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VIC/TAS Finalist
Regardless of the supply chain challenges, delays, disputes and frustrations our clients experience at claim time, delivering on the contract and the advice you've provided remains the core of my inspiration. “The world is transitioning to being more technology-led AI and Big Data will change industry benchmarking and communication as we know it.” What does becoming a finalist of the 2025 Broker of the Year mean to you? It's humbling to be nominated and considered for this award. It is a great opportunity to broaden my horizons and network throughout the industry. I believe it will present opportunities to promote insurance broking more broadly. Like most industries, we are not immune to workforce shortages. I hope this platform enables me to promote the sector and attract new talent to the industry which has helped build my career.
time engaging with our clients and providing advice. Brokers have a visceral understanding of just how complex the risk landscape is for our clients, and we know how time-poor our clients are, and we are acutely aware that margins for our business clients are always tight. In many ways, brokers exist at the nexus between these elements and the difference between good and great is the time taken in those moments when we have our client's attention to truly understand their business, to give them genuine insights, and the outcome they deserve. All of this needs time. Technology should serve us in this endeavour, but currently, it constrains us and this is where the next big innovation has to come. What inspires you the most about the insurance broking profession? The economy, without insurance and the ability to transfer risk off a client’s balance sheet and onto an insurer, both here in Australia and overseas, would be a fraction of what it is. The only way a business could sensibly decide to commit capital to a venture is if they know that in the event of an unintended circumstance arising, they will be put back in the position they were before the loss. Insurance is so ubiquitous in our society that it is taken for granted, but if it didn’t exist then any prospective business would need to squirrel away capital for a ‘rainy day’. This need for capital to be put aside means that only the wealthiest and most established people could create businesses. Broking matches entrepreneurs, of all shapes and sizes, with an insurer's deep balance sheet. This serves society and our shared economy in a truly outsized way. What does becoming a finalist of the 2025 Broker of the Year mean to you? I am humbled by the recognition of my peers and appreciative that I have the opportunity to share my views and desires for our industry with others who are just as passionate about what we all do. I am stoked to be considered for this award. I love what I do, and I hope that this passion shines through to my peers, my community, my clients, my family and my team at Good Cover. My day-to-day experience is like everyone else: full of highs and lows, anxiety, frustration, elation, and the occasional surprise. To be nominated as a finalist is a brilliant surprise and is truly heartwarming. “Broking matches entrepreneurs, of all shapes and sizes, with an insurer's deep balance sheet. This serves society and our shared economy in a truly outsized way.
ASHLEY JOHNSON, ARCURI & ASSOCIATES
How did you get started in the insurance broking profession?
I took a reception role in 2008 at a brokerage in my hometown as something temporary. I didn’t know anything about insurance and never imagined that 17 years later I would still be here. I suppose as time went by and more responsibility was given to me, the more I enjoyed it. I moved to Melbourne in 2011 to get some life experience outside of a small rural town and decided I would keep working in insurance. Working in Melbourne and meeting so many young professionals stepping up in their career made me think about my future. From then on, I decided that insurance was for me and that was it. I dabbled in some study and finished my Bachelor of Psychology, but ultimately decided I genuinely love my job and the people I work with too much to leave. What do you think the insurance broking profession will look like in the future? I hope it will look like what it is now with some improvements where they are needed. While AI is brilliant and wonderful, it isn’t human, and we shouldn’t be afraid of it. Insurance broking is about relationship and trust. AI can’t walk through the front door of a business, grab a coffee and say hello. AI can’t visit an insured at burned down factory, engage with empathy and say, ‘I’m sorry this happened to you’. I think that as an industry we need to be prouder of what we do. Insurance seems to be a bad word (particularly at the moment), so it would be good thing to change the perspective on that. Being a broker isn’t an easy job, which is what makes it rewarding. There are so many talented, clever people in this industry and we are just as important as any other professional in protecting people and their assets. What inspires you the most about the insurance broking profession? I’m not sure I have just one answer. This industry has been very kind to me and I don’t know what else I would have done. From my own experience, there is so much opportunity in broking. I have met people I never would have met and been to places I probably never would have been to if it were
NSW/ACT Finalist
MATTHEW WILLIAMSON, GOOD COVER
How did you get started in the insurance broking profession? I launched my broking career, and my business Good Cover, in the middle of a COVID-19 lockdown. Until then, I had worked on the insurer side of the industry, and when lockdown struck, I found myself in Byron Bay. In a moment of inspiration while surfing, I decided I didn’t want to go back to my old life of traveling to Sydney and Brisbane each week. What I wanted to do (and what I had secretly always wanted to do) was to truly be part of the community I lived in, so that day I decided to become a broker, open my own business, and start this new adventure. What do you think the insurance broking profession will look like in the future? I believe that in a galaxy not too far away, the broking industry will catch up to the rest of the financial services universe and have technology offerings that help brokers spend less time administrating, and more
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