At a recent virtual protection and indemnity conference, a broker urged senior club executives to free shipowners from rate rises and absorb general increases by digging into their free reserves.
Hold on, haven't we heard this one before?
While any marine broker's first duty is to look after his shipowner clients' interests and as such keep their premium spent at the most competitive level, criticising the clubs of holding excess capital and demanding increases should entirely be absorbed by the clubs' reserves is nothing more than a blunt marketing stunt and oversimplifies the issue.
