What our clients say

Mactavish are a proactive specialist insurance advisor who take a lot of the technical and time burden off your plate which, in turn, makes internal and Board discussions around risk much more efficient and seamless.”

Alex Priestley
CFO
Forest Holidays

I would absolutely recommend Mactavish to any business that are struggling with their insurance claims or have hit a bit of a dead end with their procurement and are seeing premiums go up and not sure where to turn next.

Unlocking options for a listed company

We had reached the point where our broker partners simply weren’t helping us navigate the market to best effect. In fact, we felt that they had an overly negative view of our risk. In contrast, when we appointed Mactavish they spent a lot of time with us; getting to know our risks, what made the business tick and what mattered most. That gave them a really solid foundation to base their recommendations on.

They used that knowledge of our business to transform the way we presented our control and mitigation processes, making us much more attractive to insurers and thereby unlocking capacity – giving us more options. Bearing in mind that we’d only started working with them two weeks before renewal, we were surprised that they could respond so quickly.

That responsiveness is something that runs through everything they do. Any time we have a problem we can contact Mactavish and get an answer straight away – and more importantly, an accurate and clear answer! They are a friendly and approachable team who really will go the extra mile to deliver for their clients.

Mactavish were results focused throughout and their involvement has given the Trust the capability and confidence to change how it manages insurance

I would recommend Mactavish’s services to any business wanting to get a better understanding of its risks and increase the reliability of its insurance.

Having experienced a major fire in recent times it is essential that the Trust has confidence in its insurance arrangements in case it experiences another one in twenty year event. The work Mactavish has undertaken, together with their insight on risk, expertise in insurance law and insurance contracts, has provided the organisation with this confidence.

Mactavish assisted the Trust in adapting its processes to meet the requirements of the Insurance Act. They assisted the Trust in increasing its understanding of its most significant risks by interviewing key stakeholders within the Trust, testing large loss scenarios against the policy, and assisting in implementation of best practice processes to comply with the Duty of Fair Presentation. This piece of work has helped to ensure the Trust has effectively identified its unknown unknowns in a way that was not possible previously.

Assessment was then provided of the Trust’s protection against the key risks identified. Following this, policy wording enhancements for key insurance lines were negotiated prior to renewal with Mactavish’s knowledge and experience contributing to a greatly improved contractual position.

I enjoyed working with the Mactavish team who were always professional and responsive. They were aware of their audience and able to adapt communication and the level of technical detail accordingly.

This helped to engage stakeholders in areas of the organisation not directly involved in insurance. Mactavish were results focussed throughout and their involvement has given the Trust the capability and confidence to change how it manages insurance which benefits the whole organisation.

When a claim suddenly happens, it can be a steep real time learning curve and it’s not always obvious who best to turn to

When faced with a potentially large and complex insurance claim, there are many questions which management and the Board wish to see addressed quickly and efficiently – and practically. At a time when there was considerable uncertainty impacting our local business following the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria, Mactavish’s role was extremely valuable in helping us resolve an intricate BI claim smoothly, despite a very complex policy wording.

Working with insurers can be challenging during the claims process, but Mactavish’s work to prepare us in advance for areas of negotiation helped us handle meetings with confidence, especially when it wasn’t always obvious why insurers were asking particular questions or seeking particular information. It was very comforting to have Mactavish on the end of the phone with the insurance industry experience to offer calm, pragmatic advice when new issues or concerns arose – this helped us to establish the right expectations for the management of the claim and to communicate them internally in a clear and concise manner.

Working with Mactavish to control the claim from an early stage enabled us to line up the right mix of legal and forensic accounting input, provided comfort to the Board on how the claim was to be handled and we believe avoided over-complicating negotiations. When a claim suddenly happens, it can be a steep real time learning curve and it’s not always obvious who best to turn to, but Mactavish helped us to navigate the process and get to a fair settlement quickly.

I particularly value the combination of subject knowledge and independence – a unique mix

As an Insurance Buyer, Mactavish have been able to give me greater confidence in the quality of the insurance policy wordings they have worked on. This does help me sleep at night! Mactavish manage diplomatically to force insurers to put their cards on the table and engage reasonably. The integrity of wordings becomes much improved, so I can offer greater assurance to senior management on the effectiveness of our contractual risk transfer arrangements.

The Mactavish team are noticeably capable and knowledgeable, and the organisation is lean and effective – a breath of fresh air in that respect. Their deep understanding of the issues from all angles makes it easy to explain points quickly and succinctly. I particularly value the combination of subject knowledge and independence – a unique mix that seems not to be readily available from most law firms and brokers.

I have been particularly pleased with how Mactavish have managed to keep everyone pulling in the same direction to achieve the best outcome. Experienced wordings experts at our brokers have cooperated happily and I was pleasantly surprised to observe how little friction there has been throughout the process in negotiating difficult points with our insurers.

Their recommendations were practical and added immediate and clear value to the confidence in our insurance programme.

Mactavish combine practical knowledge around the Insurance Act with a deep and sound understanding of market practices and areas where policies can be made more reliable and certain.

Their approach seeks to address issues before a significant loss occurs and highlights any disagreements or fault lines with the insurer. This is a refreshing and valuable method.

Mactavish are drivers of change. They are not afraid to challenge the conservative status quo and raise the difficult questions. This is a very important role and one which Maersk respects. Through this
they are encouraging a positive spiral driven by professional standards
and transparency.

Mactavish conducted a review of our Energy programme policy wordings, programme structure, and disclosure and placement procedures, in light of the challenges associated with the Insurance Act 2015. Mactavish then provided focused guidance in these areas. The work assisted us in identifying and addressing many aspects of our policy, placement and disclosure process.

Their ability to listen and adapt to our specific and niche technical requirements has been commendable. The result is a risk transfer outcome which is more robust and transparent.

Mactavish have assisted us in setting out a standard of policy wording and fair presentation which ensures we and our insurer partners have a common and shared understanding of the essence of our insurable risks. They are flexible and designed a programme of support which suited our needs. Their recommendations were practical and added immediate and clear value to the confidence in our insurance programme.

Their analytical capability and attention to detail underpins their approach to everything they do.

Mactavish are highly influential in the UK insurance market both through their lobbying work to improve standards and through their work with individual clients.

For example, they have strongly represented the interests of policyholders throughout the consultation process for the proposed reform of the UK’s insurance contract law being undertaken by the Law Commission. They are regular contributors to conferences and in the press.

Their analytical capability and attention to detail underpins their approach to everything they do.

Mactavish are experts in their field of insurance governance.

Mactavish are experts in their field of insurance governance. This has been demonstrated through the support and guidance that they have provided our members on the Insurance Act 2015. Their knowledge on the subject has been most insightful and I’m sure that the work that they have produced will have a strong impact in helping brokers understand the issues that the recent law reform presents. We value the positive collaborative relationship that we have with them.

Mactavish is not just an expert problem solver; they help us use insurance to provide long-term stability to the business and to foresee possible cliff edges. Mactavish is uniquely able to kick the tyres of an insurance programme to establish comfort that it provides the right cover on a basis that is reliable and fairly priced.

Carole Cran
Chief Financial Officer
Forth Ports

We didn’t know we were looking for Mactavish but when we found them, we were very glad we did. Insurance is a very complicated world full of very technical factors which you cannot guess. Mactavish make sure that the product we’re being sold is the product we think we’re buying and they make sure that we, as the client, are being best served by all parties in that transaction.

We obtained excellent results that were better than we would have expected to achieve by ourselves

From MBDA’s perspective Mactavish delivers excellent value as despite its small size, it is a hard-hitting company which is heard by the market, it makes a real difference in pushing the frontiers of best practice and is very efficient in what it is able to achieve and deliver.

A very tangible benefit for us is Mactavish’s ability to prick our corporate conscience in reminding us of what needs to be addressed and what we should strive to achieve. Equally, Mactavish has provided significant tangible value by helping us obtain results that we would not have otherwise thought possible. They enabled us to identify potential hidden issues, clearly articulated where the key pitfalls could be and suggested appropriate strategies and solutions. Furthermore, as a corporate insurance buyer, we get a strong feeling that the Mactavish team is ‘on our side’ with no other conflicts of interest.

We asked Mactavish to help us develop a broking ‘Request for Tender’ and received their valuable guidance throughout the broker tender process. In the early stages, their initial guidance enabled us to establish ‘the art of the possible’ by hearing what Mactavish had achieved with other companies in the same situation. Consequently, at the tender stage, and with further injections of contract and negotiation guidance from Mactavish, we aimed high and felt able to set meaningful but achievable challenges for the participating brokers.

For us the ultimate value from Mactavish was identifying the potential issues and pitfalls that we faced and enabling us to understand what could be achieved. Without benefiting from Mactavish’s experience and expertise in this niche area, we would not have pushed as hard as we ultimately did during the broker tender. As a result, we obtained excellent results that were better than we would have expected to achieve by ourselves. Furthermore, our own insights and knowledge grew throughout the broker review process, enabling us to feel confident in challenging the brokers and comparing their different responses to the challenges we set them.

We look forward to continuing to work with Mactavish alongside our brokers and insurers, to benefit from their unique experience and expertise, in order to achieve maximum contract certainty from all our insurance policies.

Having Mactavish on our side helps us to achieve exemplary results without compromising what we perceive to be excellent mutually beneficial relationships that we have with our broker and insurer partners.