Galea Insurance Brokers set to grow

The person at the helm of Galea Insurance Brokers is Rosanne Galea. She needs little introduction in the insurance field having been a council member of the Malta Insurance Institute, the editor of the Insurance Quarterly and Principal of MITC. Today what is Ms Galea doing?

I am consolidating what I have been doing for the past number of years. I am based at Galea Insurance Brokers in Floriana from where I run this company and two others. I also coordinate the activities of the Malta Association of Women in Business of which I am the president from this office. As a person I am a highly motivated person and am always interested in doing new things and exploring new ideas. The latest (but definitely not the last) was the setting up of Future Focus Ltd., a consultancy and training company which is doing quite well. We help individuals set up in business, we help them develop business ideas, get into export business and assist with their training requirements. The training is in many areas, business studies, finance, marketing, languages and the like. Our main advantage is that our lecturers are all highly qualified, most have international experience and all are practitioners. We do not employ lecturers who are just in teaching and whose last practical activity was years ago! We encourage women returners to the labour market and we do so by providing the training which is needed by these women. We work hand in hand with other organisations in doing so.

What about Galea Insurance Brokers?

That’s my baby. It was set up in 1991 as a tied agent but became a fully fledged broker in 1997. I have a fantastic team of people who make sure that the clients gets a truly personal and professional service. There are no half days or weekends - we are available all the time and clients appreciate this.

The company deals in most classes of insurance business. Over a 100 products in total ranging from motor, home, property, marine, travel, life and other business. We select the best covers around and recommend these to our clients who rely on us for professional advice. We look at the cover offered and the premium that is to be charged. We also look at the services offered. We do not do business with companies that take 9 months to produce a policy document!

How do you select the insurers with whom you do business?

Unfortunately in Malta there are not enough insurance principals/ companies writing insurance business. There are many covers that are not available in Malta and that is indeed sad. It is the consumer who suffers at the end of the day.

We must select from the principals licensed in Malta - the regulations say so, therefore we are restricted. This will eventually change - it must. We go for companies which offer a good claims service, a reliable service, an understanding of our needs, flexibility, proactiveness….

There is one thing that is clear in our minds and that is that we do not want to be let down when a claim arises because it is us who must fact the clients at a pretty unhappy time in their lives.

What insurance covers would you recommend?

A would never dream of going round Malta in a car that is not comprehensively insured. The number of accidents is on the increase and it really does not depend on how you drive but how others drive and there are a few crazy drivers around who never seem to get booked or stopped by the police. We have heard too many sad stories over the past months and the situation does not seem to be getting any better.

As an individual I also seem to put a lot of importance on health insurance. I work very hard myself and if something happens to me or my family, I deserve the attention that I would get from private health care providers. My elder daughter had a minor finger injury a few years ago and the service that I got from the state hospital left much to be desired. I understand that the state hospital has to cater for many people and there may be periods of time when the departments are understaffed or are inundated with unexpected increases in the number of patients, but I am a firm believer of easing the burden from the state by opting for private health insurance.

Travel insurance is another cover that I never stay without.. There is good cover around and the rates are not expensive so I would rather not take the risks. The combined policies offer cover for baggage, money, cancellation of holiday, personal accident, medical and many other benefits

Property insurance is also important. All my life savings have gone into property and I do not want to lose everything that I have worked for. The risk that worries me most is that of earthquake. It does not happen often, thank God, but what if it does? Unfortunately many people in Malta still do not have property insurance, most have just basic cover (I mean the one that is requested by the bank when a loan is taken out). What about the home contents, the jewellery and in the case of shops and garages, the stock, the fixtures and fittings? Underinsurance is another major problem. Clients underestimate the cost to replace the contents in the house. Even in commercial risks, there is a lot of underinsurance ( for a number of reasons which you will understand and which I do not have to publicly specify). Clients know that insurers can be a difficult but yet they do not insure properly and then complain about the consequences. This is one area that we place a great deal of emphasis on, of course for the clients sake and clients appreciate this.

Plans for the future?

I have some new staff who will form the backbone of the company . I need to train them well and this will take the best part of the summer months. We want to improve on the service that we offer to our clients and we shall examine how this can be done. We also want to attract new clients and there will be different strategies to do just this.

Do you as president of the Malta Association of Women in Business recommend that women go into business?

I strongly believe that there are many women out there who have what it takes to be a good business women. All they need is that little push through encouragement, incentives and support schemes to get going. It will be a pity if we do not support them. They will find obstacles, of course they will, everybody does. After overcoming the obstacles they will come out even stronger, more innovative and more creative. That is what this country needs, more business and less regulation!