Marcela Flores

What is your current perception of the Mexican markets and its legal framework, and how does this impact your role as a broker in the country?

Today, in general, the situation in Mexico has a great deal of volatility in most economic and risk indicators. Within this environment, in my role I manage risk consultancy—more specifically, risk consultancy in benefits for persons. Companies, the government, the different organizations, and persons, in particular, have uncertainties that no one can exactly predict. Lockton has risk consultants who help companies understand the risks that their employees or their assets are facing. We map the risks, find ways to prevent them, and plan to manage them in a more professional way. The Latin American region has extremely specific risks because of the earthquakes and the dynamics in employment, between others. And though a proportion of the population in Latin America is covered by different social securities, the pandemic has shown that there were large groups of people with no culture of coverage or financial culture. Now, the dynamic needs to change. Lockton offer consultancy services in terms of formal employment to help companies become more flexible and offer different kinds of compensation and benefits for their employees.

Can you speak more about the challenges that a broker has of being privately owned?

The Lockton model is extremely unique. Lockton is ranked seventh among the top 10 brokers around the world; however, we are the only one that are independent, with a private ownership: the Lockton family. We do have an entrepreneur model that permits investment in the long term. The major difference is that public companies are owned by a group of owners, though not all of them are experts in the matters of the company. In the case of Lockton, we are truly dedicated to servicing the companies that we offer consultancy to or sell insurance to in the best way. Lockton really looks at the business from a long-term point of view. In Lockton, in 2020 and 2021, we focused on truly helping out clients to do their business better at the moment when they needed us the most. Furthermore, instead of reducing our payrolls, we decided to invest in talent and our people. That is a significant difference that permits us to really focus on our clients and find different ways of covering their risks. For us, every single client has different needs, and we advise every single client in their best interests. We work with the knowledge that if we service a property well or truly work with a passion to help our clients improve their businesses, in the long term we will see excellent results at Lockton.

What steps is Lockton doing to help break the stigmas in this sector?

We define Lockton as more of a risk consultant than just brokers. Brokers, traditionally, provide a particular insurance that you request for. They normally find the best pricing or the market, instead of what is the best for the client. Lockton is more of a consultant. We first understand the clients’ needs and then we decide what is the best for them. Then, we ensure they understand the dos and don’ts and the risks involved. Clients need to understand that they have rights in insurance as well as certain responsibilities. We are extremely proactive, providing the right consultancy to our clients and communicating all the aspects involved. We do it differently. When we find that a company has specific needs or risks, we look for a market or insurance company—locally or internationally—that has the appetite to cover such risks. We are extremely clear in the disclosures to ensure people and companies truly understand what they are buying. That is a big challenge for this market in general. However, this is something that we do much better than our competitors.