Diary of an Insurer: Purbeck's Todd Davison

Monday

Start the week with a visit to our new offices in Rugby for a catch-up with the team.  

The business has expanded in the last year, so we’ve recently moved to larger premises to accommodate more people and more desks, but there is still a fair bit to sort out – as is always the way.  

While we’re in the process of getting fully operational in the new space, we’re in a hybrid model with some people working from home part of the week.  

It will be great to have everyone in one place soon though, even if some choose certain days to be home-based. I think it’s important for motivation and morale.

We host a meeting with our insurers to look at planning for 2025, some strategic distribution opportunities and our product offering for the new year. This is exciting but obviously needs very careful research and planning.

My mind is racing so on the one-and-a-half hour drive home I listen to a podcast with Professor Brian Cox in an attempt to switch off from work matters.  

It also stops me overthinking the speech I made as best man at a friend’s recent wedding. It was an honour but also nerve-wracking. No one wants to be the best man with the worst gaff.

Tuesday

Wake up early to catch up on emails. Drop our children at nursery, go to the gym to do a quick 5K on the treadmill and re-start work just after 9am.  

Today is a work from home day as I need to get my head down on a few things – namely finalising our October 2024 numbers including bordereau submissions for insurers and working with our accountants to finalise our management accounts ahead of the board pack being issued for our meeting the following week. 

This also involves closing off our 2024 financial accounts, which have now been audited.

In the afternoon, a few hours are lost to Excel in preparation of some reports for actuarial review at our insurers. Then there is a discussion with our tax advisers around the capital structure of our business with some consideration to the recent changes to the tax regime following the 2024 budget.

The late evening is spent down at the driving range working on my swing.

Wednesday

An early start today, down to London for a breakfast meeting with a broker in the City to do an account review and updates on products/business in 2025.  

Following this, I had a number of meetings with our software providers on current operational enhancements under development. 

We’re looking at our application conversion rates to understand drop offs and see where we could make enhancements to the user experience and underwriting requirements in 2025. Lots to think about. In between meetings, I grab a bite to eat and catch up on emails.

Making the most of being in London, I meet a friend for a catch up after work at a nearby pub to look at planning our skiing and golfing trips in 2025.

Thursday

Today starts with a bitterly cold run before the kids wake up.  It’s -2 degrees so the run becomes a little more hazardous than I like, as I try to dodge icy patches on slippery pavements. 

Make it home safe and wide awake. Put the slow cooker on before jumping on the train to work from my office in Cambridge.

I have a number of meetings with distribution partners and our digital marketing agency looking at our quarterly performance. We recently launched our new website, so we are doing some work comparing the performance, user flows and bounce rates, etc, to make sure everything is optimised.  

Some of the day is spent reviewing proposals around compliance audits to take place during 2025 and for the scope be defined for those engagements.

My wife is incredibly organised when it comes to Christmas, so after dinner and after the kids have gone to bed, I am tasked with gift wrapping duties. The next task is working out where to hide them.

Friday

It’s another cold run down by the riverside before the kids wake up. Drop my eldest at school and my youngest at nursery before starting work at 9am. 

There are a number of internal calls with members of staff looking at some strategic initiatives around expansion of the business and other avenues for revenue.  Then it is an afternoon focused on claims.

Our claims manager and I review the current personal guarantee insurance claims and have a number of discussions with lender counterparties on our insureds personal guarantee commitments to come to settlements.  

This claims work also involves forensic analysis of policyholders’ financial data extracted via accounting APIs and open banking providers.

I switch off from the day and the end of another busy week by cooking dinner. I tend to do all the cooking for the family. It’s therapeutic, helps me to wind down from work. Plus, of course, I get to eat what I like.