Reflecting on the first 25 Years of LMI Group – Prof. Allan Manning’s Blog

Today marks LMI Group’s quarter century of service to the insurance industry and wider communities.

What better way to reflect on all that our dedicated team have accomplished but list 50 highlights from our first 25 years that you may not know (or have forgotten) the Group. As an aside, I tried to narrow this down to 25 for 25 but I was over this in our first 10 years. I have still dropped quite a few off to keep it to 50.

1. LMI Group commence trading on 25th February 1999 with 3 Divisions. Loss Management International (Post loss Claims Preparation and Loss Adjusting), Risk Management International (Pre Loss policy program reviews and business interruption sum insured reviews), and Claims Management International (Post Loss Third Party Administration services) based in Melbourne, Australia.
2. February 2000: Development of first Training Module – Business Interruption. Now dozens of face-to-face training modules have been developed with over 2,000 sessions held.
3. May 2000: First manual Policy Comparisons developed.
4. May 2002: First of now 17 books on insurance and risk management launched. The first was Business Interruption Insurance and Claims soon to be printed in its 6th Edition.
5. March 2003: LMI Sydney office opens.
6. October 2003: LMI PolicyComparison.com launched at NIBA Convention.
7. July 2003: LMI Brisbane office opens.
8. March 2005: LMI ContinuityCoach and LMI PolicyCoach developed.
9. May 2005; LMI Group founder Allan Manning awarded Doctorate after 6 years of research on business survival post insured loss.
10. June 2005: LMI Group open first New Zealand office.
11. July 2005: LMI Group granted Financial Services Licence 283777.
12. December 2005: After 1600 hours of research the 3 volume Understanding the ISR Policy published.
13. April 2006: LMI launch the NoTaxOnInsurance Campaign which working with other initiatives in the industry was successful in having Fire Service Levy removed in Victoria in August 2010 and hopefully shortly in New South Wales.
14. June 2006: Policy Drafting and proof reading services commence.
15. January 2007: LMI South Australian Office opens.
16. May 2007: LMI BIcalculator.com and BI Explained Launched.
17. June 2007: LMI Group Pte Ltd, LMI Group’s Singapore office opened.
18. October 2007LMI develop and introduce 20% Catastrophe uplift of Business Pack policies with insurers and brokers with a great social conscious.
19. August 2008 : LMI PolicyComparison.co.nz & LMI BIcalculator NZ launched at IBANZ Conference.
20. December 2008: LMI Group open LMI Western Australia office
21. May 2009: LMI first introduce 80% co-insurance into the Australian ISR policy with the support of brokers and insurers with a great social conscious.
22. July 2009: LMI Group open ACT office.
23. August 2009: LMI introduce our Technical Advice line subscription service
24. September 2009: LMI RiskCoach launched.
25. March 2010: Launch of LMI Mobile Under-insurance Calculator, believed to be the world’s first iPhone application for the insurance industry.
26. July 2010: LMI Group awarded Innovation of the Year 2010 Award at the Australian & New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards 
27. October 2010; LMI Group receives Gold Award for Knowledge Management from the actKM Forum 
28. December 2010: LMI Group’s Chairman Dr Allan Manning included in topmost influential person in Australian risk insurance by InsuranceNews. This was repeated another 8 times.
29. January 2011: First turnover based business interruption wording for all SME businesses drafted and first policy sold by first insurer within 1 hour of launch.
30. January 2011: LMI OnLineBrokerTools launched in South Africa.
31. May 2011: LMI launch BIcalculator.co.uk at British Insurance Brokers Association Conference in UK.
32. May 2012: LMI launch PolicyComparison.co.uk at BIBA Conference in UK – May 2012
33. August 2012: LMI’s Chairman Dr Professor Allan Manning awarded the Life Time Achievement Award by ANZIIF at the Australian Insurance Industry Awards.
34. August 2013 LMI Claims.Comparison.com launched.
35. September 2013: LMI Legal, a law firm specialising in just insurance law launched.
36. March 2014: LMI Forensic, a specialist division involved in all financial and economic losses, econ and business interruption reviews.
37. September 2014: LMI Gold Coast Office opens.
38. September 2014: LMI Tasmania office opens.
39. January 2016: LMI acquire minority share moving to full ownership in July 2020 of LMI College of Insurance and Risk. a registered training organisation providing both accredited qualifications and a Continuing Professional Development portal.
40. October 2016: LMI Co-host a conference in Bengkulu Indonesia to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Carter v Boehm the 1766 English court case that established the primary principle of insurance: that all parties need to act with Utmost Good Faith.
41. March 2017: LMI RiskCoach on the Go mobile phone app launched.
42. April 2017: The US version of LMI BIcalculator launched at the 2017 RIMS (Risk Insurance Managers Society) Conference, Philadelphia 
43. July 2017: LMI co-found The Mansfield Awards for Claims Excellence with Insurance News. LMI appreciate and thank the long-term sponsors of the awards: Steadfast Claims Solutions and iCare.
44. November 2017: LMI opens Northern Territory Office.
45. January 2018: LMI Group win approval for a grant from the State Government of Victoria under their Design2Trive program.
46. August 2018: Aequum Adjusters formed; a separate company wholly owned by LMI Group as a specialist loss adjusting practice.
47. April 2019: LMI Founder, Dr Allan Manning delivers keynote speech at the inaugural History of Insurance and Business Conference held in Seville, Spain.
48. May 2019: LMI win 2019 Insurance Business Awards – Service Provider of the Year.
49. July 2020: Responding to the increased awareness in mental health caused by natural disasters and the stress from navigating insurance claims, LMI launch Mastering our Minds Psychology headed by a Doctor of Clinical Psychology: Dr Susan.
50. 1999-2024 LMI Group companies attend every major natural and manmade disaster in Australia and New Zealand such as floods, cyclones and storms, hailstorms, tornados & windstorms, bushfires, earthquakes, pandemics, as well as overseas losses such as riots in Tonga, cyclones in Fiji, Riots and Civil Commotion in Papua New Guinea.

I would like to thank the great team of professionals who have contributed to the longevity and success of LMI and to all our customers many of whom have become lifelong friends.

We have a lot more that we would like to do for the industry, and the insuring public, but we need your continuing support. When considering who to entrust with your clients claim with, or whatever the project may be, please consider us here at LMI Group.

Please reflect on what we have done for you and the industry so far as well as the qualifications and 1,500 years of combined experience of our team. Has anyone in our space done more?

Thanks again to all that made our journey so far possible. The team and I look forward to working with you long into the future.