Tracking Expat Insurance' meteoric rise in 2017

They are focused on delivering insurance protection to expatriates and the globally mobile workforce.

In August of this year, Expat Insurance turned an auspicious eight. Since its beginnings eight years ago, the rise has been meteoric compared with most global markets. For its founder and CEO Danielle Warner, this has seemed like a lifetime in Singapore’s dynamic and ever changing corporate landscape. This last year has been so exciting, says Danielle. ‘Especially nurturing the growth within the Employee Benefits space. There’s such a long way to go here in Singapore. I look back on how far we have come and I get so energized at the prospect of how far we have to go.’

Warner – dubbed as the Power Woman of Protection by the expat community in Singapore – reveals that the insurance industry for her is almost pathological. ‘“Insurance is in my blood, and that has always been the case. My mum, my aunt, my cousin, my husband. It’s all I have ever known. When we moved here 11 years ago, no one knew where to get insured and when they found that I came from an insurance background, naturally they asked me. I recognized that here was a specific market here for protection that was underrepresented then.”

Consequently, Expat Insurance was founded by Warner in 2009. They are a company that specializes in providing professional insurance advice and services to expatriates in Singapore. They are a multi-line, independent brokerage that is focused on delivering insurance protection to the expatriate and globally mobile workforce markets in Singapore.

Keeping people and partnerships
In its early days, Expat Insurance exclusively serviced personal clients, but in the last 18 months, Danielle and her team are now making significant headway within the employee benefits space. Danielle says, ‘The focus really turned toward working with multinational companies that were either setting up or expanding across into Asia and Singapore. Following the 2008 financial crisis, many of these MNCs in the US, the UK, Europe and Australia started to set up companies with Singapore as a base. I saw this as a great opportunity to get involved at the very early stages of these companies coming into Asia and seized the chance to support their insurance needs.’ 

With her fingers firmly on the pulse of the migration and employment trends in Singapore, Warner has identified the need for employers for attract and retain high quality talent. ‘Being an expat does not come with all of the trimmings that it used to. It’s now about people and partnerships’, she says. ‘Employees now exist in a culture of entitlement and are hungry for a more engaging relationship with their employer. Employers, on the other hand, are well aware of the potential for their top talent to leave them if they don’t feel valued.

Going global
For this reason, it is up to employers to come up with attractive and engaging reasons to encourage their employees to stay. That’s why we work with these companies to provide compelling reasons for their people to stay.’ Danielle’s innovative and instinctive response to these developments coupled with the continual growth of Expat Insurance saw the company go global with an exciting partnership with French insurance giant Siaci Saint Honore in April of last year. This partnership gives Expat Insurance unprecedented access to new insurance products as well as further opportunity to provide comprehensive international coverage for the globally mobile. ‘This definitely gives us an edge in this space. We understand that people will begin their journey with us here in Singapore, but our partnership with Siaci allows us to make sure that they will be protected everywhere they go.’ ‘ Looking ahead, I can say emphatically that our business will focus on our continual growth in the employee benefits space.”