largest nationwide insurance broker and part of The Ardonagh Group, one of the world's largest brokers with $18 billion premium under management and more than 12,000 people, spanning 250+ locations in more than 30 different territories. This puts Arachas into the best place to provide insurance and risk services to Irish companies and people across a broad range of sectors.
'Our growth was driven by M&A activity in recent years, underpinned by the purchase of Arachas by The Ardonagh Group,' said Brown. 'We have the strength of our global parent, bringing countless advantages to our customers, while being close to where our customers are transacting business, allowing us to understand their needs.
'At Arachas we provide top quality insurance and risk transfer advice to our large corporate clients but throughout our business, we maintain our original ethos of knowing our customers deeply and providing personalised service. We currently are a €600 million premium business, with over 700 staff across 14 different locations in Ireland.'
With such global expertise and a commitment to customer-centric service, Arachas is uniquely positioned to deal with complex insurance customers and their needs through a well-established corporate practice.
'In our corporate practice, we would be particularly well known for our expertise in the construction space,' said Brown. 'We have also a significant presence in several other sectors such as real estate, manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, professional services and food and beverage.
'A corporate buyer's needs are going to be substantially more complex. With our sectoral expertise, our job is to understand the challenges our clients face and being able to advise them around effective transfer of risk.
We currently are a €600 million premium business, with over 700 staff across 14 different locations in Ireland
These clients, says Brown, need a tailored approach designed around innovative thought.'Can we do something for them? Can we create a scheme? Can we solve the problem on their behalf? Some of our work that I'd be most proud of would be the schemes that we've created for pinch-point sectors (areas that, due to their nature, are challenging to insure) in the Irish insurance market over the last number of years, for groups such as the Irish Association for Adventure Tourism and the Irish Inflatable Hirers Federation, resolving real needs for customers that otherwise weren't able to access insurance products.
'Because Arachas is a broker, we can work with groups of companies and other bodies on initiatives, as we have the capacity to find and put together a solution no matter how complex the need is.'
Arachas has grown its employee base exponentially over the past few years across its 14 locations, continually acting on feedback from our staff, to make Arachas a great place to work. 'We have invested in learning and development programmes to ensure our people can continually grow and upskill, allowing us to stay innovative which is a vital part of Arachas' approach. This keeps us knowledgeable, relevant and positions us to provide added value and benefits to our clients.
'An example that comes to mind is around ever more common cyber-attacks. Our cyber experts work with our customers continuously to advise what product is best suited to address their needs; this requires expertise that we have in-house and that we are proud of.'
Arachas believes that giving back through community involvement and charitable giving are also important aspects to their human approach to corporate insurance. 'We support charities which are close to the hearts of our employees and clients, including Laura Lynn, Down Syndrome Ireland and Cancer Fund for Children.
Over the past few years, Arachas has supported Cancer Fund for Children, in conjunction with Ardonagh, raising €2 million to support vital resources for families and children battling cancer.
From June 7-15, Arachas is proud to sponsor the 26 Mountains 2 Mayo Challenge, where 20 business leaders with an Arachas relay team will scale the highest peak in every county across Ireland, for this worthy cause.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Independent
33 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
Woman suing Kildare businessman Paul Wright seeks $730k judgment in US
Cherish Thompson has accused Mr Wright of using client money to fund a lavish lifestyle and to buy a house for his son. The first law firm that was representing Mr Wright and his two Irish companies – Eterna Private Clients Europe and Wright Private Office – ceased doing so in April, citing irreconcilable differences with its clients. Just two weeks after new lawyers began representing him and his firms, they too secured permission from the court to come off record for their clients, also citing irreconcilable differences. Mr Wright and his two companies were then given until May 30 by the court to secure new representation. The court order at the time stated that a failure by Mr Wright and his firms to comply with that order would result in an automatic default being secured against him without further notice. 'The time for defendants to comply with the order, by May 30, 2025, has expired, and as such, plaintiff respectfully requests the entry of a default and default final judgment against the defendants including sanctions imposed against defendants,' notes an ex-parte motion filed by Ms Thompson's own law firm with the court. That motion wants the court to rule that a damages claim of $221,000 be trebled to just under $664,000 and that Ms Thompson also be awarded almost $65,000 in legal fees. It also requests that the award should bear an interest rate of 9.15pc per annum until paid. Ms Thompson has claimed she was introduced to Mr Wright in London in 2020 and that her business is now owed at least $221,000 by the defendants. Mr Wright, a UK national of Carton Demesne, Maynooth, Co Kildare, has been accused of using money raised from clients to fund a lavish lifestyle, including the use of a private jet and stays at luxury hotels. He and his firms have vigorously denied the claims, describing them as 'outlandish'. 'These proceedings have been instituted by an aggrieved former independent contractor to a UK company Mr Wright was involved with and which is currently in administration, and have absolutely nothing to do with Eterna Private Clients Europe DAC or Wright Private Office DAC,' Mr Wright's solicitor in Ireland said when the lawsuit was initiated last year.
Irish Independent
34 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
Irish shares hit all-time high despite tariff uncertainty
The Iseq 20 index of leading Irish shares hit a record high of 1963.01 yesterday, slipping back only slightly before closing at 1,956.02. The index is made up of the leading shares on the Euronext Dublin exchange, including heavyweights Ryanair, Kerry, Kingspan and Glanbia as well as AIB and Bank of Ireland. Shares hit their high after the European Central Bank (ECB) cut rates for an eighth time in 12 months on Thursday, a move that would traditionally be seen as a boost to investment, credit and consumer confidence. The MSCI global index, which draws on leading shares from across the developed world, hit an all-time high on Tuesday, boosted by particularly strong gains for Germany's Dax index. In Ireland, the Iseq 20 index only at the start of this year recovered to levels seen in 2007, at the peak of the Celtic Tiger, unlike most European and US markets where shares have long since pushed higher over the past decade. However, the composition of the Irish shares indices has also radically changed, not just since 2007 – when bank shares crashed – but in the past three years as heavyweight stocks like CRH, Flutter and Smurfit Kappa shifted their listings to the US, shrinking the potential size of the Irish index. The Irish high this week was in line with global and European trends. Wall Street rebounded yesterday after a generally upbeat employment report, and a bounce-back in Tesla shares helped put the indexes on track for weekly advances. In the US, jobs numbers yesterday were relatively weak but not as bad as feared, and markets shifted higher in response. This is a sigh of relief report The US economy added 139,000 jobs in May while the unemployment rate held firm at 4.2pc, according to the Labour Department. 'This is a sigh of relief report; people were really worried that this was going to be a kind of start of a downturn in the labour market and therefore start the downturn in the economy,' said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina. 'It came in pretty much on the screws and we've got a bit of a reprieve, at least for a month. That's leading to a pretty large relief rally,' Mr Ladner added. In Ireland and across the globe, investors are increasingly looking past the near-term risk of Donald Trump imposing further destabilising tariffs and anti-trade measures, and are focused on the underlying economy, which has so far shrugged off any real negative fallout. How long that can be sustained remains to be seen. Bank of America's influential strategist Michael Hartnett warned yesterday that global stocks are getting close to triggering a technical 'sell' signal, saying the market is running too hot after surging 20pc in just two months. He cited data points on fund flows and market breadth as evidence that investors have been rushing into risk assets and positioning is getting stretched. Traders often use that as a marker because it can theoretically indicate that the buying power in the market is likely to soon be exhausted, leaving prices vulnerable to a pullback. At the same time, the market is approaching 'overbought territory,' he said. The Bank of America data highlights a nervousness among traders about the rapid pace of recent stock gains. The combination of the Trump administration's tax-cut package to boost growth, plus a softer stance on tariffs and robust economic data, has fanned optimism. US equity futures rallied yesterday after the monthly jobs report came in stronger than expected. In Europe, the new German government's push to support industry as well as ECB easing of credit has fed into the rising stock markets. However, major risks are hovering close to the surface. Mr Trump has set a July 9 deadline for talks with the European Union to produce a trade deal, threatening a 50pc tariff on European goods if they fail. The White House has yet to lock in trade terms with China, Japan or Canada. Meanwhile, Mr Trump's public falling out with Elon Musk has been playing on stock markets as the main driver of swings in Tesla's share price, both higher and lower at different times this week.
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
Sarah Carey: Radio can engage us but JNLR figures will never be a true measure of its success
The JNLRs are driving Conall Ó Móráin mad. Ó Móráin produces brilliant Irish podcasts including That Great Business Show and the legal series, The Fifth Court, presented by Mark Tottenham and Peter Leonard.
