Family affair

Growing up in Newtown Linford, Leicestershire, Neil and Nick Pointon took different holiday jobs. Alongside hotel work and hay bailing, Neil lasted one day as a potato picker. "All I remember is that it was cold, wet and muddy. It was horrible," he reminisces. Younger brother Nick took a paper round instead.

After finishing school Neil, now chief executive at PYV, went to work as a claims handler for household business at General Accident. In contrast, Nick - now managing director at PYV Legal - travelled around South-east Asia before going to Northumbria University to read fine art.

"It was a great grounding for what I do now," Nick says. "My role has always been to think of what more we can do. Fine art for me was having a blank canvas, a piece of wall space, a room or a video camera and you had to create something."

PYV is the descendant of Pointon York, which was set up in 1971 by the Pointon's father Geoffrey with partner Syd York. Leicester-based, it dealt in general, life and pensions lines as well as having a banking operation. In 1985, the firm acquired Lloyd's broker Philip Vos & Partners and Pointon York Voss in London was born.

Neil joined in 1987 and two years later the name changed to PYV, at which point the business' focus shifted to specialising in professional indemnity. Three years later, all its non-specialist general insurance business was sold to Jardine (now JLT) in Birmingham. Nick arrived in 1999.

Neil explains the strategy: "We have built the business by being niche and going after areas we can specialise in."

In 2003, the company created PYV Legal, the trading style for the firm's solicitors' PI division. Representing more than 1,000 clients - which is over 10% of the market - and focused on firms with between two and 50 partners, the brothers feel the firm is already in the top three and aim for it to be the market leader.

Niche areas

While it has clients in many sectors, two further niches the firm focuses on are independent financial advisers and mortgage brokers. For IFAs, PYV claims a share in excess of 30% for PI.

The IFA offering developed after winning the PI account from former regulator Fimbra. Despite the disappointment that came when the scheme switched from being compulsory to voluntary, the process of winning the bid proved beneficial for the firm.

"The work that we did to get that deal gave us a lot of market intelligence to build on," says Neil. "We continue to put in a lot of time and effort in terms of advertising, marketing and research because the IFA world is continually changing. That is where our competitors have struggled to keep up. If you are not hardcore in that particular business then you will struggle to keep abreast of current developments."

Neil mentions the minimum PI limit for IFAs being raised from €1.5m to €1.68m and its ongoing impact. He cites that, in this soft market, the issue of Sterling exchange rates has been 'absorbed' but that this may not always be the case in the future.

Future model

A core component of the firm's development of a new selling model came in 2008 when PYV created appointed representative St Mary Underwriting. The managing general agent wrote £9m in its first year and is on track to record £16m in 2009, with targets of £25m and £30m for following years.

The creation of St Mary Underwriting gives other brokers access to the specialist PI facilities negotiated with prominent underwriters; PYV's position as a Lloyd's broker can also provide access to the Lloyd's and London Markets for other underwriting facilities.

Relaxed and confident in their shared vision for the future of the company, it is clear that working together is a process untainted by sibling rivalry.

"We don't overlap too heavily," says Neil. "Nick has drive and ambition and charisma. He gets the most out of people and he is courageous enough to take decisions whereas I am a more cautious individual."

Nick returns the compliment: "We have complementary skills. Neil's professionalism and attention to detail allows me to be more spread on the canvas. With Neil in the background it takes the pressure off. You can have great ideas but if you are not delivering then it's irrelevant."

With client retention at over 90% and rising across all sectors - allowing for firms that have ceased trading - the brothers see growth coming from organic sources and are confident that the business will reach its £30m target this year. In addition to PI, the firm also offers packages such as office combined and management liability, which are accessed by up to 10% of its clients.

Nick says: "For our solicitor and IFA client base, we've really only focused on PI insurance. We are just starting steadily with our client bases to try to cross-fertilise in different product areas but we are not bundling everything together to force it down their throats."

Along with sustained technology investment to support the broker's organic growth - new telephone and e-mail systems have recently been installed at the offices - the possibility of acquisitions at home and abroad remains.

"We are actively looking at widening our appeal and if we spotted an opportunity to create such a presence as in the IFA, mortgage broker and solicitor fields then we would seize upon it," Neil makes clear.

With extra growth will come challenges, not least of which is finding the right people to deliver the firm's services. The management philosophy at PYV is to empower people to progress, an approach that has fostered staff loyalty: nine of the 56 employees have been with the company for over 15 years.

With the workload peaking as the 1 October deadline for solicitor's PI renewal looms, the company has taken to employing graduates and undergraduates to help with the overflow. This seems to be a good way of attracting fresh blood into insurance because, so far, more than 100 have now taken industry jobs.

Nick concludes: "If we were one big football team we would be combining young and talented people alongside experienced campaigners. We feel that blend and mix gives you growth and stability."