Apex has hired a construction and engineer specialist to provide guidance to clients in that industry.
Managing director James McGhie said he had seen the business’s construction and engineering portfolio grow significantly over the past 10 years. It includes a lot of medium-sized construction companies looking for a specialist to provide advice on this niche market.
McGhie said that made newly appointed Daryl Robinson a perfect fit for the company, with skills as a civil engineer with international construction experience and 10 years' insurance experience as a construction and engineering underwriter working in the London and New Zealand insurance markets.
Robinson will look after all aspects of construction and engineering as Apex’s practice leader. His practice will look at everything from annual and single site contract work policies to insuring contractors’ plant and equipment as well as placing liability policies and other covers a construction firm would typically require.
Contract works policies contain many unique clauses due to the nature of the developing asset during construction. These were sometimes overlooked or not fully understood by clients, McGhie said, so to to bring attention to these clauses and ensure they were understood and managed was something that brought real value. Having a close relationship with New Zealand and overseas underwriters facilitated developing an insurance solution which was clear for all parties.
Robinson’s dual experience as an engineer and an insurance professional equipped him to provide expert advice on contract interpretation and ensure that risk allocation was clearly understood by the contracting parties. As well as assisting during tendering and before the construction contract was awarded, Robinson was also at home on a construction site and enjoyed meeting clients and visiting sites where he could ask the right questions and also pass on advice gained from a lifetime of getting his boots dirty.
McGhie said the construction industry was at a “tipping point” due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
“We have been recently ensuring that clients’ sites are fully covered for the duration of the lockdown and looking at portfolios to optimise expenditure.
“To rebuild the economy post-lockdown there is every chance a competent Government will look to construction as a way of reinvigorating the economy and this will be great news - not only for construction contractors that make it through the current crisis but the people of New Zealand who will make use of these much-needed assets when they are finished.
