Clear-cut progress

Clear Insurance Management was founded by Howard Lickens, former group operations director at Stuart Alexander, and Gary O'Donnell, former director of Clark Conway.

Both brought clients with them, along with eight employees. However, there was insufficient business to cover their salaries and they quickly set about acquiring local brokerages.

Lickens says: "We both had experience of integrating new business and our first acquisition was completed in two months. We started out with around £2m of premium income and have since acquired up to £6m and achieved around £5m in organic growth."

Clear has four acquisitions under its belt: Stephens & Partners; Milbourne Insurance Services; James Dove (Kingston); and Bloomsbury Insurance Services.

It is currently looking to open an office in the City and is in advanced talks with regard to a local acquisition.

Clear's organic growth has mainly been achieved through referrals from existing clients. A large part of its success is down to strong relationships with clients and insurers and it avoids going through wholesalers wherever possible.

Lickens says: "We have formed good relationships with the carriers. We try to make sure that we do business with the quality insurers and avoid doing business with wholesale brokers because we want to deal directly with the decision-makers."

Clear plans to continue making acquisitions and focus on the areas in which it is strong, such as professional indemnity, motor trade, care in the community and property management. A number of its employees are strong in risk management and the firm has a claims department.

Lickens says: "It is all about service. It is no good just flogging something on price. We are not interested in the bottom end of the market. We want to give advice and help people with policies that match their needs."

Clear's loyal and committed staff have also contributed to its success, says O'Donnell. A number of staff have bought shares in the company and employees are encouraged to share in the ownership.

O'Donnell says: "We have a lot of good staff who work as a team; we have a completely open-plan office and employees are trusted to get on with their work. The environment is friendly and people dress down as long as they do not have formal meetings to attend. There is also a room in which to chill out with table football and a pool table."

Clear uses an external consultancy to assist with Financial Services Authority compliance. Despite this, it has taken a huge amount of its directors' time to get things in order.

Lickens says: "It (compliance) is generating a huge amount of paper. We have to send out pages and pages to clients simply for a renewal invitation. I am not convinced that our clients are any better protected than they were before."

Clear has tailored its software to ensure that compliance does not become a burden. O'Donnell says: "The trick is to take the skill out of it with prompts that ensure nothing is missed. Although there are likely to be a number of teething problems.

"Insurers are also still sorting out their systems, which has added to the workload. We assumed we would receive a lot more FSA-compliant documentation from insurers but it has become clear that we are going to have to create a lot of it ourselves. In many cases it will be a matter of getting the quote via e-mail and then creating a document using standard wording used by that insurer."

Clear has become the principal to four appointed representatives in property management. Lickens says: "There are some good businesses out there that need support. They want to be able to continue to offer a full service such as dealing with insured repairs. We have only dipped our toe into the AR route, but we believe we have a good business model, which, if successful, will be expanded.

One of the ironies of FSA regulation is they are trying to protect the consumer but actually they are ensuring the consumer has fewer choices.

However, we still believe that broking is a great business to be in, regulation will settle down and we are confident going forward."

CLEAR INSURANCE MANAGEMENT

Managing director: Howard Lickens (pictured above, left)

Director: Gary O'Donnell (above, right)

Established: 2001

Number of offices: one

Locations: New Malden, Surrey

Number of staff: 23

Lines of business: Commercial (90%), personal lines (10%)

Gross premium income: £13m.