L&S Marine Underwriting covers that division as close as possible. Marine transport insurance is still a complex and know-how intensive class. We are cosmopolitan and have an appetite for big and difficult risks - but that does not mean we only want to underwrite difficult business. As a partner-led company, we can afford to think and act long term which in consequence leads to the same in relationships and partnerships in the international insurance markets.

We pay great attention to our employees and feel blessed to have a good mix of employees with many years of experience as well as younger team members with new talent and a fresh perspective. The aim is to have a highly diverse pool of expertise. In addition to insurance and shipping specialists and merchants, we employ lawyers, navigators, engineers and employees with military backgrounds.

Also important to us is the continuous professional and social training. Our team reflects the diversity we value, collectively we speak 25 languages and have various nationalities under one roof. This means that not only do we speak many languages but also have a deep understanding of the respective countries and regions in which we operate. In addition, due to the very low employee turnover, the contact persons in our company are available for many years.

Every professional insurance service provider and Assekuradeur is an important link in the value chain of complex marine insurance. But two things are especially important to us:

• We are more than solely a financial service provider who administers policies, claims and funds: We also provide our partners with our full know-how not only in insurance matters, but also in terms of risk management. In other words, we need to know the market and the specifics of our customers’ risks in detail to have a very “hands on” approach.

• We adhere to values. That may sound a little old-fashioned but the good old hanseatic virtues are still guiding principles for us. Trust, decency, fairness, reliability and cosmopolitan attitude as well as responsibility for the common good are not empty words for us.

The Assekuradeur still represents a valuable business model of the 21st century, which in spite of disruptive developments is not obsolete. But the future requires a healthy mix between modernity and tradition in which state of the art digital solutions fit into the special requirements of the marine and logistics world. This dynamic and flexibility gives the owner-managed Assekuradeur a decisive advantage over other providers.

A dominant topic, even after the international financial crisis, was the implementation of Solvency II. This does not only affect the insurance companies but also their partners. Only those Assekuradeurs that can professionally and permanently master the challenges of Solva II and other compliance issues will have a future.

Furthermore, there are increasingly disruptive approaches that attack established insurance providers. There is no way around digitization, as evidenced by the growing number of InsurTechs. We have developed digital products which provide online marine insurance including direct receipt of the insurance certificate and full contract documentation.

More and more extreme natural events with severe consequences face new challenges. In this context, resilience is becoming our focus. We no longer need to ask ourselves what can happen, but learn from the catastrophes that have occurred and develop a solution-oriented plan that makes it easier to deal with these events. This is also an important aspect in securing cyber risks, which are inevitably a growing risk with the increase in digitization.

The business streams of the Lampe & Schwartze Group are strictly separated in terms of organization and content. Marine Underwriting currently collaborates with more than 90 brokers domestically and abroad. Every broker is treated the same way.