"The rating is largely based on current market risk and not individual firm quality. This frustrates advisers – and understandably so. "
FR: Tell me about BareRock.
BareRock is a digital-first professional indemnity insurance (PII) provider which works to safeguard forward-thinking financial advisers and planners. We were founded in April 2024, so we are relatively new kids on the block, but with a wealth of experience in the industry across the team.
We are working hard to reimagine PII from the ground up and are creating a revolutionary new service to reward well-run financial intermediaries. Our role here is to help to analyse and de-risk financial advice organisations to give them a fairer, intelligent, and more personalised alternative to the legacy PII providers.
FR: What makes you different?
Good question. I think there are a number of things that make us stand out against the crowd. First and foremost, it’s our risk-based rating model that sets us apart. This model moves us and our clients away from traditional market base rate + turnover model and puts a greater emphasis on individual firm qualities and risk management practices. We also – as part of this model - offer Club Membership tiers (Club, Club 10, Club 20) with rate reductions up to 20% for our members. We all know PII isn’t the most fun or sexy insurance out there, but our role is to make things easier and quicker for well-run advice firms and reward their commitment to maintaining a good culture.
Another thing that makes us different is our tech. We offer a fully online application process and a digital portal for policy management and complaint notifications. Again, we are trying to make things simple and easy for advice firms, so that they can get on with what they are good at.
We also offer a quality-focused approach. Our mantra is ‘Good Companies in Good Company’. This means that we have a robust selection criterion to avoid ‘bad apple’ firms causing any contagion risk to the rest of our clients and we then reward firms who demonstrate good practice with better rates and terms.
FR: You're from a compliance background - what got you into PII?
Absolutely correct. I’ve been working in financial services for over 30 years now and the vast majority of this time has been in compliance roles. My last role was as co-founder of Sense Network where I worked as compliance director. I have historically been responsible for sourcing and dealing with PII applications, hence my interest in this area. But I have to admit I have years and years of frustrations with how the PII process works. Not only this, but I felt the process seemed pretty unfair as our rate was always anchored to the overall market and not our own risk profile. For instance, we could have no claims or issues and our premium still went up. This never seemed fair. I guess it was these frustrations that pushed me to try and think of a better way to do things.
Jonathan Newell (my now business partner) was, at that time, my PI broker, and we used to discuss this (and other) challenges with the market. It was at that time that we decided someone should do something about the issues in the industry. Cue the formation of BareRock and a whole step change across PII.
FR: Let’s talk PII then. What difficulties are advisers facing when renewing their PII policies?
As you’ll know, the general premise of insurance is that the claims of few are paid by many, but when a few bad polluters, to coin a recent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) term, are recklessly causing preventable losses for the insurance pool you’re sharing, then the market seems most unfair and your premiums are impacted. This is a big issue in the industry and something that understandably worries many advisers – as it did me.
In general, rates tend to be based on overall market risk, not the firm’s risk. This is partly due to application being paper/pdf based with lots of free text answers. This lack of data integrity and analysis means underwriting is often very manual and based on subjective opinion only. As a result, the rating is largely based on current market risk and not individual firm quality. This frustrates advisers – and understandably so.
I think PII is also seen as cumbersome for advisers too. Afterall, they currently have to complete renewal application forms every year. Moving online means that we can save firms time at renewals as data can be re-used. This should – as mentioned earlier - free up financial advisers so they can get on with their day job.
FR: How do you foresee the PII market evolving over the next few years?
It is impossible to talk about the future of the PII market (or any industry for that matter) without talking about artificial intelligence (AI). This I believe will impact PII in a couple of ways:
Firstly, as financial intermediaries start using AI, new risks will emerge. Over-reliance on AI without oversight could cause errors, especially if the tech is used without checks and balances. However, conversely, firms using AI to improve accuracy and reduce administrative mistakes will be more efficient, and so adoption is something we very strongly endorse. But, as always, our advice is, tread carefully and always make sure you understand the tech and use it intelligently.
Secondly, for firms like BareRock who embrace digital efficiencies to make better underwriting decisions, having access to data and using AI to analyse that data will mean we can enhance our offering to our clients. For example, we see a world where our support on complaints can be augmented by AI, as well as giving us the ability to adopt data interrogation solutions to help ensure that the firms we work with are ‘Good Companies, in Good Company’.
FR: I see you recently joined Institute for Financial Wellbeing (IFW) as a Partner member. Can you tell me about that?
That’s right. At the end of 2024 we were proud to receive Partner Member status with the Institute for Financial Wellbeing (IFW). This partnership certainly represents a significant milestone in our journey. Our approach to PII has always been about more than just insurance – it's about recognising and supporting firms that put client wellbeing at the heart of their practice. And so, this partnership supports our belief that firms demonstrating strong wellbeing-focused practices should be rewarded with fair and stable premiums that reflect their commitment to excellence. The collaboration naturally aligns with our mission to transform the PII landscape by recognising and rewarding firms that maintain robust processes and demonstrate responsible conduct. This approach mirrors the IFW's focus on promoting holistic financial wellbeing practices within the financial advice sector.
We also recently collaborated with the Just Finance Foundation too, to help deliver financial literacy to children across the UK and drive a social shift when it comes to how the next generation will deal with finance. We have added Comentis’ vulnerability assessment platform to our suite of approved risk mitigation solutions for our Club Membership. This specific partnership means that not only can we support our well managed advice firms to fulfil their Consumer Duty requirements around vulnerability, but Club Member firms using the Comentis technology can also gain points towards their overall BareRock Club score too, potentially allowing them to qualify for insurance premium reductions of up to 20%.
It’s partnerships like these, where we can demonstrate how serious we are about championing the transformation of industry standards and practices and we hope to have many more before the year is out.
FR: What’s next for BareRock?
Grow the business and increase our partnerships with likeminded companies who offer best in breed solutions to help firms mitigate PII risk.
We have so many plans and exciting ideas to further improve PII for adviser firms – we’re just getting started. So, watch this space.
FR: If you could see any headline about the financial services market in 2025, what would it be?
How about “BareRock Club Members set the standard in compliance benchmark, says FCA.”
This is quite clearly a joke, but in all seriousness, we would like to see our Club Membership levels being widely recognised as a measure of quality across the industry. We firmly believe that being a BareRock Club Member, alongside other quality firms, will help our clients protect themselves against future PII rate increases and we will be insulated against the worst of future systemic issues.
