Insurance News magazine August/September 2026

‘We want to be on everyone’s shopping list’

Ansvar’s new chief aims to quickly double the insurer’s share in niche markets

By Miranda Maxwell

Jason Hammond, who took over as chief executive at Ansvar Insurance in March, has come a long way since starting post-university life as a debt collector during the 1990s recession Australia infamously “had to have”.

While gathering workers’ compensation premiums at Victoria’s state tax office, an opening emerged in underwriting, which the government integrated with its outsourced claims management.

“My hand could not have gone up quicker – it was ‘anything but this’, and an opportunity to get out and into the private sector was really attractive to me,” Mr Hammond tells Insurance News.

“Collecting taxes when there was a lot of financial stress was a difficult job. You learn a lot about yourself, and about business, being a debt collector.”

Insurance clicked, and Mr Hammond went on to spend two decades at QBE in senior leadership roles, moving from GM of workers’ compensation to GM of broker distribution and Asia chief executive in Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore.

This year, he was selected to replace Ansvar’s long-serving Warren Hutcheon after an extensive recruitment process. He is the niche insurer’s first new chief in 12 years.

“The thought of a specialist insurer was attractive to me. As I went through that interview process, I was just imagining what it would be like to build out proper depths of specialty in the sectors that we operate in.

“I had a good opportunity to understand the business and I felt like I was up and running before even starting on day one.”

Ansvar has spent 60 years honing its expertise as a specialist provider of insurance and risk management for care services (aged, disability and child); non-profits; education; faith communities; arts, culture and heritage; and commercial property.

It offers SME package, property, casualty and financial lines products across these classes to provide a broad multiline solution, including professional indemnity and management liability.

The leadership team calculates market share is in the mid single digits in these sectors, and Mr Hammond has an ambitious growth target.

“In my view, it’s just too small for an organisation that purports to be a sector specialist,” Mr Hammond says.

“We have a relatively moderate market share, and it feels to me if we are true sector specialists, we should be on everybody’s minds when they’re talking about the sectors that we operate in.

“There’s plenty of headroom for us to grow. The fact that we’re only mid single digits says to me that we’ve got plenty of opportunity to improve that sector specialism and improve our reputation in the sectors within which we operate.”

Ansvar has spent decades building technical underwriting expertise and it is the only insurer operating exclusively in its chosen sectors, with alternative cover available from “generalists – insurers that target everything”.

It offers expert governance and risk consultancy for its specialty sectors, providing workshops and training, tools and templates, and online sector-specific risk packages. And it says its underwriters are second to none in knowing the risk profiles of operators in areas such as care and education, and passing that knowledge on to help brokers.

Ansvar says its claims personnel are also subject matter experts, particularly in complex and sensitive matters, and its dedicated risk solutions team comes at no additional cost.

In affirming Ansvar’s financial rating of “excellent” in June this year, AM Best said the business had an established presence, plus strong expertise and brand recognition in its niche markets. Mr Hammond says operating in a discrete number of sectors creates an opportunity to “build out depths of specialty nobody else should be able to do”.

His plan is to increase market penetration to “at least double digits” in the near term.

“In real terms, it’s not massive. There is plenty of opportunity for us to grow in those sectors as we improve our reputation, and our ability to demonstrate that we add value.

“We’re working on our strategy for the next phase in the Ansvar Australian journey and I do have an ambition to build out sector specialty that nobody else can replicate.

“We’re doing a lot of work to understand what it takes for us to … be on everyone’s shopping list, in terms of at least consideration.”

Ansvar’s target sectors involve complex risks, but knowing the pressure its intermediary customers face, it is working hard on responsiveness and service levels.

In its SME business, it promises to get 80% of quotes turned around within four hours.

It recently made changes to its business model as part of a push to build clarity and confidence among brokers and optimise service as a key differentiator.

Distribution has changed from a state-based structure to regional – northern, southern and western – supported by dedicated SME, commercial and corporate underwriting teams.

And during recent Aged Care Act reforms, for example, Ansvar was engaged in new framework discussions, making it an active participant in the sectors it insures and at the forefront of what legislative changes mean for insureds. This deeper level of knowledge and understanding guides the right procurement outcomes for brokers and their clients, it says.

“By combining our expertise in core sectors with a commitment to consistent, quality service, we can support brokers in challenging sectors such as care and education with better, more reliable results,” Ansvar says.

“When you’re operating in complex sectors like care, education, faith and community, you need first-hand experience of what risk actually looks like for those organisations.”

And the unique selling point is that Ansvar is owned by Benefact Group – the UK’s third-largest corporate giver. All Ansvar’s available profits go to good causes. Benefact – which insures St Paul’s Cathedral in London – also operates ethical investment manager Edentree.

Mr Hammond was recently in the UK to help celebrate £250 million of giving since 2016.

“It’s an amazing achievement to be a part of that, and at Ansvar Australia, it’s amazing the number of people that feel really aligned with the giving,” he says.

“In my leadership team, we talk about the insurance part of our business – driving core improvement and customer engagement – but there is always a conversation about the giving aspect.

“I look around this business and see people feel quite motivated by working for an organisation that gives its power to the community to help out.

“The mantra we have inside the business is that the more that we grow, the more we can give.”

Case in point: How Ansvar helped students get back to lunch

At a bayside college in Brisbane, a fire that gutted a canteen resulted in a significant claim – and an opportunity for specialty insurer Ansvar to demonstrate its expertise in the education sector.

Private school Ormiston College was declared a crime scene after it was badly damaged by the two-hour blaze, which started just before term three.

CCTV footage showed two people inside the kitchen area. A 14-year-old boy was later charged with arson, and an 11-year-old boy was dealt with under the Juvenile Justice Act.

Much of the damage was to the kitchen and cafe area in a new, multimillion-dollar centre of learning and innovation, which had to be sealed off. The fire also affected a resource centre and library.

Mr Hammond says Ansvar worked with the school and its broker, Gallagher, to make sure there was adequate support, as large parts of the facility were out of action.

“All parties worked really closely together to understand what needed to be done and ensured what turned out to be a massive claim was managed smoothly so people could get back into their facilities as quickly as possible, and get back to a normal routine as quickly as possible as well,” he tells Insurance News.

“It became a very large claim but was managed really tightly.”

The claim, which came to $20 million, “really showcased our education sector expertise”, Mr Hammond says.

“And we’ve had feedback from brokers about our risk management services and great satisfaction rates with our claim services as well, which reflects that we know the sectors we’re working in.”

Investigators and assessors were on-site to establish the extent of the school damage and make recommendations on repairs.

Funds were quickly made available to get the cafeteria service running again, with alternative arrangements put in place for the canteen and for library services that were usually located in the building.

“Our first order of priority was to get them up and running with a cafeteria to service the kids,” Mr Hammond says. “I have three boys – I know the absence of a cafeteria would create some challenges.

“The kids had a place to buy their lunch from when they returned to school – we worked with the broker and the client to get that up and running as quickly as possible.

“We had people out there on-site really quickly, understanding the exposure and what the school needed when the kids came back two days later.”

Rebuilding took about 18 months, and interim measures were put in place to minimise disruption to students, including the temporary canteen and library, and relocation of classes.

The reopening in January was marked by state Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek, who attended a ceremony alongside students and staff.

College business manager Sonvir Johal said: “Having Ansvar in our corner and being able to afford us some advanced funds meant we could have the canteen facilities for our students straight away.

“I’m really grateful to Ansvar for bringing this facility back for our community and staff. It’s been wonderful to see.”

Ansvar says that to speed a claim and recovery for an education client, brokers should ask 10 questions:

• Who is your internal incident lead, and has your board or governing council been notified?
• Which needs restoring first – classrooms, canteen, boarding, before/after-school care, transport?
• What’s your timeline pressure – term dates, exams, enrolment days, open days?
• Is revenue impacted if attendance, enrolments or fee collection are disrupted?
• Are working with children checks, accreditation, registration at risk of lapsing?
• Have records been backed up?
• What interim arrangements are in place for food service, supervision or duty-of-care obligations?
• Are there reporting obligations to the education department before reopening?
• How is this affecting staff/parents and enrolments?
• Is there a plan for providing advice and updates?