Q&A
with Ian Ascher, Executive Director, Global Risk Management, JLL
Q: You were one of the first Foundational Customers of Archipelago. What got your attention?
A: I was first introduced to Archipelago by my colleagues at JLL Spark, who are always on the lookout for innovative new property-tech ventures offering fundamental innovations that can improve how JLL does business. I had just joined JLL to lead Risk Management at the start of 2019 and knew it was time to embrace new and digital ways of working. The dots just connected.
Q: Why did you start with your managed property insurance program?
A: The process was, to say the least, ripe for improvement. Most real estate owners, and their risk management teams, struggle to keep their risk data up-to-date with quality information given how fast the property business moves. Properties are constantly being bought, sold, improved, maintained, and inspected. The velocity of change is fast, even for a single owner's portfolio. These challenges are compounded for our managed property insurance program, which involves the assets for multiple owners for which we provide property management services. With Archipelago, we were quickly able to make a big difference even with our first renewal, and there’s more to come.
Q: How did your insurance markets respond to the new data-driven insights you were able to share during your renewal?
A: Our markets were familiar with our program, and have understood the data challenges it poses given that we’re administering it on behalf of so many of our customers. They were frankly quite amazed that we were able to transform the data in such a short amount of time. Not only that, they see where we’re going and their confidence is growing. Archipelago also partnered well with my brokers at Aon during my roadshow and renewal placement. That made a difference too.
Q: Beyond better data, where do you see Archipelago taking you?
A: I’m already getting better analytics on my portfolio. As I connect more of my data—and do so dynamically, not just by exposures, but by coverage and premium data and incidents and losses—I can not only be more strategic about how I manage my risk but also use these insights to craft more valuable services for JLL’s customers, providing them new and segmented solutions as well.
Q: You're also responsible for the LaSalle risk and insurance programs as well?
A: I am! The LaSalle Investment Management portfolio is quite large, with $60B in AUM worldwide. Archipelago is providing me interesting opportunities to integrate our approach across JLL, and we’re in the process of onboarding onto Archipelago the LaSalle US property portfolio as we speak.
