Our parent company, Specialist Risk Group,  can trace its origins back to 1925.

In 2018, Pollen Street Capital, a Private Equity company, bought the majority shareholding in the formerly known, Miles Smith Insurance Group. Then, in 2019, Pollen Street Capital purchased The Underwriting Exchange and LIME as a sister company to Miles Smith. They also set up a holding company named Specialist Risk Investments Limited (now known as Specialist Risk Group) to group the companies together. Later in 2019, Specialist Risk Group acquired Square Mile Broking and David Codling and Associates, to further enhance their retail business portfolio.

In July 2020, Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions was formed by merging specialist insurance brokers Miles Smith Insurance Solutions, Square Mile Broking, The Underwriting Exchange Special Risks Division and David Codling and Associates. Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions became the Specialty Clients pillar of Specialist Risk Group. 

Then, in December 2020, Private Equity Investors, HGGC, acquire a majority stake in Specialist Risk Group.

Since 2020, Specialist Risk Group has welcomed several specialist people and businesses to the Specialty Clients pillar: Insolvency Risk Services/Probate Property Solutions, Emrose Insurance Brokers/Cabsurance, The Channel Partnership, KBIS British Equestrian Insurance, Hamilton Leigh Insurance Brokers, TLO Risk Services, Consort Insurance and Fleet and Commercial. 

You can find out more about Specialist Risk Group here

Specialist Risk Group currently employ over 500 colleagues, 220 of whom work directly for Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions. Combining our history in our previous brands with our future strategy, we drive real value for our clients through the specialist insurance advice we provide to protect their business.

Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions comprises the following teams: Corporate, Commercial, Equestrian, Insolvency, Jewellers and Specie, Trade Credit, specialist lines and Private Clients. 

Our teams have fantastic relationships in the insurance market, including Lloyd’s of London, allowing us to secure strategic relationships with leading insurers, which enables us to develop and provide market-leading insurance products on the most competitive terms for our clients.

We are extremely excited for the future of Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions. Guided by our objectives of being a good colleague and hitting our numbers, our colleagues are working together to build a company we’re proud to tell our friends and family about.

As a Group, it is our goal to become a top 20 broker in the UK. Each year, we continue to move up the ranks of the Insurance Times Top 50 Brokers list. We have gone from #44 in 2018 to to #29 in 2022. We look forward to seeing this increase in coming years.

We look forward to continue growing as a business, both organically and through targeted M&A to further deepen and broaden our service offering over the coming years.

SRG_Group On White

Our parent company, Specialist Risk Group, is one of the fastest-growing groups of insurance intermediaries in the UK. The Group is split into four business units, providing a bespoke service to our unique markets and clients. Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions is the Specialty Clients division and the others are: Miles Smith & TUE – UK and Ireland Speciality Broking, Specialist Risk International – International Specialty Broking and MX – Specialty Underwriting.

Being part of the Group allows us to access specialist products and the Lloyd’s of London market through the other business units. This means we can provide our clients with a truly unique service and offer a range of exclusive benefits.

Visit our Group website

At Specialist Risk Group, we are governed by our mantra “Difficult. Done Well.”. We specialise in crafting solutions for specialist insurance needs that other companies actively avoid and solve problems for clients that other brokers cannot solve. We take a people first approach that empowers our staff and enables them to respond quickly to clients. Our people are offered valuable learning and development opportunities and ultimately, we aim to create an environment where we enjoy coming to work. We believe this means our people will always provide an outstanding service to our clients.

 
 

OUR PEOPLE

Our ‘people first’ culture means we invest heavily in the training and development of our employees, ensuring they are well equipped and more than capable to deal with any queries or concerns you may have.

Whether you are working with our technical insurance experts, claims experts or industry experts, you can be sure that you are in safe hands.

OUR PROMISE

We are committed to providing our clients with market-leading insurance products, on competitive terms across a diverse range of key industry segments.

We will become your trusted advisor on all aspects of risks that your business faces. Our expert team will work closely with you to tailor a bespoke policy to protect your business and provide ongoing intelligent risk management advice to further mitigate and reduce the risks your business faces.

Why choose us?

OUR PROPOSITION

EXPERTISE

EXPERTISE

INSURER RELATIONSHIPS

INSURER RELATIONSHIPS

TAILORED SERVICE

TAILORED SERVICE

CLAIMS MANAGEMENT

CLAIMS MANAGEMENT

TECHNOLOGICALLY ENABLED

TECHNOLOGICALLY ENABLED

RISK MANAGEMENT

RISK MANAGEMENT

SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM

Lee Anderson

Lee has built and transformed underwriting and broking businesses across multiple platforms. His passion is driving value through building platforms for growth. Lee joined SRG, the parent company of Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions in September 2019.

CEO

Oliver Thorne

Ollie joined SRG in October 2022 to lead the Group’s retail pillar, Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions (SRIS). His experience and background made him the perfect person to drive SRIS into the next stage of its growth journey.

Ollie enjoys the dynamic nature of private equity backed companies and shares SRG’s value that a people-focused culture is the key to successful growth. He firmly believes that specialist is better than generalist and enjoys the challenge of building unique solutions and teams.

Managing Director

Chris Lennon

Chris is an experienced commercial/corporate insurance broker, sales leader and graduate of Ashridge Business School.  He is a strong technical broker and producer with a track record of success and a particular bias for Construction and Engineering, Cyber and Technology and Professional/Financial Risks.

Chris is extremely passionate about developing and executing growth strategies and developing people. With over 20 years’ experience in commercial and corporate broking, Chris has held senior leadership positions with global brokers including HSBC, Lockton and Gallagher.

Outside of work, Chris enjoys numerous sports and can be found either coaching minis rugby for his local rugby club or watching his daughter showjumping.  Chris is long-suffering Tottenham supporter.

Sales and Development
Sales and Development Director

David Garrad

David joined the Insurance Industry in 1990 with Commercial Union (now Aviva), where he was responsible for sales, underwriting & the development of a panel of brokers.

During his career, David worked in several broker and insurer businesses before setting up Square Mile Broking in 2007. Specialist Risk Group acquired Square Mile in October 2019 and David now holds the position of Specialist Practices Director for Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions.

David is married with two young sons, and enjoys golf, football and suffering as a supporter of Crystal Palace FC!

Specialist Practices Director

Andrew Costello

Andrew is a 30-year veteran of the Insurance industry having joined Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions following its acquisition of Square Mile Broking Ltd at the end of 2019.

Andrew’s background included 24 years with the likes of AXA, NIG and Aviva in various underwriting and operational management roles before joining Square Mile Broking as Commercial Director. This varied role included leadership of the account handling and claim functions as well as overall ownership of the customer experience for new and existing clients.

Andrew is married and has 2 sons Josh and Ethan. In his spare time he enjoys, cricket, football and the occasional hack around a golf course.

Business Operations Director

Nick Porter

Strategic Director

Graham Pringle

With over 20 years Corporate Insurance Experience with both National and International companies, Graham has a passion for client service and an experienced technical knowledge of multi-class insurance programmes, across a wide variety of industries.

Graham’s experience of national markets brings a firm ability to broker complex placements into a diverse range of insurance providers and as the Corporate Services Director Graham works closely with our key client’s to ensure they receive a bespoke service and excellent day-to-day support.

Corporate Service Director
Solutions
"We have dedicated loss adjusters and risk engineers/surveyors who are available to us 24/7 and, in case of Employers' Liability claims, there is an early dialogue to agree the best course of action in respect of defensibility or, in some cases, an agreement to the Liability claim."

Belfield Group

Group Finance Director
Solutions
"When large/complex claims occur, Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions (SRIS) are right alongside us. This was typified when a significant fire affected one of our sites several years ago. The business interruption claim alone totalled several million pounds but SRIS settled the claim within a 2-month period, meaning the impact on our business was minimised and flexibility retained."

Belfield Group

Group Finance Director
Solutions
“We were with the same insurer that we were before, but the service is better because of the broker. In addition, when we appointed Specialist Risk Insurance Solutions we were already in a long-term agreement with the insurer, but they were able to renegotiate the agreement and provided us with considerable cost savings.”

Chelmsford Star Cooperative

CFO, Lisa Waghorn

INVESTORS

HGGC

In 2020, HGGC, a private equity fund manager, acquired the majority shareholding in Specialist Risk Group.

HGGC are relationship investors with operating backgrounds who seek to build differentiated middle-market businesses. They invest in companies that they believe have leading competitive positions in defensible markets where they can add value via their operating skills and relationships, focusing on sectors such as Financial Services and Business Services.

View HGGC’s portfolio

HGGC

HGGC have 198 portfolio investments, with a total of $5.4 billion cumulative commitments. They seek to leverage their investor-operator skillsets and deep multi-sector networks to develop preferred partner relationships that encourage alignment of interests as they work to drive positive outcomes that lead to strong references and enhanced networks.

We benefit from the support provided by HGGC in reaching our growth targets and providing an exceptional service to our clients.

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