A few weeks back, I spent an hour doing something I almost cancelled. I was busy (aren’t we all?), my diary was packed, and frankly, I could think of a dozen “urgent” things that needed doing instead. But I’d signed up for a tour of Lloyd’s of London through the CII, so off I went.
Best decision I’d made all week.
Our guide was Terry – a man in his seventies who’d spent 40 years working at Lloyd’s. Watching him move through those corridors, pointing out details with the ease of someone who’d lived thousands of days in that building, reminded me why making time for things that stretch us beyond our usual routine is so valuable.
From coffee shop to global institution
The story begins, as so many great British institutions do, in a coffee shop. In 1688, Edward Lloyd’s coffee house near the Thames became the place where ship merchants, brokers, and underwriters would gather. Ship owners needed insurance before setting sail, and enterprising businessmen saw an opportunity. They’d literally write their names under the risk they were agreeing to cover – hence “underwriting”. A term we still use today, born from ink on parchment in a 17th-century coffee shop.
Fast forward 336 years, and Lloyd’s charged over £50 billion in premiums last year alone. The scale is staggering.
What struck me most was how the traditions persist. The famous Lutine Bell – salvaged from a ship that sank in 1799 carrying £1 million in gold and silver (all insured by Lloyd’s, all paid out in full) – still hangs in the centre of the Underwriting Room. The Loss Book is still written in by hand, with quill and ink. And brokers still can’t go directly to insurers without following the proper channels – a system that’s worked for centuries.
A marketplace for risk
Terry walked us through the building’s different floors, each buzzing with activity like a financial trading floor. Because that’s essentially what it is – a marketplace for risk. Except instead of stocks and shares, they’re pricing everything from Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites to the risk of Will Smith doing a bungee jump. Yes, really.
The Titanic was insured at Lloyd’s for £1 million – an enormous sum in 1912, representing 20% of the entire market’s capacity at the time. When it sank on its maiden voyage, Lloyd’s paid out in full within 30 days. That commitment to honouring claims, even catastrophic ones, built the reputation that endures today.
The forgotten piece of financial planning
Walking out of that Grade I listed building (designed by Richard Rogers and nicknamed “the oil rig of Lime Street”), I was reminded of something we often overlook in financial planning: insurance.
We’re comfortable talking about investments, pensions, tax planning. But insurance? It tends to be the forgotten piece of the puzzle. Perhaps because we’re naturally optimistic creatures – we don’t like dwelling on what might go wrong. Or perhaps because insuring things feels more tangible than insuring ourselves.
Yet here’s the thing: for most of us, especially in our working years, we are our most valuable asset. Our ability to earn, to provide, to build the life we want – that’s worth more than our house, our car, or our investment portfolio. And unlike those things, we often forget to insure it properly.
The ship merchants in Lloyd’s Coffee House understood this instinctively. They wouldn’t dream of sending a vessel worth thousands of pounds out to sea without cover. The risk was too great, the potential loss too devastating.
We should think about ourselves the same way.
Protection that matters
Life insurance, income protection, critical illness cover – these aren’t the exciting parts of financial planning. They don’t promise growth or returns. But they provide something arguably more important: certainty that if the worst happens, the people and plans that matter most to you are protected.
As for nearly cancelling that tour? I’m glad I didn’t. Sometimes the most valuable use of our time isn’t ticking off the urgent tasks. It’s doing something different, learning something new, and being reminded of the principles that have stood the test of time.
Even if those principles began in a coffee shop.
At Emery Little, we help people think about protection as part of a complete financial plan. If you’d like to understand more about how we approach financial planning or discuss whether your protection is fit for purpose, please get in touch.
This is for educational purposes only. It’s not personal advice and we’re not recommending any specific investments. Everyone’s situation is different, so what’s right for one person might not be right for another.
