Marsh, shipping’s largest marine insurance brokerage, has lost its head of protection and indemnity just a few months after it acquired JLT.
Richard Adler, Marsh’s marine business senior vice president and head of P&I, is moving on to join Lloyd’s broker Atlantic Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers.
The merger of Marsh and JLT — two giant broking houses — was widely expected to result in a reshuffling of staff, but Adler’s departure is the highest-profile move so far.
Key figure
His exit comes just over a year after P&I head Andrew Reynolds quit Marsh to join Britannia P&I in March 2018.
Adler’s decision to leave makes JLT’s Mark Cracknell the most senior and experienced P&I broker remaining in the combined Marsh JLT brokerage.
Adler, who joined Marsh in 2016, was heralded as a key figure in developing Marsh’s P&I service.
His experience working for owner and operator Ultranav was expected to bring a client-driven approach and help owners improve their risk rating.
He was also seen as the right person to take Marsh’s use of big data and internet technology to the next stage.
In an earlier interview last year, before his departure emerged, Adler told TradeWinds: “One area ripe for positive technology driven change is protection and indemnity insurance.”
But there have been questions raised in the market over how Marsh and JLT are combining their P&I broking business.
The pair were expected to work closely together when the marine brokerage was placed under the newly formed Marsh-JLT Specialty following the merger.
Separate offices
But the indications in the market are that they are still operating as separate entities. The two are still located in separate offices in the City of London.
Sources suggest that the pair bid separately for the BP Shipping account, which recently went up for tender.
Marsh has held the BP Shipping account for years but TradeWinds understands it has now moved over to rival broker Willis Towers Watson following completion of the tendering process.
As TradeWinds reported previously, Marsh and JLT have very different approaches to P&I brokering.
Marsh’s focus has been on improving the risk rating of owners and matching the most suitable P&I club in terms of corporate culture and operating style with owners.
JLT places an emphasis on finding value for owners through its analysis of the cost efficiency and performance of P&I clubs.
