back to press coverage main page Simon BurgessMONEY MARKETING - 8TH JUNE 2006 The flamboyant managing director of British Insurance has just been involved in a bear market when he insured in a bear market when he insured a bruin at risk and he has also offered cover against alien abduction and attacks by the Loch Ness Monster. Now he is turning his attention to setting up a life insurance provider and offering payment protection insurance, bringing with him his philosophy of pile it high, sell it cheap and a belief that advisers should be cutting their commission to close the protection gap.British Insurance managing director Simon Burgess has been known for getting involved in the bizarre end of the insurance market, having been involved in insuring everything from attacks by the Loch Ness Monster to damage to Basil Brush’s bottom. He says: “Well, it was around the time that everyone was talking about J-Lo insuring her rear end for £2m or whatever it was. I figured I should create a bit of publicity of my own so I insured the backside of Basil. Of course, it was all just a publicity stunt.” Burgess knows he gets stick for some of his more wacky cases – insuring against Valentine’s Day impotency, virgin births and alien abduction being the more widely known – but he says many of these were to woman called Mary, Marie and Maria, fearful of being chosen as the next Virgin Mary. His alien abduction insurance policy attracted 30,000 people. Burgess says these were mainly Californians, who paid $100 each to insure themselves in case they were abducted by aliens. “Of course, the burden of proof lies with the claimant. Let’s face it – insurance is so tedious that if I can enlighten my dreary life with a bit of humour every now and again, I will.” His latest stunt came last month when he heard that the German authorities were planning to shoot a rare species of bear that had crossed the border from Austria to Bavaria. It was the first time that a bear had been sighted in the area in over 170 years and it was considered it a threat. Burgess insured the bear for £1m liability cover for any loss, damage or death in a bid for the hitmen to come up with a more humane solution and all proceeds were donated to animal charities. “It takes and Englishman to protect a German bear that had crossed over from Austria.” Fortunately, the bear decided to return to Austria. Teetotaller Burgess is a flamboyant dresser, greeting me in a tailor-made pinstripe suit with a conspicuous bright orange satin lining. It is a far cry from his days while training to be a lawyer when he lived in a squat in North London and was “so poor that I had to walk into the City every day to do my bar training.” He got a law degree at the University of Newcastle and picked up the Robert Maxwell prize for exam performance despite being dyslexic. He specialised in business and insurance law but when he qualified, he gave up law and searched for ways to make some immediate money. He found work at Lloyd’s London through “writing a begging letter that was along the lines of ‘My dad thinks I am useless, please help me to prove him wrong by giving me a job.’ I was given the role of tea boy or oily rag as it was known then.” He worked his way up and became a senior underwriter. He took on many high-profile cases, such as life cover for Ayrton Senna and covering the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson and Elton John for cancellation or non-appearance insurance, on which he says he is now considered a world authority. In the mid-1990s, Burgess left Lloyd’s to join his father working for his road haulage firm taking humanitarian aid to Bosnia and was in charge of distribution of food, healthcare supplies and clothing to locals for the next five years. In 2000, Burgess set up on his own as a broker specialising in protection. His philosophy is “pile it high, sell it cheap”, which many IFAs might scoff at. He says the solution to closing the protection gap is to address the issue of affordability and sell on volume, charging less commission and rebating cash back to the consumer. “The chances of repeat and retention business are that much greater if you do not charge high commission up front,” he says. Burgess is looking at single premium payment protection insurance, which he claims a total rip-off and he welcomes the Office of Fair Trading’s investigation into the sales tactics employed by payment protection insurance sellers. He says this area should be better regulated as premiums are often added on to big loan amounts which can add on hundreds of pounds in interest which could be avoided if monthly premiums were used. “For loans of, say, £10,000 or £20,000, single-premium payment protection insurance can often add another £5,000 on the loan amount which is grossly overpriced,” he says. Burgess is keen on internet-based broking for its low overheads and he owns over 400 domain names including protection.com, goodinsurance.co.uk, burgesses and Britishinsurance.com, shelter.co.uk and bestinsurance.co.uk. His next move is to go from broking into becoming a life insurance provider and he plans to enter the market with British Life in the autumn. Born: 1960, Stoke on Trent Lives: Blackmore End, Essex Education: Law degree from the University of Newcastle Stoke on Trent Career history: 1984 – graduated University of Newcastle, 1984-1986 - trained as a barrister, 1986 – syndicate 305 at Lloyd’s of London, 1987 – syndicate deputy, 1995 – set up Goodfellows, 2003 – merged to become Burgesses, 2004 – Burgesses becomes British Insurance. Likes: Fast cars Dislikes: Speed cameras Favourite book: Great expectations by Charles Dickens Favourite film: Goodfellas Favourite album: Happy Mondays’ greatest hits Hero: Top Cat Life ambition: to live to 100 with an index linked pension Career ambition: To buy an insurance company and be a manufacturer instead of a broker If I wasn’t doing this job, I would be: A barrister representing the underdog. back to press coverage main page
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