Fractional Risk Officer

Many firms do not employ a full-time Risk Officer, or if they do, they do not have a full-time risk team supporting that Risk Officer, so there is a vulnerability in the event that their Risk Officer is unwell or on leave.

Instead, many firms tend to appoint a senior partner, or manager as the person responsible for managing the firm’s overall risk, responsible for handling professional indemnity insurance, horizon scanning, handling complex risk issues, complaints and ensuring that risk issues are managed in a proportionate and compliant manner.

That partner/manager is therefore placed under a significant and time-consuming burden, taking him/her away from their other duties in running the firm and earning fees. That partner/manager may well not have specific expertise in risk issues and may not have the wider visibility of risk and opportunity across the profession that an experienced risk professional would have.

Employing a full time Risk Officer might not be the solution- the firm may not need a full-time employee, with the attendant costs that such a senior appointment would entail. Further, a full time Risk Officer might not have the wider industry wide view of risk that someone working with a range of firms, and with professional bodies and training providers would have, meaning that industry best practice and ‘horizon scanning’ of new and emerging risks might not be best understood or implemented.

Our Fractional Risk Officer service can resolve these issues for firms, leaving the partners/ senior management free to focus on running the business and earning fees, safe in the knowledge that they have, embedded into their team, expert support to manage the firm’s risk profile, and enhance the firm’s profitability at a fraction of the cost of a full time employee.

The Fractional Risk Officer service can include as much or little of the following as you require. We would discuss with you your specific needs and agree a bespoke package designed to fit your firm’s requirements.

We are happy to offer our services on an hourly, or daily rate basis or, at a reduced rate, an annually agreed  bank of hours each month, which would be rolled forward if not used, so that they are available to cover busier months. Each year we would review the hours and agree the monthly hours, so that, as the firm’s internal processes and risk maturity improved, the monthly hours purchased could be reduced.

• Work on projects e.g. sorting out engagement letters/processes to help the firm run more smoothly
• Dealing with specific risk issues as they arise
• File reviews and ascertaining root causes of complaints, claims and near misses
• Complaint reviews and handling complaints if needed- or support to the complaint handler
• Attendance at quarterly board meetings- to identify risk issues in future plans, to avoid the business going down ‘rabbit holes’ and ensuring that risks in future plans are mitigated- enabling the firm to take advantage of opportunities it might not otherwise be able to exploit
• Assisting with PII renewal- using our reputation in the market place, helping with the presentation of the risk, drafting the presentation, (which gives a better picture than a basic proposal form), liaising internally to ensure that the appropriate information is  obtained and suitably presented, explaining any issues, liaising with brokers and attending at any meetings with insurers to assist to get the best outcome
• If required, also dealing internally (and with brokers/panel solicitors and insurers) in relation to any claims/circumstances arising on behalf of the firm, investigating, reporting to brokers and assisting in managing any internal claims bordereau (and seeking to obtain insurers’ consent to having a bordereau – which enables the firm to manage its own small claims itself- if appropriate).
• Training to the firm on risk issues as required
• Working with an identified person within the firm to enable that person to become sufficiently expert to take on more aspects themselves in due course, to reduce the firm’s reliance upon us over an agreed timescale. Our aim is not to make our clients reliant on us, but to, in effect, reduce our role year on year, as the firm’s internal expertise grows under our guidance, so that, in time, we become an ad hoc advice service, available when needed, to support when required.