Neil Barlow has a simple message for all those people who are tired of selecting option one, two or three from the menu offered by their insurers. “It doesn’t have to be that way”. Neil has come out of retirement at the age of 68 to relaunch his long-standing career as an insurance advisor and promises personal service but with the support of a strong back-office team.
After being contacted by a number of ex-clients asking for help with insurance issues, the admittedly “stir crazy” broker decided that he had “retired too soon” and has reinvented himself as Jones Barlow Insurance Brokers, a division of Insurance Premium Finance Ltd with a focus on the needs of farmers and landowners.
While offering “personal service that doesn’t expect callers to do the ‘option 1, 2, 3’ thing”, the Oad Street, Sittingbourne-based broker will have full support from Gauntlet Risk Management Ltd. “You don’t get much more personal than me answering the phone at the sharp end, but when it comes to all the back-office services that are so important when arranging cover, Gauntlet will be there with everything I need,” said Neil.
“Given Gauntlet’s strong position in the market, I will be able to talk not only to the insurance companies I had built up such a strong relationship with in the past but to an additional broad panel of insurers to ensure I can deliver tailor-made cover for personal and commercial insurance needs on the best possible terms for clients,” he added.
Neil began his working life 50 years ago in the City of London, working for the Corporation of Lloyds and various brokers. At the end of 1991 he set up Independent Marine Insurance Services, but a year later, after an ex-marine client had asked for insurance advice on a farm he had bought in Devon, he began offering agriculture-based policies in the south west of the country.
“After a while I realised that while there were lots of livestock farms in Devon, they were comparatively small, and so I came back to Kent, where farms tended to be bigger and incorporate more buildings,” he explained.
He built his Kent agency up to “a decent size”, took on more staff, including offering apprenticeships, and ran it successfully until 2023 when he was given an opportunity to sell the portfolio and took it, visualising himself retiring and putting his feet up.
It didn’t quite work out like that, though. “I found myself twiddling my thumbs when I wasn’t answering calls for advice from former clients and so as soon as I was able to do so I decided to launch Jones Barlow Insurance Brokers,” Neil admitted.
He took the decision to go back into business despite the fact that he and his wife Sarah, who is the firm’s company secretary, also have seven en-suite guest bedrooms at the Oad Street property that also provides their home and office.
“Jones Barlow Insurance Brokers has been set up to offer commercial and personal insurance to farmers, landowners and all small and medium-sized businesses,” said Neil. “Farmers and others are finding life tough at the moment because of the state of the economy and rising costs, with building costs in particular feeding through into insurance premiums.
“My aim is to research the whole of the market to find the best and most cost-effective premiums and to offer a truly personal, bespoke service, backed up by the support that a company of Gauntlet’s reputation and scale can offer.
“With half a century’s experience I am confident that I can provide a realistic alternative to existing insurers, and I will be happy to try to match or improve existing cover. People want personal service, and that’s something that larger firms can find more difficult to provide.”
Jones Barlow Insurance Brokers will be offering a full range of insurance services to farmers and other small businesses, from buildings and machinery to vehicles, specialising in combined policies that can mean discounted premiums. “Chatting to a broker is a much better option than visiting a website, where none of the options ever quite seem to fit your own circumstances,” Neil concluded.
