A New Chapter in Personal Lines Underwriting with Dan Venner

Stepping into his new role leading the Personal Lines underwriting function, Dan Venner brings with him a wealth of experience, six years at Covéa and over 35 years in the industry across distribution, underwriting, and pricing. It’s a background that’s shaped not just how he thinks, but how he leads.

“Trading taught me the value of listening, being responsive, and balancing risk with opportunity,” Dan shares. “Now, in underwriting, that translates into a shift from ‘risk avoidance’ to ‘controlled risk taking’. It’s about asking ourselves, ‘why not? Or what needs to be true’ instead of ‘no’”.

This mindset shift is central to how Dan wants brokers to experience his team. He’s focused on building a culture that’s engaged, fast moving, and solution oriented.

“Sometimes the answer will still be no, but it should be a quick no, and ideally part of a conversation about what it would take to make it a yes.”

Empowering Teams, Refining Strategy

Dan’s immediate priority is clear, consistent, profitable growth. That means reviewing underwriting appetite, refining strategy, and empowering underwriters to make confident decisions.

“We need to make it easy to do business with us,” he says. “Responsiveness is key, and that starts with trust. If our teams feel empowered, brokers will feel that too.”

Listening, Collaborating, Delivering

Improving the broker and customer experience isn’t just about underwriting, it’s about collaboration across the business. Dan is keen to ensure his teams are tuned in to broker feedback and flexible where it matters.

“We can’t rely on what we’ve always done,” he explains. “By listening and responding, we can work with partners to take on more risk in a controlled way and deliver better outcomes.”

Building on Strengths, Exploring New Opportunities

Looking ahead, Dan sees growth not just in the areas where the business is already strong, but in the spaces that sit just beyond them. It’s about recognising where the team already excels and asking, “Where else can we apply that same expertise?”

“If we’re good at writing 50-year-olds, why not 45-year-olds or 40-year-olds…..? If we’re strong in two-bed houses, why not three or four-bed……?” he says. “It’s about identifying those natural next steps and consider the opportunities that feel like a logical extension of what we already do well.”

Rather than making dramatic shifts, Dan’s approach is to build outward from a solid foundation, expanding thoughtfully and strategically. “We’ll stay close to our core strengths, but we’ll also be open to new ideas and broker insights that help us stretch into new areas with confidence, control and grip.”

The external environment is changing with pace - how we drive, how we live, it all moves on. This throws up both risks and opportunities for insurers and brokers. Working together to understand these changes, while improving our combined customer footprint, is something we need to do more of. We know car markets are now dominated by alternative fuels, and houses are being built differently with new construction, new heating, and new power solutions. Together, we need to face this and not hide from it. This will mean extending our risk appetite in a controlled way and working with our partners to do so.

To extend our competitive reach, in addition to looking at adjacent segments, we are working with partners who hold increased data or insight into specific segments and then trying to combine our strengths to explore these niches of the market.

What Brokers Can Expect

For brokers, the message is clear, expect consistency, open to be challenged and considered, quick decisions when possible, and a genuine willingness to explore opportunities.

“This is about shifting the mindset,” Dan says. “We’ll stay disciplined, but we’ll also be open. That’s the change brokers will start to see, and it’s one I’m passionate about delivering.”