Davies spoke to Josh Wise and Alfie Marsh co-founders of wholesale broker INCO Broking on their decision to start their own business, the challenges they faced and their aims for the future. 

Firstly, tell us about your partnership – how did you both come together and decide to launch INCO Broking? 

We met when working as part of the Marine and Energy team at Amwins / THB. Josh was still at Amwins and had come to the point where he felt he wanted to do something different. We were friends who had similar ambitions and in January 2019 we were at big companies at a time when there was consolidation, and we felt there was a gap in the market for us to make our mark and form an independent broker. We had a number of discussions around starting something of our own, and now we felt the time was right.  

Your business specialises in the energy and marine industries – why did you decide to position your business in these areas? 

Relationships are key in those markets, and we already had the relationships in the marine and energy classes. The Upstream Energy and Cargo markets have been very supportive of us, we would not be here if it wasn’t for them. We might have the risks, but if we don’t have the markets we cannot place them, so we have stuck with what we know. We have future plans for new classes, but first we need to build the business to attract new experts in their given classes. 

You launched in October 2021 – how is business going? 

It’s gone better than we expected. We knew what we wanted to achieve as a business, however, we took the view that we would take every day as it came and see how far we could push it. We were realistic about the task ahead and what needed to be done. 

What challenges did you face when launching INCO Broking and how did Davies support the business in overcoming these challenges? 

We understood that we needed to undergo a lot of planning before we launched the business. We took a lot of advice, and we anticipated the challenges. We had a decision to make as to whether we looked to be authorised as a standalone Lloyd’s broker, or go the authorised representative (AR) route. We chose to partner with Davies and become an AR, as trying to become a Lloyd’s broker would have been impossible given the time frame.  

Davies has been very supportive. They provided all the infrastructure which allowed us to concentrate on the job we wanted to do, which was to provide a quality service to our clients. Davies assisted us in many areas including compliance and the TOBAs, which provided huge benefits to us. Before we begun the process we didn’t know what type of relationship we would have with our principle company, but from the outset it was clear that Davies and the team really bought into what we were doing and what we wanted to achieve.  

Part of INCO’s key messaging is that you can provide a quicker, more effective way of accessing London / Lloyd’s of London capacity – tell us more about the ways in which you can help clients to achieve this. 

There is a perception in some markets, particularly in the USA, that Lloyd’s is only there for the bigger sophisticated companies which have larger exposures. However, we are keen to attract SME and midsize business which will also deliver growth. We have been working with domestic brokers to show that via a wholesale broker Lloyd’s is and should be an option and that those brokers should be seeking capacity form Lloyd’s. It is down to understanding clients’ needs and talking to underwriters about how they can support those clients.  

INCO Broking brings together tradition and technology, in what ways does the business do this? 

From the outset we understood the benefits of technology in our business, and with this in mind we have been focusing on building our own internal platform. Insurtech has been a buzzword for the past four to five years and was viewed as tech specialists entering into the insurance industry. However, we have created our own in-house team to build our platform as it allows us to be agile and build the platform to our own specification. It provides us with the ability to create better products for our clients and underwriters.  

Where do you see INCO Broking in five years’ time? 

Good question! We have ambitions for what we want to achieve and where we want to get to. We want to multiply in size, access new classes and get our platform up and running. However, we understand things can come at you unexpectedly, the market might change or there might be new investment so we need to be aware that things can change, and we may need to adapt. We are looking for organic growth, attracting talented people, working hard as a team, ensuring that we are profitable, and most importantly, enjoying the journey!  

What advice would you both give to someone starting their career in insurance? 

Meet as many people as possible. This is a people business, and you never know who you might meet and how they can support your career ambitions. Insurance as a career is a hidden gem, it is hard work but extremely rewarding, and the benefits can be very beneficial. There are so many roles within insurance, which means there are multiple ways to progress your career. In many professions there is a single role, and the progression is linier, however in insurance the opportunities are broader. If you work hard, you will find the right path.